Returning home

When the camps closed, Japanese Americans were handed $25 and put on trains headed for the places they had been forcibly removed from nearly four years earlier. Harassment was common -- many returning Japanese Americans were greeted with signs reading "No Japs Allowed." Other discovered their property had been vandalized or stolen. Homes and businesses that had been boarded up or left in the care of others were abandoned and stripped of furnishings and goods. For the majority, who did not have homes to return to, housing was the most serious problem. Housing discrimination was severe in many areas and persisted to varying degrees until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Former camp inmates with no other options moved into hostels and converted community institutions with conditions not much better than the camps they had just left. Although this period was stressful, it is remembered as a time when people came together to share what they had.

World War II (277)
Leaving camp (372)
Returning home (1150)

Filters

Facilities

Format

Genre

Usage

Use <Ctrl> or (⌘) keys to select multiple terms

Gallery view
List view

1150 items

doc Card from Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-427)

Encouraging Henri to go to the agency to look for job before other returnees get there first, asks about house he viewed

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-427/

doc Letter from Ben to Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-433)

Written from Italy, thanking her for her letter, his regiment is guarding German prisoners

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-433/

doc Copy of letter from Tomoye Takahashi to the Office of Price Administration (ddr-densho-410-578)

Asking about the procedure for evicting a tenant from the house on Arguello Blvd.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-578/

doc Letter from Tomoye to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-158)

Thinking about whether they should buy another house in SF closer to Nihonjin and rent their current house, had a big fight with her father.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-158/

doc Letter from Martha Nozawa to Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-423)

Responding to a letter from Tomoye telling her how bad things are with Henri, promises to do whatever she can to help when the baby comes, and encourages her to go to San Francisco to have the baby where they can all be together.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-423/

doc Letter from Helen to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-175)

Is in Salt Lake City for a few days, then leave for SF, had a long talk with Mrs. Yabuki about chances of her relationship working out with Mas Yabuki

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-175/

doc Letter from Martha Nozawa to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-98)

Giving details of her plan to come to Topaz and help Tomoye move to San Francisco

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-98/

doc Letter from Tomoye Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-403)

Information about how to reclaim property, what needs to be done at the San Francisco house, and news of camp life. Note on back of envelope about viewing another house in San Francisco

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-403/

doc Letter from Tomoye to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-164)

Gossip about people in camp and what they are saying about her and Henri, feels extremely depressed, they are broke.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-164/

doc Card from Martha Nozawa to Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-443)

She is on the way back to Minneapolis and still planning to head west to help out.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-443/

doc Card from Tomoye to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-178)

News of other people in camp and their plans, father returning to camp soon, but Martha has work and will stay in Midwest. Continuation of card, obj. ddr-densho-410-177

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-178/

doc Card from Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-421)

Angry note about Henri getting a job and taking some responsibility for the family, feels like calling it quits with Henri

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-421/

doc Letter from Tomoye Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-401)

Asking for Henri to send various items such as corn chips, cigars, material. News of other incarcerees leaving

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-401/

doc Letter from Alex Yorichi to Tomoye Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-162)

Likely written from Burma, thanking her for letting him know about his father's death in camp

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-162/

doc Letter from Tomoye (Nozawa) Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-440)

Accounting for money spent of supplies for the baby, Pinkie's learning to eat at the table, hoping for a pullman on the train when she leaves for San Francisco

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-440/

doc Letter from Tomoye to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-151)

Extensive details about what needs to be done at the S.F. house and how to plant vegetable garden in yard. Tells him not to admit that he owns the house, but make sure white people know they all work with strategic services and that Helen will be teaching at Stanford.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-151/

doc Letter from Tomoye Takahashi to Henri Takahashi (ddr-densho-410-410)

Advice on painting the front door, asks about what he is doing to get a job

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-410-410/

img Souvenir photo folder and photographs for Matsue Ozeki and friends from Borsellino's club in Cleveland, Ohio (ddr-ajah-6-856)

Includes story of Mitsue Ozeki's relocation from Topaz Camp to Ohio and eventual return to Alameda

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-6-856/

doc Application for Travel by Enemy Aliens (ddr-densho-501-223)

Shoji Takeda applies for travel approval to move from Grand Junction, Colorado back home to Milpitas, California. Shoji and Shin Takeda both received $24.73 from the WRA.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-501-223/

doc Selections from interview with Sachi Fudenna with photos (ddr-ajah-2-842)

Document titles: Sachi Fudenna Recalls the Washington Township and Tanforan during World War II

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-842/

av Blossoms & Thorns: A Community Uprooted (ddr-densho-1024-28)

Documentary film that examines Japanese American cut flower growers in Richmond, California, before, during and after World War II. Written and directed by Ken Kokka, the 19-minute film was funded by the Contra Costa Japanese American Citizens League. See this item in the Densho Resource Guide at: Blossoms & Thorns: A Community Uprooted . See this …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1024-28/

av Democracy Under Pressure: Japanese Americans and World War II (ddr-densho-1024-40)

Documentary film on the wartime experience of Japanese Americans from the San Diego area, including their exclusion and subsequent incarceration at Santa Anita Assembly Center and Poston , as well as their return home. The story is told through the eyes of former inmates Ruth Takahashi Voorhies (born 1923) and Ben Segawa (born 1930), along with …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1024-40/

doc Issei parole review (ddr-densho-314-7)

The memorandum states that Kazuichi Takanishi was placed in Group II after a CGRB review which allowed him to return to Hawaii from the mainland. The back of the document has a note from The National Archives stating that this document came from Record Group No. 338. The handwritten portion states "Military Government of Hawaii Internment …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-314-7/

doc File transfer memorandum (ddr-densho-314-10)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-314-10/

doc Letter approving travel (ddr-densho-314-19)

Andrew Jordan writes to Kazuichi Takanishi stating that his application for permission to travel has been approved and included a coach railroad ticket in the ticket. Takanishi was to travel from Chicago to Seattle and even though the war was officially over, Takanishi still had to report to the chief of the Detention, Deportation and Parole …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-314-19/