PARTNER

Densho
Visit partner

COLLECTION ID

ddr-densho-357

DESCRIPTION

The Terakawa Collection consists of four photograph albums created by Hanako Terakawa. Hanako's parents, Tadaichi and Yoni Yoshioka, immigrated from Japan and settled in Hayward, California in the early 1900's. In Hayward, they started a family and had five children. They owned a nursery and maintained several greenhouses built around 1913. The earliest photograph album primarily contains photographs of Hanako's high school friends, her brother Giichi, and picnics and others social events related to their Oakland Buddhist Church community. The Yoshioka siblings participated in the Young Men's and Women's Buddhist Association and their local Lumbini Club. Hanako Yoshioka married Reverend Tansai Terakawa in 1933 and moved with him to Stockton, California. Tansai Terakawa served as the reverend for the Stockton Buddhist Church until he moved to Kyoto, Japan for two years with his wife and daughter Hiroko. In Japan, Tansai and Hanako spent time with extended family and worked as leaders in the Pan-Pacific Buddhist community. Two of the photograph albums focus on the Terakawa family's life in Kyoto, including visiting family and friends, hosting church delegates from other countries, and participating in the 1934 Pan Pacific Conference in Tokyo before returning to California. During WWII, Hanako and Tansai, along with their three children were incarcerated in the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, and the Yoshioka family, were incarcerated in the Topaz concentration camp in Utah. Tansai and Hanako Terakawa helped establish a church community in Minidoka, where Tansai Terakawa served as reverend until he passed away in the camp. Hanako's brothers, Giichi, George, and Masaru, all served in the United States Army during WWII. Hanako Terakawa's sister, Yukie, was incarcerated in the Poston camp with her husband, Harry Goto, and two children. After the war, the combined Yoshioka and Terakawa families relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The final photograph album primarily contains photographs of the Yoshioka family, the Terakawa family, and the Goto family. The album also includes several photographs of the Topaz concentration camp, Tansai Terakawa's memorial service in camp, military portraits of the Yoshioka siblings, and their new home in Minneapolis after the war.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

4 photograph albums

CONTRIBUTOR

Densho

CREATORS

• Terakawa, Hanako (author)

PREFERRED CITATION

Courtesy of the Terakawa Collection, Densho

RIGHTS

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.