Creating Japanese Cultural Space in an American Concentration Camp : Asano Shichinosuke and the Topaz Japanese Language Library, 1943-1945

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  • Wertheimer Andrew B.
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa Library and Information Science Program Department of Information and Computer Sciences

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Other Title
  • アメリカの強制収容所内での文化空間の創造 : 浅野七之助とトパーズ日本語図書館1943-1945
  • アメリカ ノ キョウセイ シュウヨウジョナイ デノ ブンカ クウカン ノ ソウゾウ アサノ シチノスケ ト トパーズ ニホンゴ トショカン 1943 1945

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Abstract

Library history is often narrated as uncritical story of centennials or other celebratory macro-histories. There often is much more to learn by focused studies of librarianship during trying periods, such as wartime. This study deals with the library experience of ethnic Japanese who were detained by the United States government during World War II. Unlike most studies of the "internment," which focus on the English-speaking Nisei Japanese Americans, this explores why and how Issei (immigrant) Asano Shichinosuke was able to create the Topaz Japanese Language Library between 1943 and 1945. This paper examines how he cooperated with other Issei and Kibei-Nisei to establish and develop the library. It features a brief biography of Asano; from his education and service as Shosei to Hara Kei, to his immigration to America, and association with America's leading Japaneselanguage newspaper, the NichiBei. It then follows Asano and other Japanese Americans from the Bay Area to an Army-run temporary detention center called Tanforan, where Japanese language materials were confiscated. Asano and other California Nikkei were then sent to a permanent concentration camp in Utah, called Topaz. The concentration camp, which was run by a civilian agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA), allowed the return of Japanese language print materials. The rest of the paper explores why Asano decided to create a Japanese language library, and his struggles with the WRA administration to establish it. This study, using oral history interviews, archival documentation, newspaper reports, and other sources explores how Asano created a Japanese cultural space.

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