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Date Original
1944 June 23
Description
Letter from Marion Tsutsui to Hazel Retherford.
Biographical/Historical Note
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9022, creating the War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA selected ten sites in which to imprison more than 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, over two-thirds of whom were American citizens. Two of these centers were in the Arkansas Delta, one at Rohwer in Desha County, and the other at Jerome in sections of Chicot and Drew counties. Over 16,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in these two centers between October 1942 and November 1945. Hazel Linam Retherford was born on January 27, 1906. During World War II, she was a teacher at both the Jerome and Rohwer Japanese relocation centers in Arkansas, eventually helping to close both centers. She later went to Washington, District of Columbia, to complete War Relocation Authority records on the camps.
Transcription
June 23, 1944
Dearest Mrs. Retherford,
How have you been? I hope you
are in the best of health and
spirits.
I am sending this letter to
Butterfield since I do not
know your exact address. Hope
it reaches you without much
delay.
I would like to go back
to Jerome and live with all
my friends again. Someway or
the other I like Jerome better
than this camp.
How is your weather? Is
it just the same? It gets
very hot here but we do
not prespire like in Jerome.
I have met a lot of
my old friends. They sure
have changed. The are now
all taller than me. Hope
I can catch up with
them soon.
I have seen Eddie and
Toshimi on the train. I saw
Fred at the canteen yesterday
I think he lives in block
32.
Have you heard from
any of my classmates? If
you are writing to anyone
please give them my regards.
Sure miss all of you.
Please say hello to Vanette.
Would give anything in the
world to be with you again.
Always,
Marion Tsutsui
Physical Description
Letter, 8.5" x 11"
Subjects
Evacuation of civilians; Military assistance; Military camps; Camps; War; Japanese; Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Concentration Camps--United States--Arkansas; Internment camps; Relocation camps
Contributor
Tsutsui, Marion
Geographical Area
Butterfield, Hot Spring County (Ark.)
Language
English
Identifier
MS.000643, Box 1, Folder 1, Item 13
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Hazel Retherford papers, MS.000643
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Letter, Marion Tsutsui to Hazel Retherford, Hazel Retherford papers, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rights
Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6900 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov.
Disciplines
United States History
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Additional Content
Amon Guy Thompson papers, MG04582-MG04586; Austin Smith papers, 1942-1945, MG04350; Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps, MG01299; Community Analysis Reports and Community Analysis Trend Reports of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946, MG03846-MG03847; Japanese Camp papers, MG03848-MG03869
