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Date Original
1944 June 25
Description
Postcard from Ikuko Motsumoto in Arizona to Hazel Retherford in Jerome, Arkansas.
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
Ikuko Motsumoto
On the Train
in Texas
This Side of the card is for Address
Mrs. Hazel Retherford
W.R.A
Denson, Arkansas
June 25, 1944
Dear Mrs Retherford,
Just dropping in
to say "hello."
We are now in the
state of Texas. We went
through Texarkana. In
McGehee we stopped
there 2"20" We went
through nearly all of
Arkansas in the night
time.
We are now
stopped at a station
so I could write but
when we're going I can't
write go [sic]
My address in ____:
56-7-C
Rivers Arizona
P.S
Write Soon Your student,
Ikuko M.
Physical Description
Postcard, 3" x 5"
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; Jerome Relocation Center (Ark.)
Contributor
Motsumoto, Ikuko
Geographical Area
Arizona; Jerome, Drew County (Ark.)
Language
English
Identifier
MS.000643, Box 1, Folder 1, Item 7
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Hazel Retherford papers, MS.000643
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Postcard, Ikuko Motsumoto 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
