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Date Original
1944 June 24
Description
Postcard sent from Toshimi Kurisu at one of the Japanese relocation camps in Arizona to Hazel Retherford in 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
OCOTILLO CACTUS ON THE ARIZONA DESERT -10 Dear Mrs. Retherford
How are you? I am
fine.
The Weather out here
is cool. In the night time
it is not so hot.
The buildings out
here way better than
the buildings in Denson.
It is much prettier.
They have trees around
the buildings. So it is shady.
I guess I better close the letter by
saying good bye.
Toshimi
Toshimi Kurisu
Blk. 10-4-A
Rivers, Arizona
To Mrs. Hazel L. Retherford
Butterfield, Arkansas
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
Contributor
Kurisu, Toshimi
Geographical Area
Arizona; Butterfield, Hot Spring County (Ark.)
Language
English
Identifier
MS.000643, Box 1, Folder 1, Item 8
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Hazel Retherford papers, MS.000643
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Postcard, Toshimi Kurisu 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
