Owned and Inscribed by Manzanar Incarceree, Three Volumes of Congressional Record of Japanese American Forced Removal, 1942

Takako Saito Manzanar Internment Camp

Archive

[Japanese Internment] [Law & Public Policy] Previously owned by Takako Saito; a documented Manzanar incarceree; this archive of three books titled National Defense Migration Hearings; intended for use by the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration; Parts 29–31; 1942; documents Congress’s investigation into the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast following Executive Order 9066. Held by the House Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration (Tolan Committee) in February and March 1942; these hearings gathered testimony in San Francisco; Portland; Seattle; and Los Angeles on the proposed “evacuation” from military zones. The record preserves arguments from military officials; agricultural interests; and civic leaders alongside responses from Japanese American representatives; capturing the administrative and racial logic used to justify removal as policy moved from proposal to execution. Approximately 120;000 individuals of Japanese ancestry were subsequently incarcerated without due process under this framework; making these hearings a primary federal record of the decision-making process behind wartime incarceration. As a participant in wartime student relocation; Saito experienced firsthand the policy this archive records. The volumes therefore function not only as federal documentation of removal but as contemporaneous evidence of how that policy was encountered; read; and preserved by an individual displaced under its authority.

United States House of Representatives. National Defense Migration. Hearings Before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration; House of Representatives; Seventy-Seventh Congress; Second Session; Pursuant to H. Res. 113. Washington; D.C.: Government Printing Office; 1942. Three parts: Part 29 (San Francisco hearings; February 21 and 23; 1942); Part 30 (Portland and Seattle hearings; February 26–March 2; 1942); Part 31 (Los Angeles and San Francisco hearings; March 6–12; 1942). Original printed paperbound volumes. Each bearing a contemporary ownership inscription: “Takako Saito; 5217 Chicago Street; Omaha; Nebraska; May 17; 1942.” The named owner is identifiable as a Nisei student from Los Angeles who was removed from Boyle Heights and incarcerated at Manzanar before relocating to Omaha through the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council to continue her studies. These volumes align directly with the early implementation phase of wartime removal; and the May 1942 ownership inscription places them within the active period of displacement and confinement. The hearings record the federal rationale for exclusion; while the identified owner’s trajectory—from Los Angeles to incarceration and subsequent relocation through wartime educational programs—provides a documented example of how these policies operated at the level of individual lives. Light to moderate wear to wrappers with surface spotting and edge wear consistent with handling. Overall in good condition. The combination of congressional policy record and named incarcerated owner establishes a direct relationship between federal decision-making and its consequences; situating the material within the broader history of Japanese American incarceration and wartime civil liberties restrictions.

Item #23088

Price: $2,200.00