Aiko Takita and Miyeko Takita papers
Collection
Call Number: WA MSS S-3211
Content Description
Materials relating to Aiko Takita and Miyeko Takita's incarceration at the Tanforan Assembly Center, a
temporary detention center at San Bruno, California, and the Topaz War Relocation Center, an American
concentration camp in Millard County, Utah, 1942-1945. Included are letters, in English, concerning Miyeko's
college enrollment and letters, in Japanese, from mother Aoyagi Takita to daughter Miyeko concerning family acquaintances all over the United States and daily life at the Topaz War Relocation Center. Also included
are Topaz High School class materials (primarily lesson notes), Topaz Music School and Protestant church
programs, 2 autograph books, and 3 drawings of the Tanforan Assembly Center. Accompanied by printed
incarceration camp pamphlets and newsletters as well as printed sheet music. 2 additional autograph books
predate the incarceration of the Takita family. There are also 15 photographs of the Takitas (some with
Japanese manuscript captions), circa 1928-1946.
Dates
- circa 1928-1946
Creator
- Takita, Miyeko, 1924- (Author)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Aiko Takita and Miyeko Takita Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Vigilante Rare Documents on the Frederick W. and Carrie S. Beinecke Fund for Western Americana, 2015.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by format.
Extent
2.71 Linear Feet (4 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
Materials relating to Aiko Takita and Miyeko Takita's incarceration at the Tanforan Assembly Center, a
temporary detention center at San Bruno, California, and the Topaz War Relocation Center, an American
concentration camp in Millard County, Utah, 1942-1945. Included are letters, in English, concerning Miyeko's
college enrollment and letters, in Japanese, from mother Aoyagi Takita to daughter Miyeko concerning family acquaintances all over the United States and daily life at the Topaz War Relocation Center. Also included
are Topaz High School class materials (primarily lesson notes), Topaz Music School and Protestant church
programs, 2 autograph books, and 3 drawings of the Tanforan Assembly Center. Accompanied by printed
incarceration camp pamphlets and newsletters as well as printed sheet music. 2 additional autograph books
predate the incarceration of the Takita family. There are also 15 photographs of the Takitas (some with
Japanese manuscript captions), circa 1928-1946.
Biographical / Historical
Miyeko Takita (1924-2019), a Japanese-American woman, was forcibly removed by the United States government, along with her mother, Tsuneyo Aoyagi Takita (1901-1973), and sister, Aiko Takita (1926- ), to the Tanforan Assembly Center, a temporary detention center in San Bruno, California, in the spring of 1942, and to the Topaz War Relocation Center, an American concentration camp in Millard County, Utah, in 1942 October. The Takita sisters were released from the Topaz concentration camp, where they were involved in school, music, and the Protestant church, in 1945 October.
Miyeko Takita earned graduate degrees in Library Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked for the United States Army as a librarian at Heidelberg University and after was accepted as a Fulbright Scholar at Keio University in Japan, where she met chemist Masato Tanabe. Upon moving to San Francisco, the two married and eventually had three children: Robert (Sukie) Tanabe, Kenneth (Michele) Tanabe, and Michiko Tanabe.
Miyeko Takita earned graduate degrees in Library Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked for the United States Army as a librarian at Heidelberg University and after was accepted as a Fulbright Scholar at Keio University in Japan, where she met chemist Masato Tanabe. Upon moving to San Francisco, the two married and eventually had three children: Robert (Sukie) Tanabe, Kenneth (Michele) Tanabe, and Michiko Tanabe.
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2021 to address outdated or harmful descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the biographical and scope and contents notes. References to Japanese American "relocation" and "internment" during World War II were removed and replaced with community recommended terminology, such as "incarceration."
Previous versions of this finding aid may be available. Please contact Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library for details. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library or the Archival and Manuscript Description Committee. For more information on reparative archival description at Yale, see Yale’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards. For more information, please refer to the Beinecke Manuscript Unit Processing Manual.
Previous versions of this finding aid may be available. Please contact Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library for details. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library or the Archival and Manuscript Description Committee. For more information on reparative archival description at Yale, see Yale’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards. For more information, please refer to the Beinecke Manuscript Unit Processing Manual.
- Asian American Protestants -- Utah
- Autograph albums
- Central Utah Relocation Center
- Concentration camps -- United States
- Drawings (visual works)
- High school students -- Utah
- Japanese American families -- Pictorial works
- Japanese American women -- Utah
- Japanese Americans -- Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945
- Japanese Americans -- Utah
- Japanese-American internment in the U.S. (1942-1945)
- Music students -- Utah
- Photographic prints
- Photographs
- Programs
- Protestants -- Utah
- Sheet music
- Students -- Utah -- 20th century
- Studio portraits
- Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.)
- Topaz (Utah)
- Topaz High School (Utah)
- Topaz Music School (Utah)
- Utah -- Social conditions -- 20th century
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration camps -- United States
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Japanese Americans
Source
- Vigilante Rare Documents (Bookseller)
Creator
- Takita, Miyeko, 1924- (Author)
- Takita, Aiko, 1926- (Author)
- Title
- Guide to the Aiko Takita and Miyeko Takita Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Sarah Lerner
- Date
- July 2019, updated January 2021, November 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- May 2021: Finding aid revised to replace outdated or harmful descriptive language. See the processing note for more information.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.