Includes: 7 photograph albums. * Approx. 28 loose large-format and studio photographs. * 2 account ledgers with entries for the Japanese American Society of Oakland. * 2 daybook diaries. * Several hundred letters written by Frank Baba to his parents while he was serving in the U.S. military, including in post-war Japan, 1945-1946, with original envelopes. * Plus other miscellaneous items.
Significant archive of the Baba family, who seem to have settled in Oakland in the early 1900s, with the first album containing photographs from c.1900 to the mid 1920’s; most of the other albums are from the 1930’s and 1940’s, with many family gatherings, trips to Yosemite, babies, children, etc. There are some captions in Japanese, some in English. In one of the later albums are photographs of family members at a detention, also some of Japanese-American soldiers in uniform. The two account ledgers contain listings of the members of the Japanese American Society of Oakland, the dues paid, accounts, etc. The two diaries are in English, kept by George Shiro Baba, 1940 and 1941. The second one records Dec. 7: “Up at 10 and ate. Then came the news dispatch hat Japan had attacked Hawaii & P.I. so war began bet Japan & U.S.” And the next day “Pres Roosevelt ask Congress to declare war on Japan,” and on the 9th “Paper’s say that Japan air planes flew over Bay area last night…” The letters from Frank Baba are also quite revealing, most written to his young wife, many while he was stationed in Japan, Among the passages: “So many niseis are trying to get the citizenship back but some of them face pretty tough barriers. I net Shirow Uyeno’s brother and he is one of the kibei who made noises in the camp. But today he is sorry he ever was sent back to Japan. Repatriates are treated rather cooly in their homeland be cause of food and housing shortages. You see many sad cases in Japan. Just a bar of candy means so much to the adult who has children. In the black market one of those Baby Ruth or Hershey bar cost near 20 yen…” An important archive showing the acclimation of a Japanese American family into American culture, and the travails facing them during the second world war.