Skip to main content

Arikawa, Alice Sakiko. 71st Signal Battalion Service in occupied Japan photo album, Volume 2, 1947 - 1948

 Item — Box: 2, Item: 3

Dates

  • Creation: 1947 - 1948

Extent

From the Collection: 3.5 Linear Feet (7 documents boxes)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchase, 2017.

Physical Description

14" x 10.5", oblong folio, decorated cloth cover hand-titled "Tokyo, Japan, '47". Contains 265 photographs, 28 pieces of ephemera, and 10 commerical images. Ephemera ranges from small clippings to theater programs.

General

Album contains photographs and related material documenting the experiences and coming-of-age of a Japanese-American woman from Los Angeles, California serving at the San Shin PX in Tokyo during the postwar American occupation of Japan, presumably as a WAAC or as one of the small group of Nisei men and women recruited into service by the U.S. military at the time. Alice Sakiko Arikawa, later Alice Arikawa Presnell, was a diligent and outgoing explorer of her life and surroundings. Her photographs document everything from the Tokyo flood of 1947, to her daily experiences in the PX, her travels, the women who served, and her romance with "Chief" Presnell. Arikawa was interned from June 1942 to 1943 March at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, adding further dimension to her later service for the U.S. in Japan.

Repository Details

Part of the 01 - Special Collections & Archives, The Claremont Colleges Library Repository

Contact:
800 North Dartmouth Ave
Claremont CA 91711 United States