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1936-1943

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Growing up in California: The Untold Journey of Shizuko “Skeets” Kayashima

Shizuko “Skeets” Kayashima (1923-1977) was a young Japanese-American woman who grew up in California. Shortly after graduating from high school, she was interned at the Poston War Relocation Center. While there, she met her future husband, fellow internee George K. Hasegawa; the couple married in Detroit in 1944. After Hasegawa served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, the couple settled in St. Louis, where they became notable members of the Japanese-American community.

The limited information we have about her is related to her husband and family. However, from her album, we learn more about Skeets’s journey growing up in California before her marriage and before the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. The images in her album feature various friends and also document Japanese-American women getting their education, vacationing, and participating in leisure activities.

A scan of a page of a photograph album with three black and white photographs.
Page memorializing Skeets’s time at Terra Bella Union Grammar School, including the female sports teams, Terra Bella, California, May 1936.
Top: Terra Bella Union Grammar School
Center: Baseball 1st Team and Substitutes
Bottom: Track Teams (A, B, C, and D)
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.
A scan of a page of a photograph album with five black and white photographs.
Photographs from a trip to Porterville, California, circa 1936-1943.
Top two photographs: Shizuko (Skeets) Kayashima
Bottom right: Phoebe Oba-Earlimart
Bottom left: Kazuko Oda, Sally Kayashima
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.
A scan of a page of a photograph album with six black and white photographs.
Photographs of Skeets and friends in traditional Japanese wear for an event in Delano, California, March 1939.
Top left: Aiko and Shizuko Kayashima
Top center: Edith Higuchi, Harbor City, California
Top Right: Shizuko Kayashima, Nobuko Ikeuye
Bottom left: Nobuko Ikeyue, Sally Kayashima, Lily Nagatani, Shizuko Kayashima, Tommy Nagatani.
Bottom center: Delano Japanese Y.M.A.
Bottom right: Nobuko Ikeuye, Sally Kayashima, Lily Nagatani, Shizuko Kayashima, Tommy Nagatani.
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.
A scan of a page of a photograph album with five black and white photographs.
Top left: Tayeko Masuda – Lomita
Bottom left: Aiko (Kayashima)
Center: Sally – Skeets (Kayashima)
Top right: Skeets
Bottom right: Yoshiko Nakamura – Lomita
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.
Photographs featuring Skeets in graduation regalia
Photographs featuring Skeets in graduation regalia, Narbonne – Lomita, California, 1941.
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.
A scan of a page of a photograph album with three black and white photographs.
A scan of a page of a photograph album with two black and white signed portraits.
Left: Three uncaptioned photographs [Top left: Includes dedication “To Skeets, Love always Ross”)
Right: Two portraits dedicated to Skeets from friends. One from Ross Iwanaga- Lomita, California, the other from Fumi Sano – Delano, California
MC317 Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album.

Although Skeets is primarily documenting her experiences in the photograph album, various young people are also included. These photographs document rare and valuable pieces of the journeys of young Japanese-American men and women in central California before the internment period. She captures the importance of unity and friendship in the Japanese-American community and reveals more about what she values in turn.

View the collection

Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album

1927-1930 1938-1941