1987 - Poynton, Nancy Y. Sakamoto, Emiko (Emi) Matsutsuyu, etc., 1987
Scope and Contents
The collection has been divided into eight series, see listing below, easily identified by the way Nikki filed her papers. In addition to her writings, her correspondence files and subject files are rich with details of her interests. For instance, her correspondence files show her great influence on Asian-American authors and artists. She helped edit their work, arranged for them to speak in San Francisco, and supported them with warm letters. The files show her work to pass the Civil Liberties Act of 1985, her service as a spokesperson for the redress movement, and the schedule of her lectures to school children from elementary to graduate classes usually speaking about the internment. She also addressed the topics of marrying a powerful white man and the perception of white superiority. She spoke and wrote with fact, feeling, and humor.
NSB was active in the San Francisco Center for Japanese American Studies and served as program chair and edited their newsletter during the 1980s. This period is well documented in the collection.
Her daughter has kept most of the family photographs and has requested that the following items be returned to her. In most cases, photocopies have been made for this collection at the Labor Archives (note that some photocopying was done two-sided, so check backs) and the originals are with Kathy Bridges Wiggins:
Material relating to internment of the Sawada family
Material referring to the marriage ceremony of NSB and HRB
Passports and other official documents from NSB and HRB
NSB and HRB correspondence with each other
Correspondence with relatives in Japan (NSB) and Australia (HRB)
Drafts of NSB/NSBF’s writings
Correspondence with HRB biographers
Correspondence with Nora Lupton, a close friend of Nikki’s
Photographs that were not returned are in the LARC photo collection. Those returned have been scanned when possible and are in the LARC computer. Some snapshots relating to correspondence or subject files are in the collection and are noted in this guide.
See also an audio recording of Nikki’s guest appearance at an SFSU history class in 1997 when she spoke of her life as a child of Japanese immigrant parents and described the three years her family spent interned in Arizona. Oral histories relating to NSB’s life are available: Betty de Losada and David F. Selvin.
The Collection has been divided into the following eight series. File folder titles, the order of the folders, and order within folders have been retained as she collected and filed the material.
Series 1 BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS - including resumes and interviews
Box 1 Folders 1 - 14
Series 2 CORRESPONDENCE, 1947-2002 - chronological with some individual folders
Box 1 Folders 15 - 42
Box 2 Folders 1 - 22
Box 3 Folders 1 -11
Series 3 SAN FRANCISCO CENTER FOR JAPANESE AMERICAN STUDIES, 1969-1986
NSB served as editor of the newsletter and program chairman, 1979-1986
Box 3 Folders 12 - 32
Series 4 SUBJECT FILES, A - Z
Box 3 Folders 33 - 47
Box 4 Folders 1 - 55
Box 5 Folders 1 - 25
Series 5 WRITINGS BY OTHER AUTHORS, MAINLY ASIAN-AMERICAN
Box 5 Folders 26 - 46
Series 6 WRITINGS BY NS/NSB/NSBF
Box 6 Folders 1 - 48
Series 7 INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS, 1975
NSB served as Director for the Center for Employment Studies
Box 6 Folders 49 - 68
Box 7 Folders 1 - 22 (archival box)
Series 8 WOMEN’S HEALTH ISSUES
Box 8 Folders 1 - 5 (archival box)
Dates
- 1987
Extent
From the Collection: 8.5 Cubic Feet ( (6 cartons) (2 boxes))
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
General
Letters to/from Peter Poynton, Nancy Y. Sakamoto (Mill Valley CA), Emiko (Emi) Matsutsuyu, Akiko Masuda, Valerie Matsumoto, Lee Horvitz, Gary Soto, Mike Connelly, Dorothy DeLacy, Lane Hirabayashi, Anne Keatley, Jean Gundlach, Ann B. Horvitz, Corey Gin, Judith O’Rouike, Jean Whitenack, Jean Y. Moy, Butch Nakamaura, Sheila James, Nancy Sakamoto. Also many individuals with first names only: Cyril & Dolores (England), Rose, Kate, Janet, Evelyn
9/3/87 Arnold Hiura, Editor, The Hawaii Herald, concerning NSB’s complaint of sexist captions
10/15/87[?] “Charlie” at San Francisco Chronicle concerning Congressman Wm. L. Dickinson’s vote in favor of HR 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1985; NSB’s note on verso. This is one of several letters planning strategy for passing of the bill on redress
Ticket to Candlestick Park for Giants game, championship game 1987
9/29/87, KNBR radio interview with NSB by Gimmy Park Li concerning HR 442 [redress]; NSB is identified as the San Francisco Coordinator of the Legislative Education Committee for the Japanese American Citizens League
Undated copy of “Draft Ballot Argument - Mental Health Community,” which NSB signed 8/20/87
Literature on the Japanese American Library, 1759 Sutter Street, San Francisco
5/19/87 NSB to Deborah Kesten, American Heart Association, “I must resign from the Public Information Advisory Committee because I will be going on the board of the Mental Health Association.”
3/7/87 NSB to Gary Soto concerning his forthcoming anthology to be called California Childhood. NSB records the history of her epic poem “To Be or Not to Be...”: first published as first prize winner in Rafu Shimpo’s (LA newspaper) Poetry Write-off, 1978; reprinted in San Francisco Magazine and in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo
3/12/87 NSB to “Dear Aunt Setsuko, Kazuyuki and Hisako: ...Except for a trip to the barber shop where I drive him, Harry is unable to leave the house now. But I am grateful that his spirits are good. I still carry on my organizational activities, including working for redress to get Congress to pass bills authorizing payment of $20,000 to each of us about 60,000 survivors of the 120,000 who were imprisoned. If the law does not pass, we have to reintroduce it. We have been doing this every two years for the past eight years.” (copy)
Some family letters (copies)
2/4/1987 NSB to Kate: “...in 1968 I was the Bay area chair and organizer of the Jeanette Rankin Brigade, avant-garde of the anti-Viet Nam War groups. When our women demonstrated and lobbied in Washington, D.C. the opening day of Congress in January of 1969, we gave impetus and heart to do likewise to the grass rooters who were beginning to smell the rottenness of our SE Asia policy.”
2/3/1987 Janet to NSB: “Sorry I missed yr. play reading. Duty called. Community Board got its first Chinese language case finally–after all this outreach effort to serve the community, and the hearing was Friday night...”
1/20/87 Samuel B. Francovich to NSB and HRB in reference to an article in the Reno Gazette-Journal, 1/18/87, on their problems in getting married in Nevada: “...One error that I could find in the story was that it stated the county clerk, Harry K. Brown, advised Judge Taylor Wines of the controversy and this matter was then moved to his courtroom. You may recall what actually occurred was that I contacted Judge Wines who was in Reno at the time sitting for one of our local judges. Judge Wines was the district judge whose jurisdiction was in Elko, Nevada and when I learned he was in Reno I felt he would be more sympathetic to our cause than any of our local judges and, thus, asked him to hear your petition.”
2/3/87 NSB to Don Congdon, agent, concerning biography of HRB (copy)
12/29/86 Paul Krassner to “Dear Friend” concerning money needed for operation to correct “injuries inflicted by police billy clubs at the post-verdict riot in the Dan White case.” NSB sent check
1/13/87 NSB to True Yosui: “...the older I grow the more sentimental I become about my fellow Nisei who survived the war years with dignity and a sense of history. I admire all of us who remained strong. Lord knows our scabbed over psychic scars still chafe. You may enjoy the enclosed story about my father. I write as Noriko Sawada because I needed to claim my ethnicity after I lost it as Nikki Bridges...”
Repository Details
Part of the Labor Archives and Research Center Repository
San Francisco State University
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco 94132-1722 USA
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu