InfoGuides: Deaf and World War II: Asian Deaf History Books

Last Updated: Feb 19, 2024 11:15 AM

Asian Deaf History Books

Conducted by Lu Ann Sleeper in 2013, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. Note: This interview was conducted in American Sign Language. The written transcript is available online. The video interview is available in The Bancroft Library.

Ronald Hirano discusses his family background and his experiences as a student at the California School for the Deaf [CSD], Gallaudet, and at several colleges in California. He describes the impact of World War II on his and his parents’ lives, their incarceration in Topaz, while he stayed in Berkeley at CSD with foster mother Delight Rice. He relates experiences of how his deafness played a role in his development during and after the war and explains how his study and travel have enriched his knowledge of the Deaf community. Ronald wrote a related biography The Life Story of Mother Delight Rice and Her Children: The First Teacher of the Deaf in the Phillipines.

Nancy Ikeda Baldwin Transcript

Conducted by Lu Ann Sleeper in 2013, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2015.
Note: This interview was conducted in American Sign Language. The written transcript is available online. The video interview is available in The Bancroft Library.

Nancy Baldwin describes growing up in rural California with an entirely Deaf family. She discusses how her parents communicated with her and how her family learned of Executive Order 9066, and the family’s subsequent experiences at multiple incarceration camps during World War II. She recalls how others related to her deafness, including at the camps, at the California School for the Deaf, and generally in her life upon returning to California after the war.

Look at the Deaf Asians section of the Deaf People and WW II website for more information.

Statement of Education: Hannah Tomiko Holmes by Gerald Sato
Available online via Deaf People and WW II website.Helen Keller wrote a touching letter to Hannah (during her stay at the detention camp) responding to her inquiry about a school.
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity
Too Long Silent: Japanese Americans Speak Out by Roger W. Axford
Selection available online via Deaf People and WW II website
Deaf heritage in Canada : a distinctive, diverse, and enduring culture by Carbin, Clifton F
Selected chapters available online via the Deaf People and WW II website: Deaf Japanese in Canada.
Don ga kikoenakatta hitobito = The deaf and the atomic bomb
Available online on the Deaf People and WW II website.

CSD History ~ Japanese American CSD Alumni

By Ronald Hirano | CSD Alum
Photos courtesy of Selena Moon | Independent Scholar & Researcher

CSD alumna Kikue Ukai, became a groundbreaking Deaf writer and editor

In 1921, Kikue Ukai’s parents enrolled her in the California School for the Deaf, from which she graduated at the age of 18.

In 1923, Kikue enrolled at Gallaudet. Kikue frequently contributed to Gallaudet’s literary magazine The Buff and Blue, providing a number of essays on women’s fashion and social commentary.

Kikue left Gallaudet in 1928 and returned to Oakland, where she entered California School for the Deaf in nearby Berkeley. In 1934, she passed a civil service exam that allowed her to work as a librarian, the first Nisei ever to do so, and thereafter was hired by the Oakland Public Library.

In 1936, Ukai began writing a literary column titled “Literary By-Paths” for the English section of the San Francisco newspaper New World Sun, or Shin Sekai Asahi.

See full story about Kikue Ukai's life (written by Jonathan van Harmelen)

Selena Moon is a Japanese American historian who has included Japanese American Deaf history into her research:

The first known Deaf Japanese American student at California School for the Deaf was Mary Matsuda, who attended from around 1898-1907. The second was author and literary critic Kikue Ukai (Fujii). She wrote for several Gallaudet publications. After leaving Gallaudet, she wrote for many Japanese American newspapers and eventually had her own column, "Literary By-Paths With Kikue Ukai".

When World War II broke out, 10 of the 11 Japanese American students from California School for the Deaf were sent to incarceration camps. One of them was Hannah Takagi, who came up with the name for the Helen Keller School (which was a school for disabled Japanese American children at the Tule Lake relocation camp in northern California). Hannah Takagi corresponded with Helen Keller, and read Keller’s reply during her testimony at the Redress Hearings, to petition the government for an apology and monetary compensation for the incarceration. She and other CSD alums—siblings Ernest and Nancy Ikeda (Baldwin), and Ron Hirano—have been interviewed about their experiences in the camps to preserve the history and ensure that it never happens again.

See Selena Moon’s poster