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{ "url_title": "Crusaders", "title_sort": "crusaders", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Crusaders/?format=api", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Crusaders?format=api" }, "modified": "2023-12-18T19:27:27", "title": "Crusaders", "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div class=\"floatright\">\n </div>\n <p>\n Young women's organization formed in the concentration camps that wrote letters to Japanese Americans serving the U.S. Army.\n </p>\n <p>\n The Crusaders originated at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Santa_Anita_(detention_facility)/\" title=\"Santa Anita (detention facility)\">\n Santa Anita Assembly Center\n </a>\n .\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Yuri_Kochiyama/\" title=\"Yuri Kochiyama\">\n Mary Nakahara\n </a>\n , a young woman from San Pedro, California, presided over what started as a club of five high school girls that met under the grandstands of the camp. When Nakahara found her spirits in the concentration camp greatly lifted when she received letters from friends back home, she came up with the idea of having the girls write letters to\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Nisei/\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n soldiers. Nakahara had a brother in the army as did one of the original Crusaders, and the group started out writing to six soldiers. The project grew quickly, with some ninety Crusaders writing to hundreds of soldiers. The group also wrote to orphans in the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Manzanar_Children%27s_Village/\" title=\"Manzanar Children's Village\">\n Children's Village\n </a>\n at Manzanar and to Japanese American tuberculosis patients left behind in sanitariums on the West Coast. Nakahara collected names of soldiers and their addresses, created form letters for the girls and contributed money towards postage.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n When Santa Anita closed, and the Crusaders sent to\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/War_Relocation_Authority/\" title=\"War Relocation Authority\">\n War Relocation Authority\n </a>\n (WRA) administered concentration camps, many brought the concept with them and began Crusaders clubs at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Poston_(Colorado_River)/\" title=\"Poston (Colorado River)\">\n Poston\n </a>\n ,\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Heart_Mountain/\" title=\"Heart Mountain\">\n Heart Mountain\n </a>\n , and\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Rohwer/\" title=\"Rohwer\">\n Rohwer\n </a>\n . The largest group was at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Jerome/\" title=\"Jerome\">\n Jerome\n </a>\n , where Nakahara was sent. Her enthusiasm and organizing skills soon led to the formation of Junior Crusaders and Junior Junior Crusaders groups made up of middle school and elementary school age girls. She contributed her entire WRA salary to the purchase of postcards. Before long, the Jerome Crusaders were writing to 3,000 soldiers. Nakahara printed excerpts from the soldiers' letters in her \"Nisei in Khaki\" column in the camp newspaper, the\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Denson_Tribune_(newspaper)/\" title=\"Denson Tribune (newspaper)\">\n Denson Tribune\n </a>\n </i>\n . Later, the Crusaders wrote a \"Letters from Servicemen\" column in the\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Pacific_Citizen_(newspaper)/\" title=\"Pacific Citizen (newspaper)\">\n Pacific Citizen\n </a>\n </i>\n from May 1944 to April 1945. A Crusaders group even continued with the letter writing in postwar Los Angeles. The Los Angeles group brought its efforts to an end in August 1946, donating the remaining funds in its treasury to the Japan Relief Fund.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n After the war, Nakahara—under her married name Yuri Kochiyama—would become a legendary political activist. In her biography of Kochiyama, Diane Fujino cited the Crusaders project as \"a training ground for organizers,\" and wrote that Kochiyama \"would apply these same skills in her political work.\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n [3]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Brian_Niiya/\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Fujino, Diane C.\n <i>\n Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama\n </i>\n . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.\n </p>\n <p>\n Howard, John.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/concentrationcam00howa_0\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow\n </i>\n </a>\n . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.\n </p>\n <p>\n Takemoto, Paul Howard.\n <i>\n Nisei Memories: My Parents Talk About the War Years\n </i>\n . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006.\n </p>\n <p>\n Tsukamoto, Mary, and Elizabeth Pinkerton.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/wepeoplestoryofi00tsuk\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n We the People: A Story of Internment in America\n </i>\n </a>\n . San Jose: Laguna Publishers, 1987.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Diane Fujino,\n <i>\n Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama\n </i>\n (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), 48; John Howard,\n <i>\n Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow\n </i>\n (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 121; Audrie Girdner and Anne Loftis,\n <i>\n The Great Betrayal: The Evacuation of the Japanese-Americans during World War II\n </i>\n (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969), 255–56.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Fujino,\n <i>\n Heartbeat of Struggle\n </i>\n , 48; Valerie J. Matsumoto,\n <i>\n City Girls: The Nisei Social World in Los Angeles, 1920–1950\n </i>\n (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 211.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Diane C. Fujino,\n <i>\n Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama\n </i>\n (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), 48.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20240418160800\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.015 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.042 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 99/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 514/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 58/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1620/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 13.541 1 -total\n 19.74% 2.673 1 Template:Reflist\n 10.43% 1.412 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 10.15% 1.374 1 Template:Published\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:2664-0!canonical and timestamp 20240418160800 and revision id 35707\n -->\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"toplink\">\n <a href=\"#top\">\n <i class=\"icon-chevron-up\">\n </i>\n Top\n </a>\n</div>", "categories": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/Organizations/?format=api" ], "sources": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/sources/en-denshovh-kyuri-01-0007-1/?format=api" ], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Crossroads:%20Boyle%20Heights%20(film)/?format=api", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Crystal%20City%20(detention%20facility)/?format=api" }