Japanese-American Family Life in Chicago. Photo Album, 1945-1961

This collection contains one photo album with over four hundred original photographs documenting the life of a Japanese-American couple, Frank and Chiye, and their friends and family in Chicago from 1945-1961.

Frank and Chiye, whom the photo album identifies only by their first names, were a Japanese-American couple who lived in Chicago in the mid-twentieth century. Frank served as a member of the U.S. Military Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan from at least 1945-1946. The couple were married sometime prior to October 1945. They lived in Chicago after Frank returned from Japan, and Chiye gave birth to their daughter Vicki in 1947. The photo album suggests that a second child, a son, was born in 1952. Our information about the family is currently limited to what is documented in the photo album.

This collection consists of one photo album with over four hundred original photographs documenting the life of a Japanese-American couple, Frank and Chiye, in Chicago from 1945-1961. The album begins with photographs of Frank and Chiye as a couple and then includes a section documenting Frank's period of military service in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, from 1945-1946, as a member of the Counterintelligence Corps. The photographs show and identify Frank's activities and his fellow soldiers. The remainder of the photo album depicts Frank, Chiye, and their family and friends in Chicago. These photos include social events; vacations to places like Redondo Beach (where Chiye's parents lived), California, and Washington, D.C.; and portraits of themselves, family members, and friends. The photo album also includes photos documenting the early years of Frank and Chiye's daughter, Vicki. The photos are no longer captioned after around 1951.  From the photos, it appears that Frank and Chiye also had a second child, a son, who was born in 1952.

The Library purchased this collection in 2020 with support from the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.