Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/vhp.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2015655441
In English.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
Arranged in three series: Manuscripts, Photographs, and Artifacts. Manuscript materials are arranged alphabetically by subseries. Photographs are arranged in the donor’s original order.
Accessioned, 2003.
Duplication of collection materials may be restricted.
Collection is open for research; access restrictions apply. To request collection materials, please contact the Veterans History Project at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/vhp.contact
The Ralph Samuel Jaffe collection is available on the Library of Congress web site at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.20740/.
Ralph Samuel Jaffe Collection (AFC/2001/001/20740), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Ralph Samuel Jaffe was born in New York, New York, on February 8, 1907. At the outset of World War II, Jaffe was living in Newport, Rhode Island, with his wife, Betty, and their two children, Rita and Stanley. The proprietor of a hardware store, Jaffe was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 at the age of 37, leaving his wife to attend to the family business. Jaffe served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Meade, Maryland; and Manila, Philippines. While in the Philippines, he served as a clerk in a recovered personnel detachment. He achieved the rank of Private First Class and was awarded the Good Conduct and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medals. At the end of his enlistment in 1945, Jaffe returned home to Rhode Island and resumed operation of his store. He died on October 28, 1992.
The Ralph Jaffe Collection consists of personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, a diary, a creative work, photographs, and a few artifacts. The majority of the collection consists of Ralph Jaffe’s letters to his wife, Betty, and her letters to him during his time in military service. Ralph and Betty Jaffe exchanged letters about their business, their children, Ralph’s eagerness to get home, military training, his health, recreation, the death of President Roosevelt, Ralph’s job duties in the Philippines, daily life, and the end of the war.
MS01: Clippings from the Providence (RI) Journal about the return of veteran's ship (SS Admiral Rodman); stories of POWs; end of the war; status of older Army enlistees and demobilization efforts.
MS02: Correspondence from Ralph Jaffe to Betty Jaffe. Topics covered include: expressions of his love for his wife and his eagerness to get home; advising his wife on business details and praising her for her work and success in business; daily details of basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; his rejection of the chance to go to officers school; training in telephone and communications; physical challenges and arthritic knees; work at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland; weekend passes to Sanford and Fayetteville, North Carolina, San Francisco, California, and home to Newport, Rhode Island; efforts to get discharged because of his age; life aboard ship from San Francisco to the Philippines in July 1945; descriptions his surroundings in the Philippines; work as a mail clerk in Manila; washing clothes in the shower; mention of the new atomic bomb; Jewish holidays and religious services; work as a clerk in the Recovered Personnel Detachment in Manila; seeing General MacArthur and the arrival of Japanese peace envoys in August 1945; unhappiness with life in the Army.
MS02 (Continued)
MS02 (Continued)
MS03: Correspondence from Betty Jaffe to Ralph Jaffe, topics covered include: details of daily life for her and the children; activities at the store; her need for hard work while he is away; pep talks to Ralph and warnings not to drink, swear, or gamble; the death of President Roosevelt; request to Senator Theodore Greene that Jaffe not be sent overseas; their son’s bar mitzvah; radio coverage of the “new bomb” and the impending victory in Japan; and the end of the war, including a letter from August 14, 1945, which reports hearing the news over the radio and includes lipstick kisses. Other lipstick kisses adorn letters from June through August 1945.
MS03 (Continued)
MS04: Correspondence to Jaffe from his daughter, Rita.
MS04: Correspondence to Jaffe from his son, Stanley.
MS04: Correspondence to Jaffe from various friends and family members.
MS05: Correspondence between Ralph and Betty prior to their marriage. Includes his invitation to her sweet 16 party and a letter from Ralph to Betty.
MS06: Poem written by the veteran aboard ship.
MS07: Journal written by veteran on board ship and directed to his wife, offering more candid details of his Army experiences and his feelings about them than he could express in letters viewed by censors.
MS08: Map of San Francisco, printed by Clinton Cafeterias, originally housed with 06/18/1945 letter to Betty Jaffe (MS02).
MS09: Enlisted Man's Temporary Pass (06/1945); Domain of the Golden Dragon card (1945). Pass originally housed with correspondence (MS02), 06/08/1945. Domain of the Golden Dragon card originally housed with correspondence (MS02) 07/21-22/1945.
MS10: Ten Centavo notes, issued by the Japanese government.
PH01-PH22: Images of Ralph Jaffe in uniform, pictures of his wife, Betty, including one inscribed to "my Dream Man," and pictures of his son, Stanley, and daughter, Rita.
AR01: Combination Score Book for US Rifles M1903 and MI and Browning Automatic Rifle M1918A2.
AR02: Handkerchief stained with Betty Jaffe's lipstick.
AR03: Assorted notes, receipts and lists.
AR04: Pressed flowers included in 07/23-24/1945 correspondence (MS03) and 12/02/1924 correspondence (MS05).