Collection Summary
Jeanne Sakata Papers
1942-2010
2007-2010
1942-2010
2007-2010
MSS86655
Sakata, Jeanne, 1954-
125 items
1 container
0.5 linear feet
47 digital files (2.44 GB)
English
Collection material in English
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Actress and playwright. Articles,
correspondence, DVDs, essays, flyers, programs, scripts, research materials, and
transcripts of oral history interviews relating to the struggles of Japanese
American Gordan Hirabayashi during World War II for Jeanne Sakata's play Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordan Hirabayashi. The play
was eventually re-titled Hold These Truths.
Acquisition Information
The papers of Jeanne Sakata were given to the Library of Congress in July 2011 by
Jeanne Sakata.
Custodial History
The papers of Jeanne Sakata were part of the Asian American Pacific Islander
Collection in the Library of Congress's Asian Division. In 2023, the collection was
transferred from the Asian Division to the Manuscript Division.
Processing History
The papers of Jeanne Sakata were arranged and described by Pang Xiong in 2012 while
in the custody of the Asian Division and encoded in 2015 as ad015001. The finding
aid was revised and the digital media processed in 2024 upon transfer to the
Manuscript Division by Katherine S. Madison and Andrea J. Briggs.
Digital files were received as part of the Jeanne Sakata Papers on a variety of
storage media, which were assigned unique digital ID numbers. Use the digital ID
number to request access copies of the files associated with each media. A
description of the standard processes taken on all born digital records can be found
in the Processing History Note: Born Digital Collection Material at [https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.digital].
Copyright Status
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Jeanne Sakata is governed by
the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Access and Restrictions
The Jeanne Sakata Papers are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the
Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Access to digital content is available
onsite only in the Manuscript Reading Room and requires advanced notice. Many
collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items
for research use.
Technical Requirements
Digital files were created in a Windows operating system, version unknown. The
content is primarily audiovisual files in .vob format, and image files in .jpg
format. Disk images were created of media containing .vob moving image files for
preservation and accessibility.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information:
Container or digital ID number, Jeanne Sakata Papers, Asian American Pacific
Islander Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Biographical Note
Jeanne Sakata was born in Watsonville, California on April 8, 1954 and raised in a
Japanese American farming family in the Pajaro Valley. She holds a Bachelor's of Art
in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. Sakata has
been a professional actress since the early 1980s and has performed across the
country. She made her playwriting debut with
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
in 2007.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of Jeanne Sakata span the years from 1942 to 2010 with the bulk of the
material dating between 2007 and 2010. The collection documents her playwriting
debut with
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
(later renamed
Hold These Truths
). Material in the collection includes research, articles, essays, programs,
flyers, and correspondence.
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
premiered in 2007 at East West Players in Los Angeles, California. The play
was an interpretation of events that led Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American
college student at the University of Washington, to defy Executive Order 9066. In
1942, during World War II, the United States government imposed a curfew and
evacuation order for all Japanese on the west coast under Executive Order 9066.
Hirabayashi felt this violated his constitutional rights and defied the orders.
After the Japanese were removed from Seattle, Washington, Hirabayashi turned himself
into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was tried and convicted in the
Federal District Court of Seattle. In 1943, in the case of Hirabayashi v. United
States, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction that the curfew was constitutional
and Hirabayashi was sentenced to serve three months in a prison in Arizona. After
the war, Hirabayashi became a sociologist and taught at American University in
Beirut, American University in Cairo, and the University of Alberta. In the 1980s,
Peter Irons and Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga discovered evidence that had been withheld
from the Office of Naval Intelligence. In 1986 and 1987, Hirabayashi's original
exclusion and curfew convictions were overturned. On January 2, 2012, he died in
Edmonton, Alberta. On May 29, 2012, Barack Obama posthumously awarded Hirabayashi
the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
was invited by the New York Theatre Workshop to be showcased at their 2009
Dartmouth Residency. The play has also been performed at Chicago's Pritzker Pavilion
as part of the 2011 In the Works New Plays Series; in Epic Theatre Ensemble's 2010
Passion Play Festival with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; at the
University of California at Riverside; at the 16th Annual Conference of the Japan
Studies Association in Honolulu; and at the Japanese American Citizens League Day of
Remembrance events in Sacramento and Salinas, California. At the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville, it was the inspiration and theatrical centerpiece of the
civil rights symposium Civil Liberties, National Security and the Legacies of the
Japanese Removal and Incarceration. With the East West Players Theatre for Youth
program, Sakata's play has twice toured high schools and junior high schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District in 2008 and 2010. In 2012, Epic Theatre Ensemble
produced Sakata's re-titled play
Hold These Truths
into a one-character play that was staged off-Broadway.
Material included in the collection consists of research material, articles, essays,
programs, flyers, a documentary produced and directed by John de Graff and sponsored
by the United States Bicentennial Commission, correspondence between Hirabayashi and
the Ring family, and correspondence between Sakata and Hirabayashi from 1995. A
published and unpublished script for the play is included in this collection along
with Sakata's transcribed oral history interviews with Gordon Hirabayashi. The
collection also contains a DVD copy of Sakata and actor Ryun Yu's interview with
KPFK Radio in Los Angeles, which can be located in the East West Players press
packet for the play's premiere.
Organization of the Papers
This collection is arranged alphabetically by format or subject. Most folders were
labeled according to Sakata's original folder titles.
Selected Search Terms
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.
People
Sakata, Jeanne, 1954-
Organizations
Asian American Pacific Islander Collection (Library of Congress)
Subjects
Asian American theater.
Japanese Americans--Civil rights.
Japanese Americans--Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945.
Japanese Americans--Social conditions.
World War, 1939-1945--Japanese Americans.
Occupations
Actresses.
Playwrights.
Catalog Record: [https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2023086655]
Container List
Container
Contents
1
Graduate essays, 2007
2007
1
Materials related to
1
East West Players, 2008-2010, undated
2008-2010,
undated
1
New York Theatre Workshop's Dartmouth
Residency Program, 2009
2009
1
Northern California Time of Remembrance
Performance, 2010
2010
1
University of California at Riverside,
Performing Arts Series, 2009
2009
1
University of Tennessee Civil Liberties
Symposium, 2009
2009
1
Press article by Tom Provenzano, 2007
2007
1
Press article by Emily Roxworthy, 2008
2008
1
Press article by Steven Stanley, 2010
2010
1
Press packet for East West Players world
premiere of Dawn's Light, 2007-2008
2007-2008
Press packet for East West Players world
premiere of Dawn's Light, production photos and
KPFK Radio interview with Jeanne Sakata and Ryun Yu, 2007
2007
mss86655_319_001
1
Research articles
1
By Gordan Hirabayashi, 1985, 1988
1985
1988
(2 folders)
1
By Peter Irons, 1988
1988
1
From the University of Washington Special
Collections, 1942-1945, 1995-1998
1942-1945
1995-1998
1
Research material
1
Correspondence between Jeanne Sakata and
Gordan Hirabayashi, 1942, 1995
1942
1995
Documentary, A
Personal Matter: Gordan Hirabayashi vs. the United States,
1992
1992
mss86655_319_003
1
Gordan Hirabayashi interview transcripts,
1994-1995
1994-1995
1
Letters from Gordan Hirabayashi from the
Ring Family Papers, 1942-1944
1942-1944
1
Script,
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordan Hirabayashi
, 2007-2010
2007-2010
1
Script (published),
Hold These Truths
(formerly
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordan Hirabayashi
), 2010
2010