Scrapbook Memories: A Visual History of the Orange County Japanese American Youths Organization

Conclusion: Preserving a Local Story

The materials preserved in the OC JAYs’ scrapbook offer a unique glimpse into the vibrant lives of local Japanese American youth in the 1950s and 1960s. During that time, several OC JAYs members won “good citizenship” awards from the Daughters of the American Revolution and celebrated those recognitions in the Santana Wind. By the 1960s, however, teens involved in the OC JAYs did not have first-hand experience of incarceration and perhaps felt less pressure than previous generations to prove they were patriotic Americans. OC JAYs membership gradually declined, and the organization ended around 1973.

Check out the digitized scrapbook on Chapman University’s Digital Commons and the scrapbook collection’s finding aid on ArchivesSpace.

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