Jane Borg papers

Collection — Container: Single Folder Collections - 1998 Box 18 (98.0450-98.0479), Folder: 98.0478 - Folder 1

Identifier: 98.0478

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains two oral histories; one with Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. and one with James Izumizaki. It also includes the reprint of a letter by Pvt. Lavern Borg, Jr. written on April 2, 1945. The letter tells about his experiences with the 5th Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corp in the battle of Iwo Jima. The next document includes a service record and medallist dated June 1967, January 1969, and August 1973. A pamphlet collected by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, California entitled Nihen Bunka Japanese Culture: One hundred years in Pajaro Valley is also in the collection.

Dates

created: 1940-1973
Other: Date acquired: 05/12/1998
Other: Date accessioned: 1998-08-09

Creator

Borg, Jane (Person)
Lavern Gerald Borg, 1926- 2010 (Contributor, Person)
Izumizaki, James Yasuyuki, 1918- 2001 (Contributor, Person)
Gilman, Jr., Philip K., 1908- 1986 (Contributor, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. who was a doctor with the U.S. Navy in WWII. He joined the United States Naval Reserve in 1940 and in 1941 was stationed at the United States Navy Hospital at Pearl Harbor. He was cited for his service during the Pearl Harbor attack and worked at Pearl Harbor until July 1943. He was then sent to work on the furnishing of a large hospital ship in Brooklyn, New York, and was on the ship when it later took care of casualties from Okinawa; transporting injured from Okinawa to Pearl Harbor. At the end of the war, he was sent to Nagasaki as part of the first medical team to enter the city. There he cared for American POWs and returned to the U.S. by December 1945.

James Izumizaki of Watsonville, California, fought in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all Japanese-American unit which became the most decorated combat unit of WWII. He enlisted on March 3, 1940 and was trained in El Paso, Texas, and Anniston, Alabama. He saw heavy fighting in the 442 Regimental combat unit in fighting with the 5th Army in Italy and 7th Army in southern France. He was wounded in combat and his brother Henry, who was also in the unit, died while he was still at the field hospital. Mr. Izumizaki was a regular rifleman and ended the war in Germany guarding enemy POWs. In September 1945 he returned to California and began work for many large growers. For almost 30 years, he worked for the Bud Atnle Company and was closely involved with all aspects of growing, marketing, and shipping of produce from both the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys; managing thousands of acres.

Lt. Colonel Lavern Borg, Jr. received the Meritorious Service Medal as chief, Personnel Division, Landstuhl Medical Department Activity, Landstuhl, Germany.

The pamphlet in the collection tells the story of Japanese in the Pajaro Valley from the first Japanese arrivals around 1890 to the present. The Japanese faced much prejudice but prospered in the agriculture sector. During WWII, the Japanese community was incarcerated and living conditions were rough. Most of the Japanese were sent to Poston Relocation Camp, Arizona, but many did return to the valley after the war. Naturip Berry Groves started in 1917 is now one of the largest berry cooperatives in the world. Eventually, in the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. government acknowledged the hardship it put the Japanese community through and gave some payment to them.