The photos in the Jiro Onuma papers at the GLBT Historical Society tell an extraordinary story. Onuma (1904–1990) was born in Japan and immigrated to the United States in 1923, settling in San Francisco. He was one of over 110,000 Japanese Americans whom the U.S. government incarcerated as “enemy aliens” in concentration camps during World War II.
For a decade after we received his collection, Onuma remained an enigma to archivists and historians, who could only speculate about his sexuality based on his collection of “male physique” and “physical culture” magazines that were surreptitiously marketed to gay men in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 2009, the artist Tina Takemoto scoured War Relocation Authority records and interviewed archival donors. She confirmed Onuma’s homosexuality and established that he had a partner, Ronald, whom he had met before the war; they were incarcerated together in the Topaz, Utah, camp. Unfortunately, they were separated when Ronald was transferred to the Tule Lake incarceration camp, but Onuma’s collection shows they found ways to stay connected by sharing photos.
As we honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we reflect not only on the hardship of the concentration camps, but also on the unmistakable joy Jiro found with his friends and lovers, even in the most abject circumstances. Our archives preserve this and countless other stories of hope, inspiration, joy, love, loss, and so much more that are just waiting for a passionate researcher to come in and put the pieces together.
We make these community treasures available to all at our archives downtown and our museum in the Castro district. To book your visit, or to make a contribution to support our work, visit: https://www.glbthistory.org/
Community Treasures from the GLBT Historical Society Archives
Published on May 4, 2023
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