Uheiji Charles Akita digital photograph collection

Collection

Identifier: P1178

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Uheiji Charles Akita digital photograph collection contains 9 scans of black-and-white photographs depicting Charles Uheiji Akita and his family and group portraits of the Japanese American community in Salt Lake City, Utah, between approximately 1930 and 1950.

Dates

1930-1950

Creator

Ushio, Ruby Akita (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Uheiji Charles Akita digital photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator.

Biographical Note

Charles Uheiji Akita (1881-1962) was a Japanese immigrant who settled in Utah in the early twentieth century. Akita immigrated to the United States in 1905 and initially worked on a dairy farm in the Pacific Northwest; soon after, he began working for the railroad and moved to Utah. In 1915, Akita returned to Japan to marry Sakaye Oka (1895-1936); they returned to Utah in 1916. Together, the couple had five children: Ruby Mitsuko, Frank Kenji, Sam Hideo, Joe, and Nobuko.

In the 1910s, Akita began working in farming on ten acres of land that he leased on 2559 South Third East in Salt Lake City, Utah. Though they grew many crops, the Akitas specialized in growing celery. Akita was involved with the Salt Lake County Japanese Garden Growers Association. As their sons grew into adults, the family expanded their farming operations, leasing additional land for the Charles and Sakaye’s sons to work on. However, when the United States entered World War II, Charles and Sakaye’s son Joe Akita was drafted to serve in the United States Army. After the war, their eldest son purchased a farm of his own in Riverton, while the other two left the farming business. With his children moving on from the family business, Charles Uheiji Akita gave up the lease on his farm by 1950 and worked as a landscaper. Charles Uheiji Akita died at the age of 81 in 1962. (Source: "Ruby Ushio," Interviews with Japanese Americans in Utah, 1984, https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6vd8g6x).

Extent

9 digital images

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Charles Uheiji Akita (1881-1962) was a Japanese immigrant who settled in Utah in the early twentieth century. The Uheiji Charles Akita digital photograph collection contains scans of black-and-white photographs depicting the Japanese American community in Salt Lake City and images of Akita and his family on their farm in the 1930s and 1940s.