Where can I find some good primary sources on American history when I am not from the U.S.?

by LilWooody

Hello historians!

I hope this question does not count as a “homework” because I believe it is not.

I am currently writing my Bachelor work, the subject is American history, specifically the Internment of Japanese Americans during the WW2.

I’ve been trying to find as many sources as possible but the best I got was the San Francisco museum archives, which is incredible for my work but I still need more.

Finding the sources is a bit difficult considering some of the sources have regional protection. So if you are aware of anything that might help me with this I’d be incredibly grateful. I understand working with primary sources is a bit harder, but I will gladly accept good secondary sources as well.

Thank you for your time and have a nice day!

y_sengaku

Have you already checked the following very elementary resource/ research guides?:

The introductory entry in National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/japanese-american-internment

Mark Hartsell, Mark. "Journalism, Behind Barbed Wire" (May 05, 2017): https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/05/journalism-behind-barbed-wire/
Collection: Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers, 1942 to 1946: https://www.loc.gov/collections/japanese-american-internment-camp-newspapers/
Primary Source Set: Japanese American Internment (Secondary School's digital classroom resource), but with links to some other relevant, more specific collections: https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/japanese-american-internment/

Japanese American National Museum: https://www.janm.org/education/resources#web-resources
Digital Depository Site of Japanese-American internment during WWII: https://densho.org/
California State University Japanese American Digitization Project: https://csujad.com/

+++

It might also be not a bad idea to check whether your educational institution has an access to the following basic digital resource via Gale:

The Internment of Japanese Americans: Records of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library: https://www.gale.com/c/the-internment-of-japanese-americans-records-of-the-franklin-d-roosevelt-library
Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, 1981: https://www.gale.com/c/personal-justice-denied-public-hearings-of-the-commission-on-wartime-relocation-and-internment-1981

References:

Kido, Yoshiyuki. American History as an Immigrant Nation (Imin Kokka Amerika no Rekishi). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2018. (in Japanese)
Tsujimoto, Shiro. "'DENSHO': Conveying the History of Japanese American Internment Camps During WWII." (in Japanese, though with English brief summary in the beginning). [Last access: Feb. 23, 2022]

EdHistory101

Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to our rules. This policy is further explained in this Rules Roundtable thread and this META Thread.

As a result, we'd also like to remind potential answerers to follow our rules on homework - please make sure that your answers focus appropriately on clarifications and detailing the resources that OP could be using.

Additionally, while users may be able to help you out with specifics relating to your question, we also have plenty of information on /r/AskHistorians on how to find and understand good sources in general. For instance, please check out our six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay.