About The Project

The Honorable Robert T. Matsui Legacy Project website contains digital reproductions of select photographs, documents, video and audio clips from public sources and the Matsui family. The focal point of the website is on Robert T. Matsui and his leadership in Congress working to secure redress and reparations for Japanese Americans following the incarceration and exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States during World War II.

The Matsui family lived in Sacramento prior to World War II and was forcibly relocated to an internment camp. The Matsui family returned to Sacramento following the War, and Robert Matsui grew up in Sacramento. In 1972, Mr. Matsui became the first Japanese American city council member in Sacramento and later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978.

The internment experience and its aftermath left a lasting mark on Mr. Matsui. His commitment to civil rights and equal justice under the law was evident throughout his 26 years of distinguished service in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In the future, we hope to expand this website to include information on other important issues Mr. Matsui addressed during his tenure in Congress, including protecting Social Security, access to health care, flood control, protection of youth, funding for education, international trade and commerce, tax reform, and welfare reform.

 

PROJECT TEAM

Project Directors
- Timothy P. Fong, Ethnic Studies Department
- Wayne Maeda, Ethnic Studies Department

Implementation, Database Administration and Website Design
- Carlos Rodriguez, Director, Library Systems & Information Technology
- Bin Zhang, Digital Information Services Librarian
- Carson Carlos, Information Technology Consultant
- Claire Armstrong, Web Designer
- Michael Quintos, Web Designer

Metadata
- Lisa Roberts, Catalog Librarian
- Julie Thomas, Manuscript Librarian
- Miranda Nighbor, Special Collections & University Archives Assistant

Consultants
- Georgiana White
- Ben Amata

Acknowledgments:
Major funding for this project was provided by the California State Library, California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP), Grant Award ID# 04-00006 (2005-2006).

Special thanks to the Matsui family, the Sacramento Bee, the Japanese American National Museum, and the California State University, Sacramento Office of Special Collections & University Archives for photographs used in this website.

Videos provided for this website were provided by KCRA-TV, KCET-TV, NBC Nightly News, CNN International Hour, and the John F. Kennedy Library.

Japanese American newspapers Hokubei Mainichi, Rafu Shimpo, Pacific Citizen, and Nichi Bei Times generously allowed their articles to be reprinted in this website.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

The collections on this site all utilize the CONTENTdm Software Suite, a product of DiMeMa, Inc. ContentDM provides tools for digital collection management. It is scalable and is optimized for exceptionally large datasets. It permits the creation of multiple collections within one system and allows searching both individual collections or across multiple collections.

For more information about CONTENTdm, visit http://contentdm.com

CONTACT

For more information about the Robert T. Matsui Legacy Project, contact: Dr. Timothy P. Fong.