San Diego is quietly celebrating the birth of one of its historical heroines — a former city librarian, who became a key figure in California’s history through work that still resonates strongly today.
Clara Breed, who was born in Iowa on March 19, 1906 (although some places have it as 1909) was instrumental in bringing to light California’s internment camps for Japanese-Americans and forcing the public to reckon with the children the United States forced to live in them.
Breed began as the children’s librarian in 1929 at the old East San Diego branch fresh out of library school, and remained in that position for years. She loved and was beloved by the library children, who called her “Miss Breed.”
Many of those children were of Japanese descent, which was not remarkable — until Dec. 7, 1941, when the bombing of Pearl Harbor not only dragged the U.S. into World War II, but also ignited a wave of xenophobic hysteria within the country and changed everything for Japanese-Americans.
“The attack on Pearl Harbor not only drew the United States into war, but within six months resulted in the detention of over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry by the United States government,” noted a 1992 article in the Journal of San Diego History.
“Of this number, 70,000 were citizens of the United States by virtue of jus soli, a status they had acquired by being born in the United States of America.” Many of those were children. A not-insignificant number of those children attended Miss Breed’s library.
Overnight, those same children began to be treated as though they were criminals or potential threats to the United States, and many of her patrons were moved to camps.
Breed, outraged by the government’s actions, met the families at Union Station and offered self-addressed stamped envelopes to the children as they were shepherded onto trains, encouraging them to write to her from wherever they ended up.
And they did.
They told her about the conditions there, the treatment, what they were eating, how they felt. In turn, she sent them books, checked on their friends and family members, and — most memorably — urged others to do the same. She also wrote articles and letters to editors to hold elected officials accountable for the actions that she never stopped regarding as an outrage and a profound betrayal. She stayed in contact with the children until they were able to return.
After the war, Breed remained on as San Diego’s city librarian for 25 years. She stayed in touch with many of her “children,” and in 1991 she was honored at a reunion of Japanese-Americans who had been incarcerated in Poston, Ariz.
She saved the children’s letters and gave them to one of her correspondents, Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada, who, in the introduction to a book about Breed’s actions called “Dear Miss Breed,” wrote: “Every book that Clara Breed sent me was an affirmation that we were not the enemy … Every book was hope.”
Recognizing their historical value, Yamada eventually donated them to the Japanese American National Museum.
Many of the letters those children sent Breed still can be seen at the museum, where they are part of a permanent collection that can be read online.
According to the San Diego History Center, Breed, who died in 1994, also was instrumental in opening branch libraries in San Diego and established the Serra Cooperative Library System, which enables library patrons to borrow books from different libraries throughout San Diego and Imperial counties.
Breed’s legacy may not be well known, but it resonates in the lives of San Diegans every day.
“Clara Breed was dedicated to the library and the San Diego community during her lifetime and this dedication still informs the mission of the San Diego Public Library today,” said San Diego Public Library Director Misty Jones.
“Her legacy lives on through our commitment to inclusion and equity.”
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