{"id":20521,"date":"2017-03-08T11:32:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T16:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=20521"},"modified":"2023-03-07T12:56:10","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T17:56:10","slug":"womens-history-month-librarian-hero-clara-breed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/womens-history-month-librarian-hero-clara-breed.html","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s History Month: Librarian Hero Clara Breed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega searches old newspapers to learn more about one of her personal heroes: San Diego librarian Clara Breed. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Heroes come in all packages. While we envision heroes accomplishing superhuman feats with their bulging muscles, they are often the exact opposite. When you think of an occupational \u201chero,\u201d police officers, soldiers or firefighters may come to mind.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no doubt in my mind that librarians are also heroes. As finders of information, they have the ability to open up new worlds for the community they serve. Some librarians do even more than that, as in the case of San Diego librarian Clara Breed (1906-1994).<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Clara Breed serving cake at a reception honoring her for being named librarian emeritus by the San Diego City Council. Receiving a slice is Grace Klauber. Credit: San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 6 December 1983, page 27.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clara Estelle Breed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clara Estelle Breed was born in Iowa in 1906. As a young woman, she and her mother moved to California in 1920 after the death of her father. In California, she attended high school and college, graduating with a degree in library science. This brief newspaper article notes that the then 19-year-old college student had just \u201centertained four of her Pomona college friends at a house party over the week-end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 28 August 1925, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t too long after she graduated that she was hired as a children\u2019s librarian for the San Diego Public Library, in 1928.[i]<\/a> As children\u2019s librarian one can imagine she was well-loved by her young charges. Far from the stereotypical librarian who is constantly shushing everyone, a newspaper article printed years after her retirement recounted that Breed welcomed the children into the library with her actions that included taking down all of the \u201cQuiet!\u201d signs. She believed that \u201csound-proofing and carpeting were better than discouraging children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 16 June 1974, page 60<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World War II<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time the U.S. entered World War II, Breed had served the San Diego Library system for over a decade. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 led to the 1942 Executive Order 9066: the forced incarceration of Japanese American citizens. Japanese Americans, many of whom had never even been to Japan, experienced severe racial hatred and forced evacuation just because of their heritage. Pearl Harbor would have a lasting, profound effect on Americans \u2013 including the young children that Breed had befriended at the library who were of Japanese descent.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 18 July 1943, page 25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The children that Breed had come to consider \u201cher children\u201d were sent to Santa Anita Racetrack in Southern California prior to being transported to internment camps like Poston in Arizona. \u201cFrom March 27 until October 27, 1942, more than eighteen thousand people from Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Clara counties lived in Santa Anita. In just sixty days it became the thirty-second largest community in California.\u201d[ii]<\/a> Japanese American families were housed in the horse stalls until it was time to pack up and relocate.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 22 August 1942, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prior to leaving San Diego, Japanese American children came to the library to return books and their library cards. Clara Breed, their librarian, was prepared. As she said her goodbyes she provided a stamped, addressed postcard to each child so that they could write to her and let her know how they were doing \u2013 and she in return would provide a book to read.<\/p>\n

Later, Breed would write a magazine article about that emotional day, the West Coast Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps, and the libraries that eventually serviced those camps. In her article \u201cAmericans with the Wrong Ancestors,\u201d she wrote:<\/p>\n

A little more than a year ago, libraries in California, Oregon, and Washington were swept clean of some of their most enthusiastic borrowers \u2013 Americans whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents happened to emigrate from the wrong country, Japan. They were not a large part of the population. There are only 135,000 Japanese in the whole country, and only 100,000 were living on the West Coast. Of these, two-thirds were American-born and therefore citizens; one-third aliens who under our laws could never become citizens.[iii]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Breed ended her article by quoting President Franklin D. Roosevelt:<\/p>\n

In a letter congratulating the War Department for its decision to recruit Japanese Americans in a combat unit, President Roosevelt wrote, \u201cThe principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.\u201d[iv]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Letters<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that Breed anticipated what those penny postcards she provided to \u201cher\u201d children would lead to, but the Japanese American children of San Diego wrote to her, and continued writing to her. She reciprocated by replying with letters, books, and other supplies. She wrote in a 1943 article for Library Journal<\/em> that although the letters reflected the children\u2019s growing \u201chardening and consciousness of race,\u201d they were holding \u201cfast in their faith in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most important aspect of Breed\u2019s writing to the children was that she was a reminder of someone who cared about them outside of the camps. By war\u2019s end she was no longer the children\u2019s librarian, having been promoted to head librarian for the city of San Diego. However, she continued to stay in contact with many of those children that she wrote to during the war.<\/p>\n

Because letters are ephemeral, the entire story of Clara Breed\u2019s letters cannot be told. She had kept 300 letters sent to her but only one of her letters to a child has been found.[v]<\/a><\/p>\n

Later Years<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clara Breed retired from the San Diego Public Library in 1970. Her 24-year tenure as City Librarian was marked by many accomplishments, including the building of a new library.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 25 May 1970, page 13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clara Breed\u2019s retirement from the library didn\u2019t mean that her connection to it was severed. After retirement, she published a history of the library titled Turning the Pages: San Diego Public Library History 1882-1982<\/em>, which included a chapter about the war years and a \u201cbrief mention of the postcards and her \u2018children\u2019.\u201d[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1983 the retired Clara Breed was honored for her work by being named Librarian Emeritus. Only one other librarian had been bestowed this honor. In a response worthy of a woman retired for over a decade, Miss Breed answered a reporter\u2019s question regarding the specific duties of a librarian emeritus with the answer, \u201cI hope nothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 6 December 1983, page 27<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1988, as she packed up her home so that she could move into a retirement home, Breed found those World War II letters stored for over 40 years. Having limited space in her new home, she called one of \u201cher children\u201d and asked if she would take the letters. Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada accepted those letters, which included some that she herself had written. Yamada donated them and some other items to where they reside today, at the Japanese American National Museum.[vii]<\/a><\/p>\n

Clara Breed died on 8 September 1994 at the age of 88 years. But her legacy lives on in many ways, including the Clara Breed Collection at the Japanese American National Museum \u2013 which houses over 240 letters written by Clara\u2019s \u201cchildren.\u201d You can see the digitized copies on the Museum\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

———————-<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Clara Breed. Wikipedia. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clara_Breed.
\n[ii]<\/a> Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed. True Stories of the Japanese Americans Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made A Difference<\/em>. New York: Scholastic (2006). Page 63.
\n[iii]<\/a> Breed, Clara. Americans With the Wrong Ancestors. The Horn Book<\/em>. http:\/\/www.hbook.com\/1943\/07\/choosing-books\/horn-book-magazine\/americans-wrong-ancestors\/#_
\n[iv]<\/a> Ibid.
\n[v]<\/a> Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed. True Stories of the Japanese Americans Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made A Difference<\/em>. New York: Scholastic (2006). Page 287.
\n[vi]<\/a> Ibid, Page 238.
\n[vii]<\/a> Ibid, Page 256.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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