Latest news with #U.S.NationalArchives
Yomiuri Shimbun
08-05-2025
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan's Washi Paper Used to Mend Historical Documents at U.S. National Archives, Overseas Museums
The Yomiuri Shimbun Yoonjoo Strumfels, a conservator at the National Archives, uses washi paper to repair a document in College Park, Md. WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Archives in Washington is making good use of traditional Japanese washi paper to repair historical documents. Washi is light, strong, water-resistant and endowed with a beautiful texture. Since washi can last more than 1,000 years if kept correctly, it is highly appreciated among those in charge of preserving international documents. The National Archives, which was established in 1934, houses as many as 13.5 billion pages of documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the original document of the Constitution of the United States. There are records that Japanese paper has been used to protect documents since the early 20th century. In the 1980s, washi was already an indispensable material in the field of preserving and mending documents. The craft of washi is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list and utilized to repair cultural properties at institutions throughout the world, such as the Louvre Museum and the British Museum. Washi is used to repair ancient documents at the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine as well. The value of washi is also attracting attention from the viewpoint of art. 'Washi excels in durability, which is proven by history on a timescale in millenniums,' said New York-based artist Hiroshi Senju. '[Washi] is more than just a culture. It is also recognized for its value as a civilization.' Increased value of paper originals The U.S. National Archives in Washington is proceeding with a large-scale project to digitize about 500 million pages of documents and make them public online by 2026. Yet the institution also regards the preservation of the originals as important as well. Japanese washi is highly valued for this purpose. The Yomiuri Shimbun Yoonjoo Strumfels, a conservator at the National Archives, uses washi paper to repair a document in College Park, Md. According to the National Archives, documents were not scanned in color in the early days of the digitization project. Therefore, the documents were digitized in black and white, without color information even if some text or seals were in color. There are concerns about the risk of blackouts and damage to digital files as well, so washi seems to give conservators peace of mind because it makes them feel assured that they can go back to paper anytime. Yoonjoo Strumfels, a conservator at the National Archives, said that washi is essential to their preservation work because properly made washi can be used for a long time. Washi is characteristically less prone to degradation than other paper and also relatively resistant to environmental changes. Such traits make washi highly trusted for the conservation of documents. Strumfels repaired a document that George Washington, the first U.S. president, wrote to the Congress by removing a silk cloth adhered for reinforcement and attaching a very thin piece of washi on the damaged area. The washi that was attached did not do any damage to the letters on the document and looked naturally blended to the point it was almost invisible, she said. Of the different types of washi the National Archives utilizes for conservation, washi made from the kozo paper mulberry is the most commonly used because it has long fibers and excels in flexibility and strength. Washi made from the mitsumata shrub in the daphne family is suited to repair delicate items, such as photos, and washi made from the ganpi shrub of the daphne family has a pearly sheen that makes the paper preferred for occasions when the appearance of materials on display takes on importance. Apparently, the glue used at the National Archives to apply washi is made inside the facility using starch powder imported from Japan. 'While digitization is proceeding further, the degradation of data storage media and the demise of reproduction equipment are creating the problem that people cannot extract the contents from them,' Senju said. 'When that happens, people go back to paper because they can read it without any equipment.' Senju then stressed the significance of washi as a material that brings human memories to the future. 'Since this is the digital age, the multifaceted charm of washi is being rediscovered,' he said.
Atlantic
06-05-2025
- Atlantic
Along the Valdez Trail
At the end of the 19th century, an estimated 100,000 people joined the Klondike Gold Rush, seeking their fortunes in the interior of Alaska and Canada's Yukon territory. Many gold seekers who chose the arduous path inland from Alaska's port of Valdez also discovered rich copper deposits along the way. The U.S. Army soon started work on the Valdez Trail, which would become the main route between the mining fields and Valdez. Several competing businesses rushed to build a railroad along the route. In 1902, one of those groups sent a team of photographers, the Miles Brothers, to document the town, the growing trail, the landscape, its newly arrived residents, and Alaska Natives. Prints of these photographs were collected into an album I was able to digitize recently at the U.S. National Archives, giving us a remarkable glimpse into daily life along a rough trail into the Alaskan interior, nearly 125 years ago.
Atlantic
04-05-2025
- Atlantic
A Trip into Alaska's Copper River Valley in 1902
At the end of the 19th century, an estimated 100,000 people joined the Klondike Gold Rush, seeking their fortunes in the interior of Alaska and Canada's Yukon territory. Many gold seekers who chose the arduous path inland from Alaska's port of Valdez also discovered rich copper deposits along the way. The U.S. Army soon started work on the Valdez Trail, which would become the main route between the mining fields and Valdez. Several competing businesses rushed to build a railroad along the route. In 1902, one of those groups sent a team of photographers, the Miles Brothers, to document the town, the growing trail, the landscape, its newly arrived residents, and Alaska Natives. Prints of these photographs were collected into an album I was able to digitize recently at the U.S. National Archives, giving us a remarkable glimpse into daily life along a rough trail into the Alaskan interior, nearly 125 years ago.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The South Vietnamese who fled the fall of Saigon – and those who returned
More than 120,000 people fled Vietnam after the North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, 1975. This chaotic evacuation has been captured in iconic photos, documentary films and oral histories. How did the Vietnamese seeking safety actually get from small boats or rooftop helicopters to the United States? First, they went to Guam. In response to the emergency, the U.S. military established a refugee camp on this small island in the Pacific. On Guam, the U.S. government planned to assess the crisis and process individuals while preparing camps on the mainland for the incoming Vietnamese. However, approximately 1,500 Vietnamese had another idea – refusing resettlement in the U.S. and returning home. I first learned of these events when I discovered images of the repatriates in the U.S. National Archives and found 'Ship of Fate,' the memoir of a South Vietnamese naval officer, Tran Dinh Tru. His story and that of other repatriates shows the real risks of repatriation if there are no guarantees of protection. This is an important lesson today given the U.S. government's current steps to make it harder for refugees to enter the country. Tru was a respected career South Vietnamese naval officer. In the chaos of April 1975, Tru evacuated with other naval officers, and he organized for a ship to save his wife, who was stranded far outside Saigon. However, the ship failed to rescue his wife. Like many family members across South Vietnam, she was left behind with their three children to navigate the new political landscape. Waiting on Guam alone, Tru despaired that he would never see his family again. Tru was one of more than 1,500 Vietnamese on Guam who did not want to resettle in America. They called themselves the repatriates, and they wanted to return to Vietnam for a range of reasons. Many were young South Vietnamese sailors who were aboard South Vietnamese ships as the North Vietnamese advanced on Saigon, and their captains had directed the ships out to sea and never returned to port. These young men did not see themselves as refugees. In other cases, older men and women decided they did not have the stamina to start again in America. Others, like Tru, had family members who had missed connections, and they faced indefinite separation. The repatriates turned to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S. government and the Guamanian public to make the case that they should be allowed to return to Vietnam. They wrote letters to the Guam newspaper and built massive billboards within the camp demanding their return. The UNHCR and the U.S. could not guarantee their safety on return, and so they made no plans for their repatriation. Frustrated with the lack of action, many of the repatriates escalated their protests. The repatriates built a makeshift stage. Men shaved their heads in front of a banner that proclaimed boldly in English, 'Thirty-Six Hours, Hunger Sit-In, Quiet, Hair Shaving Off, To Pray for a Soon Repatriation.' The repatriates also organized hunger strikes, militant marches through the streets of Guam and eventually set fire to buildings in the refugee camp. This was a situation no one had anticipated. The repatriates did not want to go to the United States, the Guamanian government did not want them to stay on Guam and the U.S. government did not know what to do. Notably, the new Vietnamese government did not want them back. In the end, the U.S. government granted the Vietnamese a commercial ship, the Viet Nam Thuong Tin, to return home. Tru agreed to be the captain due to his experience and skill. The Vietnamese repatriates knew the communist government saw them as hostile interlopers, traitors and possible CIA plants, but they still felt strongly that they must return. The voyage took roughly two weeks, and the atmosphere on the ship was tense and cautious. When the ship arrived in Vung Tau, a southern Vietnamese port, the Vietnamese government saw Tru as suspect and counterrevolutionary. They ignored his repeated wishes to reunite with his family, and the government imprisoned Tru in its network of 'reeducation camps,' where he suffered for 13 years. These camps punished South Vietnamese men who had fought against North Vietnam and allied themselves with South Vietnam and the United States. They combined prison labor and forced ideological training. They were marked by hunger, indefinite detention, and ongoing physical and psychological hardship. My research into the limited reports of these events shows that the repatriates' sentences ranged from months to many years. As captain, Tru suffered their arbitrary brutality the longest. Tru eventually resettled in the United States with his family in 1991. It's worth noting that Tru's long voyage is unusual. Most of the more than 120,000 Vietnamese who fled Vietnam sought and soon gained resettlement in the United States. President Gerald Ford's administration allowed them to enter as 'parolees' – a loophole in U.S. immigration policy, which did not make provisions for refugees at that time. However, by the time Tru was released and decided to immigrate to the United States, he was able to do so through the U.S. Humanitarian Operation program. The U.S. government designed this program for South Vietnamese officers and reeducation camp survivors in the late 1980s, and it expedited immigration processes for this population who had suffered directly because of their affiliations with the United States. The U.S. accepted over 70,000 Vietnamese who had been imprisoned in Vietnam. In my view, the Vietnamese repatriates' story challenges us to recognize the risks and fears individuals face in moments of crisis, and ponder the difficult decisions that must be made at the end of a war. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Jana Lipman, Tulane University Read more: Vietnam War: Who was right about what went wrong – and why it matters in Afghanistan During Vietnam War, music spoke to both sides of a divided nation How Vietnam dramatically changed our views on honor and war Jana Lipman received funding from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Research Travel Grant in 2011 and the General and Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgway Military History Research Grant from the US Army Military History Institute in 2010.
Reuters
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump administration publishes cache of RFK assassination records
NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Archives has released thousands of pages of records related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, according to the agency's website, following President Donald Trump's order to publish previously classified information. The National Archives released over 10,000 pages of records in connection with the Kennedy's killing, according to details on its website on Friday. The move is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to declassify information about the assassinations of a number of high-profile Americans. The agency previously published records related to 1963 assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy, who was killed several years before the senator, his brother. "Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the senator's son, said in a statement. The health chief has previously said he believes his father was killed by multiple gunmen, an assertion that contradicts official accounts. The Trump administration has also promised to declassify records related to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
