Jiro Kozai (maiden name: Matsui), an Issei from Tottori Prefecture who immigrated to the United States in 1911, was a writer, publisher, and owner of Japanese-American, which he founded in 1924. He also served a term as President of the New York Nihonjinkai. Jiro was incarcerated at Ellis Island during the Second World War and eventually sent back to Japan.
Jiro married Fumiyo Kozai, daughter of Tatsuo Kozai in 1920s. She was born and raised in the US and attended Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies (now Northfield Mount Herman Prep). Fumiyo’s father, and Jiro’s farther in law, Tatsuo Kozai, was one of the earliest Japanese settlers in NYC. Tatsuo was appointed to the Japanese delegations to the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900), the Louisiana Purchase International Exposition (1904), and international expositions in Portland, OR (1905), Venice, CA (1906), and Norfolk, VA (1907). In 1909, he and his wife, Ko, immigrated from Matsue to Ontario, NY, then relocated to NYC in 1915. Tatsuo was also the member of the New York Nihonjinkai since 1915 and later served on its board of directors. He founded a business that sold porcelain, jade, ivory bronzes, and other art goods imported from Japan. He returned to Japan amid the Great Depression.
Source: Daniel H Inouye, Esq., Ph.D., Distant Islands: The Japanese American Community in New York City, 1876–1930s
This collection was donated by Jiro’s grandson, Lance B Stuart, to the Japanese American Association and contains personal records, letters, photographs, and scrapbooks from 1911 to 1940.
