Milton Murayama Papers Collection: Preserving the legacy of Hawaiʻi’s Nisei vets and plantation workers

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hamilton Library has acquired the literary archives of Milton Murayama, the Maui-born Nisei author, playwright and MIS veteran. This landmark addition to the library’s Japanese American Veterans Collection in the University Archives and Manuscripts department reinforces its commitment to preserving and sharing the legacies of Hawaiʻi’s sugar cane plantations and Nisei veterans.      

The Milton Murayama Papers Collection, comprising both physical and digital artifacts, was processed and made available at the library and online in the summer of 2025. Dawn Murayama, the author’s wife, had donated his papers to Hamilton Library, along with a substantial gift to fund the archive’s work. 

The resulting collection offers invaluable insight into Milton Murayama’s creative process, featuring multiple drafts of his novels, short stories and plays, unpublished works, correspondence, photos and other materials. 

Murayama (1923-2016) is best known for his novel tetralogy All I Asking for Is My Body (1975), Five Years on a Rock(1994), Plantation Boy (1998) and Dying in a Strange Land (2008). The works offer a deftly fictionalized autobiographical account of his family’s emigration from Japan to Hawai‘i in 1920, then the harsh existence of life on a Maui sugar plantation in the ’30s and beyond, including during World War II. In a personal epigraph to his grand-nephew, Murayama wrote: “I made up some of this, but most of it is for real.”  

Milton also wrote three plays, two of which were produced for the stage: a kabuki play, Yoshitsune (1982), an adaptation of All I Asking for Is My Body (1989), and Althea (1981), about the 1932 Massie case in Honolulu, was never published or produced. He wrote a screenplay of All I Asking for Is My Body called The Debt, and his final work was an unpublished manuscript titled Odds and Ends. Play adaptations of his works are still set to see the stage – interested parties can contact treemosshawaii@gmail.com and rollingthers@gmail.com for further information and announcements.

Maruyama’s groundbreaking work gave voice to local perspectives and the Nisei experience, influencing generations of readers and writers.

“We were honored to partner with Dawn Murayama in preserving Milton Murayama’s tremendous legacy, which will enrich the social, intellectual and cultural fabric of our community for generations to come,” said Leilani Dawson, manuscript collections archivist in Hamilton Library’s University Archives and Manuscripts Department.

The Murayamas’ grand nephew, David Wakukawa, coordinated the project with Hamilton Library on behalf of his family. He helped to digitize materials and make decisions with his Aunty Dawn about how the resources would be made available online and in person, and has since donated additional materials to the archive.

“My late aunt dedicated her life to her husband’s work. She wanted to be sure it was preserved and made accessible to future writers and researchers,” Wakukawa said. “It’s important because it brings to life the Japanese American immigration experience of coming to Hawai‘i.”

Wakukawa’s grandfather was Edwin Murayama, Milton’s older brother. Edwin was fictionalized as the architect ‘Tosh’ in Milton’s novels. Wakukawa enjoyed visiting his grand uncle and aunt when he lived in San Francisco. 

“I was very close with him and my aunt,” Wakukawa said. “He was an inspiration growing up, because I wanted to be a writer. He really opened my eyes to my family’s struggles, and I am trying to put to good use what they earned.”

In March 2024, Tiffany Zarriello was hired as the project archivist to process the collection. A newly-minted LIS graduate at the time from Minnesota, she was embarking on her first professional job as a librarian and archivist … in Hawai‘i. 

The archival process included making an inventory of the collection, doing basic preservation work, creating a metadata spreadsheet for the database, digitizing files, establishing access levels, watermarking documents, then describing the collection and creating a finding aid for the database. She has written about the valuable experience she gained working with this collection here.

“Throughout this project, it has been an absolute joy and privilege to get to know Milton Murayama through the documents he’s left behind,” she wrote. 

“When Murayama passed away in 2016, I had just finished my freshman year of college and had no idea who he was or the role he would come to play in my burgeoning career. But after spending time with his papers, I feel as though I know him. With each document I read and process, I feel as though I am piecing together a life.”

Wakukawa appreciates the contributions Zarriello and Dawson have made in honoring and preserving Murayama life’s work.

“They’ve done a fantastic job. It’s really well organized and a treasure trove of resources that give an insight to my grand uncle’s writing process, as well as manuscripts of his plays,” he said.

The Milton Murayama Papers Collection is now available online through Hamilton Library’s eVols and ArchivesSpace databases, though access to parts of the collection is restricted and requires a contacting the library for access; certain limited material requires a visit to the library to view in person. For more information, please contact archives@hawaii.edu.