Cozzens, Robert B. Papers

Assistant Director, War Relocation Authority, 1944-1946; Assistant Field Director, War Relocation Authority, 1942-1944; Assistant Regional Director, War Relocation Authority, 1942-1942

The Robert B. Cozzens Papers contain a range of materials pertaining to Cozzens’ work with the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during World War II. Records include correspondence, speeches, newsletters, memoranda, personnel records, maps, published materials, and newspaper clippings.

Size: 2 linear feet.
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. Government all of its copyright interest in these materials and in any other materials received by the U.S. Government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by employees of the U.S. Government in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Brian Jolet and Randy Sowell (2026).

Robert Boyer Cozzens was born on July 20, 1894, in San Jose, California. He was raised near San Jose on a farm in the Santa Clara Valley. His father was William Wright Cozzens, Jr., a fruit farmer who was born and raised in northern California. His mother, Anna B. Cozzens (née Boyer), married William Cozzens in 1883. In addition to their family farm near San Jose, William and Anna Cozzens owned farms throughout northern California.

Robert Cozzens graduated from high school in the 1910s but continued to farm throughout his schooling. His father placed him in control of a dry yard on a 2,600-acre fruit farm that employed over a hundred workers. Following high school, Cozzens became the assistant superintendent of this farm. Cozzens eventually gave up farming and became involved in other endeavors. In the years before World War I, he worked for the Wells Fargo Express Company before becoming active in the construction field. In February 1918, he joined the United States Naval Reserves and served in World War I. Following the war, Cozzens married Alma Caroline (née Tholcke) in 1920. The couple lived in Santa Cruz and Berkeley over the next two decades.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Cozzens worked in the construction field in California, Nevada, and Utah. He was employed by the Granite Rock Company, the Granite Construction Company, and the Central Supply Company during these years. He became an assistant manager and superintendent, gaining experience in both management and field operations. Much of his work involved irrigation and agricultural development. During this time, he also began serving on the board of directors for the Granite Rock Company.

Cozzens’ construction work brought him into contact with governmental agencies, such as the Bureau of Public Roads, the National Park Service, and the Department of Agriculture. In February of 1935, the Department of Agriculture appointed Cozzens Assistant Regional Director of the Soil Conservation Service for Region 10. In 1937, he became the State Coordinator for the Soil Conservation Service (formerly called the Soil Erosion Service) in California. In 1942, the newly created War Relocation Authority (WRA) hired Cozzens as Assistant Regional Director during World War II. The WRA operated and managed the internment camps for Japanese Americans that were established under Executive Order 9066. Based in the regional field office in San Francisco, Cozzens oversaw the Western Field Area, which included the Manzanar and Tule Lake internment camps. He soon attained the title of Assistant Field Director and, later, that of Assistant Director. In these positions, Cozzens visited the internment camps frequently, and his papers document life on the camps.

Following World War II, Cozzens moved to Salinas, California. He owned and operated the Salinas Travel Lodge and became a prominent figure in the hotel industry. Cozzens died on July 27, 1976, in Salinas, California.

The papers of Robert B. Cozzens contain a range of materials relating to Cozzens’ work with the War Relocation Authority (WRA) in California. The collection provides detailed accounts of the operations of the WRA and the internment camps in Manzanar and Tule Lake, depicts daily life in these camps, and contains an assortment of literature on Japanese Americans during World War II.

The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, speeches, charts, lists, reports, personnel records, and press releases that document the operations of the internment camps in California. The correspondence is both incoming and outgoing and is largely between Cozzens and other WRA employees, in addition to business, media, and church leaders. Notably, there is correspondence between Cozzens and Ansel Adams relating to Adams’ photography of the Manzanar camp. Correspondence from the 1970s and 1980s in the collection relates to Cozzens’ interview with the Regional Oral History Office (now the Oral History Office) at the University of California-Berkeley.

Maps, charts, and lists in the collection provide details on the camps and their construction. The collection contains maps of relocation sites, camp layouts, and Japanese populations and property, and blueprints for typical camp buildings. Newsletters, bulletins, memoranda, programs, and photographs chronicle the daily life of the Manzanar and Tule Lake internment camps. Records from 1945 and 1946 discuss the closure of the camps. Various studies on Japanese Americans are also in the collection. Other records relate to WRA employees, particularly Cozzens, and their work. These records include work applications, travel authorization forms, receipts, directories, identifications, and descriptions of duties. The photographs in this collection, which depict life within the Manzanar and Tule Lake camps, were transferred to the Audiovisual Collection. Artifacts from the collection, including a rubber-like part made at the Manzanar camp and Cozzens’ WRA identifications, were transferred to the Museum Collection.

The printed materials in the Robert Cozzens Papers consist of governmental publications, pamphlets, propaganda, and newspaper clippings collected by Cozzens, in addition to published reports relating to Japanese internment camps and Japanese Americans. The reports are from the WRA, the Department of the Interior, the Red Cross, and various government committees. There are also articles and drafts by Adon Poli and Warren Engstrand on Japanese American agriculture on the Pacific coast. Other notable items include high school yearbooks, a transcript of Cozzens’ oral history interview, and an inscribed copy of Ansel Adams’ Born Free and Equal (1944).

Related collections at the Truman Library include the Dillon S. Myer Papers, the Monrad C. Wallgren Papers, and the John H. Ohly Papers.