Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2002.0019: Herbert T. Ueda, 2002 October
[identification of item], Herbert T. Ueda Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0121, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2023 November; Finding aid written by: David Mezick, 2023 December
Herbert Tomatsu Ueda (1929-2020) was a mechanical engineer involved in ice drilling and the collection of ice cores in the Polar regions. He was born in Puyallup, Washington. From 1942 to 1945, Ueda and his family were incarcerated at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Jerome County, Idaho. They were incarcerated as part of the forced relocation and imprisonment of Japanese Americans by the United States government during World War II. Ueda was drafted by the United States Army in 1951 and served in Germany. After leaving the Army, he attended the University of Illinois with the help of the G.I. Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act) and received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1958.
After graduating, Ueda was hired by the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE), which became the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in 1961. He worked on the development and testing of ice drills at Camp TUTO (Thule Take-Off) and Camp Century in Greenland from 1959 to 1966. After the completion of the Greenland project, Ueda worked on an ice drilling project at Byrd Station in Antarctica, which finished in 1968. In the following years, he continued to work on projects in both Greenland and Antarctica, and helped build drills for other organizations. Starting in the early 1970s, Ueda was involved with the structural study of the DYE radar stations in Greenland (the stations were part of the Distant Early Warning Line defense system and their names were derived from the main station in Cape Dyer, Canada). In the late 1970s, he helped with the drilling for the Ross Ice Shelf Project in Antarctica. Ueda also worked on projects in Alaska, including ice drilling and the study of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. He retired from CRREL in 1987 and briefly worked for the Polar Ice Coring Office (PICO), helping with the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) in 1989. Ueda Glacier, located in Antarctica, was named for Herbert T. Ueda.
The Herbert T. Ueda Oral History, dated 2002-2010, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Ueda and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on October 23, 2002, and correspondence from 2010 about the transcripts of the interview. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics that Ueda discussed include being incarcerated at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during World War II, working for the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE), which became the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), working on ice drilling projects at Camp TUTO (Thule Take-Off) and Camp Century in Greenland and the conditions there, developing and working with thermal and electromechanical drills, and working on ice drilling projects at Byrd Station in Antarctica.