Oregon Nikkei History

Sharing and preserving Japanese American history and culture On this site we highlight photos from our historical collection housed at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland's Old Town neighborhood, as well as other information about history and Japanese Americans in Oregon. Please visit www.oregonnikkei.org to learn more about the Oregon Nikkei Endowment and its programs.

[unccspecialcollections]

What Are Archives?

October is American Archives Month and, to celebrate, UNC Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives have a series of posts planned to raise public awareness about the importance of historic documents and records.

What Are Archives?

[National Archives building, Washington,DC,  2012 © Ctac [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]

In the course of daily life, individuals and organizations create and keep information about their personal and business activities. These records – and the places they are kept – are called “archives.” Archival records take many forms, including correspondence, diaries, financial and legal documents, photographs, and moving image and sound recordings. Archival formats can be varied, including digital formats like email, text messages, digital photographs, online calendars, and social media activity. There are many types of archives - those for different types of government records and those that contain the personal records of people and organizations. There are national archives, state archives, city archives, community archives, business archives, academic archives, church archives, and more.

[Mary and Harry L. Dalton Rare Book and Manuscript Reading Room, UNC Charlotte Atkins Library]

You likely have an archives in your home. It might be in a filing cabinet, a box in the basement, or a chest in the attic. It might be saved to floppy discs, burned to CDs, left on a digital camera, or stored on a hard drive. This is your personal archives: a collection of materials that record events from your personal or family history.

[Examples of archival storage, including acid-free folders and boxes, UNC Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives]

There are similarities between your personal archives and local, state, or national archives. All save items to serve as proof that an event occurred, to explain how something happened, or for financial or sentimental reasons. Both personal archives and larger archives save a variety of materials that can include letters, photographs, films, ephemera, databases, financial materials and more.

[Archivist (Adelaide Minogue) checking humidity stacks, August 12, 1942. US National Archives [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

Archivists are the professionals who identify, preserve, and provide access to these documents of lasting value. They work to ensure that  important records will be available for research by generations to come. To help preserve material, archivists in all types of repositories store archival  records in special housing and storage areas - acid-free folders within acid-free boxes that are placed in dark spaces with consistent temperature and humidity.

Sources:

http://www2.archivists.org/about-archives

http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/about/what-are-archives

http://files.archivists.org/advocacy/AAM/WhatIsAnArchives.pdf

Examples of archival storage facilities and spaces:

[A UNC Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives’ storage area]

[The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum interior with view of archival box storage, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

[Server room at The National Archives (UK), 2011, By The National Archives (UK) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]

[Coal mine maps at the University of Pittsburgh, Barbara (WVS) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons]

[Mapleson cylinders in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, By Kosboot [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]

[todaysdocument]

A great overview of archives and archivists, just in time for tomorrow’s #AskAnArchivist Day!

And here’s a more animated view of the @usnatarchives:

[multcolib]

Greetings from Leipzig! Well, really Portland. While we love our rare books, we love our archival collections as well, especially when rich in fancy ephemeral materials like this postcard from Leipzig, ca. 1905 from the Henry E. Dosch papers…

[oregonnikkei]

Frank Yasui at the Motor Clinic at NW Park Avenue and W Burnside Street in Portland, circa early 1950s.

This photo was featured in the recently closed exhibit Capturing a Generation through the Eye of a Lens: The Photographs of Frank C. Hirahara, 1948-54 at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center. Frank was a serious amateur photographer who worked for Bonneville Power Administration, and was a member of the Photographic Society of America, Portland Photographic Society and a Board Member for the Oregon Camera Club.

2013.34, gift of Patti Hirahara.

[oregonnikkei]

Obon in Portland, Holladay Park, circa early 1950s. This photo was featured in the recently closed exhibit Capturing a Generation through the Eye of a Lens: The Photographs of Frank C. Hirahara, 1948-54 at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center. A native of Yakima Valley, Washington, Frank honed his skills as a young photographer and photo editor of the Heart Mountain High School Tempo Annual while incarcerated during World War II with his family at the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming.

ONLC 3008, gift of Patti Hirahara.

[oregonnikkei]

This photo of Phyllis Ando (Muramatsu) taken by Frank C. Hirahara, circa early 1950s, was featured in the recently closed exhibit Capturing a Generation through the Eye of a Lens: The Photographs of Frank C. Hirahara, 1948-54 at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland. Frank, an avid amateur photographer, captured hundreds of photographs depicting community picnics, dances, wedding receptions, and life in the heart of Portland's Japantown.

2013.34, gift of Patti Hirahara.

[ourpresidents]

Today is the Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans Interned During WWII

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 granting the War Department broad powers to create military exclusion areas. Although the order did not identify any particular group, in practice it was used almost exclusively to intern Americans of Japanese descent.

Although there were no reliable reports that Japanese-Americans on the United States West Coast presented a subversive threat, on March 2, 1942 the military declared California, Oregon and Washington State strategic areas from which Americans of Japanese decent were to be excluded.

More than 110,000 Japanese-Americans (64% of whom were American-born citizens) were required to abandon their homes and jobs and to live in 10 relocation camps.

The United States Supreme Court finally ruled that continued detention without cause was unconstitutional, and the military relocation order was rescinded in December 1944.

Images: 

Japanese Americans near trains during Relocation. Circa 1942.

Baggage check during Japanese Relocation. Circa 1942.

Exclusion order posted at First and Front Streets in San Francisco directing removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from the first section of the city to be affected by evacuation. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration., ca. 07/1942.

Photograph of Dust Storm at Manzanar War Relocation Authority Center, 07/03/1942.

-from the FDR Library

[oregonnikkei]

Camp Savage, Minnesota, circa 1944

Students of the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage, where they studied the Japanese language and were later sent to serve in the War in the Pacific.

The MISLS was located at Camp Savage in Minnesota from 1942-44, after which it was moved to larger facilities at nearby Ft. Snelling.

[oregonnikkei]

1925 Portland Japanese Community float

This float, part of the Portland Rose Festival's floral parade, was built during a time of growing anti-Japanese sentiment in Oregon. American and Japanese flags are built into the float railing, with the people in the back also waving flags. Read more about the history of Japanese Americans in Oregon at the Oregon Encyclopedia.

[oregonnikkei]

Rose Festival floral float

Float from the Grand Floral Parade of the Portland Rose Festival, start of route near Multnomah Stadium. This float features a torii at the front and honors Sapporo as Portland’s sister city in Japan. Circa late 1950s.

[oregonnikkei]

Rose Festival junior parade

These Nisei girls (and a few boys in the back row) are gathered to march in the Junior Rose Festival parade, circa 1938. The donor of this photo is the girl on the far left.

[oregonnikkei]

Odori dancers

These girls are performing bon odori, traditional Japanese Buddhist dancing. The location is unknown.

This scan was taken from a 35mm slide by Frank C. Hirahara, who was an electrical engineer active in the Portland Nikkei community from 1948-54, and took pictures in his spare time as a member of the Portland Photographic Society and the Oregon Camera Club.

[oregonnikkei]

Obon in Portland

Frank Hirahara took this photo of odori dancing at an Obon festival, circa 1948-54. Members of the Oregon Buddhist Church and others in the Nikkei community performed bon odori in a number of places over the years, including Washington Park and the North Park Blocks in downtown Portland. This photo may have been taken at Holladay Park in Portland.

[oregonnikkei]

Odori Dancers

Photo taken by Frank C. Hirahara of members of the Oregon Buddhist Church and Epworth United Methodist Church of Portland, circa 1948-54. They are all holding American and Japanese flags, but the occasion is unknown. Left to right: Ed Tamiyasu, Alice Kida, Jean Tsujimura (Takashima), Jean Kida (Tomita), Shizuko Ochiai (Okazaki), Alice Matsumoto (Ando).

[todaysdocument]

[oregonnikkei]

Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Members of the staff and volunteer helpers reassemble a privately owned Japanese typewriter to be used for the Japanese languge edition of the Heart Mountain Sentinel, Center newspaper. The paper is wrapped around the rubber cylinder, the typist pushes the roller riding platten over the bed of type. After picking the next character, a lever is operated which picks up the type, presses it against the paper and replaces it in its niche. Complicated in appearance and operation, due to the short hand characteristics of Japanese writing, the advance of thought is nearly equal in speed to a standard English typewriter.  1/13/1943

Tom Parker, photographer.  From the Central Photographic File of the War Relocation Authority

[cactusparty11]

Tule Lake Relocation Center near Newell, Calif., 1942 or 43. Women at the Japanese American relocation camps of World War II, photographer unknown. 

[oregonnikkei]

Kikuo Hiromura, the father of the donor of this photo, wearing what appears to be work attire. This photo is unique in that it is one of the few where Kikuo is smiling. Circa 1920s.

[oregonnikkei]

Portrait of Seki Hiromura, the mother of the donor of this photo, and one of her sons. Seki and her husband Kikuo raised their five boys in Portland, Oregon. Circa 1925.