Spring Break
Walking in Japanese footsteps
Renee Roman Nose
Issue date: 5/27/08 Section: Forum
People in my family have often told me, "If you don't know where you come from, then you won't know where you're going."
This past week I visited the Nikkei Legacy Center and found out where the Japanese-Americans of Oregon have been and where they are going.
The Nikkei Legacy Center was established to bring awareness to the illegal incarceration of Oregon citizens as a result of hysteria and misunderstanding.
One of the displays asked, "What if you thought you belonged? What if you were told you didn't belong?"
One display in particular, "A Timeline of Intolerance," begins for the viewer in 1882.
The internment camps were open from March 1942 until 1946 and there were a total of 10 of them across the country.
Photographs throughout the exhibit showed far more eloquently than words how the process of forced internment sent shockwaves through the Japanese-American communities in Oregon.
Alice Sumida, a spry, elderly Japanese woman whose beauty transcends the years she has seen, was kind enough to speak to me about the center.
She was born in Portland and was forced to go into an internment camp with her family when she was 18 years old.
Alice's family owned a restaurant before the war. She uses that phrase often, "Before the war."
She went to public school from 8:30 to 3 every day, afterward going to what she referred to as "Japanese school."
Each day the Japanese students would gather for lessons in Japanese language and culture. They also attended this school on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, as their families felt it was important for them to speak their own language as well as English.
Sumida said, "At home we spoke Japanese; when we saw our friends on the streets it was easier to speak English with our friends."
All of that changed when World War II broke out.
Everything Japanese was thrown out and ignored. Sumida's family threw out most of their belongings - which were reflective of their cultural ties to Japan - with the exception of family photographs and a few small, cherished items.
This past week I visited the Nikkei Legacy Center and found out where the Japanese-Americans of Oregon have been and where they are going.
The Nikkei Legacy Center was established to bring awareness to the illegal incarceration of Oregon citizens as a result of hysteria and misunderstanding.
One of the displays asked, "What if you thought you belonged? What if you were told you didn't belong?"
One display in particular, "A Timeline of Intolerance," begins for the viewer in 1882.
The internment camps were open from March 1942 until 1946 and there were a total of 10 of them across the country.
Photographs throughout the exhibit showed far more eloquently than words how the process of forced internment sent shockwaves through the Japanese-American communities in Oregon.
Alice Sumida, a spry, elderly Japanese woman whose beauty transcends the years she has seen, was kind enough to speak to me about the center.
She was born in Portland and was forced to go into an internment camp with her family when she was 18 years old.
Alice's family owned a restaurant before the war. She uses that phrase often, "Before the war."
She went to public school from 8:30 to 3 every day, afterward going to what she referred to as "Japanese school."
Each day the Japanese students would gather for lessons in Japanese language and culture. They also attended this school on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, as their families felt it was important for them to speak their own language as well as English.
Sumida said, "At home we spoke Japanese; when we saw our friends on the streets it was easier to speak English with our friends."
All of that changed when World War II broke out.
Everything Japanese was thrown out and ignored. Sumida's family threw out most of their belongings - which were reflective of their cultural ties to Japan - with the exception of family photographs and a few small, cherished items.
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