JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF OREGON
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon (formerly Oregon Nikkei Endowment) is to preserve and honor the history and culture of Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest, to educate the public about the Japanese American experience during World War II, and to advocate for the protection of civil rights for all Americans. The two main projects of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon are the Japanese American Historical Plaza and Bill of Rights Memorial (located in Portland's Tom McCall Waterfront Park) and the museum (formerly known as Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center), a Japanese American history museum, located in Portland's Old Town neighborhood which was home to Portland's Japantown.
About This Cause
Japanese American Museum of Oregon history: The first serious effort to document the history of Oregon's Japanese immigrants began in 1973. The "Issei Appreciation" project led to a collection of slides documenting the achievements of the Issei (first generation) pioneers who settled in Oregon before discriminatory laws halted further Japanese immigration in 1924. In 1990, the Japanese American Historical Plaza and Bill of Rights Memorial was completed at the north end of the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. Conceived and guided by the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, the Plaza, along with its narrative of sculpted stones, stands as a permanent memorial to the lives of Oregon Nikkei and their determined pursuit of liberty, equality, and justice as American citizens. [Nikkei: Japanese emigrants and their descendants.] Also in 1990, Portland hosted its first reunion of Oregon Nikkei who lived in the state before the start of World War II. Over 900 people attended from all over the world. The program focused on life in Japantown, a once-thriving section of Northwest Portland, where many attendees had lived, worked, and raised families. It was here that the idea of initiating a broad-based effort to document the story of Oregon Nikkei was born. In the spring of 1992, the Nikkei community marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. Under the authority of this document, the military was directed to incarcerate all persons of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast. A half-day dramatic program recounted the fear, grief, indignation, and bewilderment that swept through the Nikkei community in 1942 as entire families were herded into makeshift quarters at the Portland Assembly Center, now the Portland Expo Center. With funding from the Meyer Memorial Trust and support from the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Nikkei community, an exhibition honoring the first Issei pioneers in Oregon was developed in 1993. It was while researching "In This Great Land of Freedom: The Issei Pioneers of Oregon" that the Nikkei community was alarmed to find that historical documentation relating to these early settlers was rapidly disappearing. The prospect of losing forever the legacy of their Issei forebears quickly moved the community to action. A committee was formed, and work began in earnest to locate a site for what would one day become the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, later known as the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. The vision for the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center was initially adopted by the Oregon Nikkei Endowment Board in 1995. It envisioned a multi-purpose facility where items of historical importance to Oregon Nikkei could be preserved and where the unique character and traditions of its culture could flourish and find expression. By 1996 and with the help of the late Bill Naito, the committee had located a potential site owned by the H. Naito Corporation on Northwest Front Avenue across from the Japanese American Historical Plaza. Negotiation for acquiring the property and bringing it up to city building codes began, but were suspended upon the untimely death of Mr. Naito. Subsequently, Sam Naito and the H. Naito Corporation proposed an alternative site in Old Town on NW Second Avenue. The organization changed its name to Japanese American Museum of Oregon in 2020. Today the Japanese American Museum of Oregon serves as a focal point for the preservation and sharing of the history and culture of the Japanese American community. One of the most important chapters in the Japanese American experience is the forced incarceration of over 110,000 persons of Japanese descent during the Second World War. This fuels our commitment to the preservation of civil rights for all Americans. The Japanese American Museum of Oregon is a venue for cultural and research activities and an invaluable resource for the exploration of the experiences of Japanese Americans and their role in Oregon's multi-cultural community.