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THE OREGON NIKKEI STORY:

Japanese Americans In Oregon 1880-1941

Japanese Restaurant Workers, Portland, Oregon

Source: George Katagiri

ABOUT THE FILM:

PORTLAND - This documentary was produced exclusively for a traveling Smithsonian Exhibit called Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution: A More Perfect Union, and was first shown in September 1998 at Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon. The Oregon Nikkei Experience was also shown as part of the Oregon Reads 150 Year Anniversary Program at Salem Public Library in Salem, Oregon in April 2009.

The Oregon Nikkei Story also features the poignant story of the Picture Brides, single Japanese women who traveled to Oregon who arrived to the state holding a picture of a man they were suppose to marry and had never met before.

The story of the first and second generation Japanese Americans endured blatant racism and sometimes violence directed at them. The Oregon legislature passed the Anti Alien Land Law that prevented the first generation from owning land. And there are stories of exclusion from Caucasian organizations due to their nationality.

The Oregon Nikkei Story features many stories of how many of these Issei overcame the social and economic hardships of the day to raise their families in the Pacific Northwest to become an integral part of their communities.

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