The Yasui Family: An American Story Opens June 13 At The Oregon Historical Society -06/09/25

This original exhibition on one Oregon family examines questions of citizenship and belonging in America.

PRESS TOUR: Please join us for an exhibition tour with Barbara Yasui and Maija Yasui on Thursday, June 12, at 9am. Please RSVP to rachel.randles@ohs.org if you plan to attend.

PRESS KIT: Download press images at bit.ly/yasuipress.

Portland, OR — Opening Friday, June 13 at the Oregon Historical Society, the original exhibition The Yasui Family: An American Story examines relevant questions about citizenship, immigration, and belonging through the lens of one Oregon family.

“The history of the Yasui family is both unique and similar to the experiences of other immigrants to the United States, and it truly reflects the complexity of the American story. All of us at OHS are very grateful that the Yasui family has entrusted us with their compelling collection of family history, thereby allowing us to share an incredibly timely story of the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship,” said OHS Boyle Family Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk.

Members of the Yasui family were among the millions of immigrants who came to the United States seeking new opportunities during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The exhibition follows in particular the story of Masuo Yasui, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1903 at the age of 16. He joined his brothers and his father working for the Oregon Short Line, where he stayed for two years before moving to Portland. While many Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) saved money so they could create a better life if they returned to Japan, Masuo saw few prospects in returning and instead chose to pursue his own ambitions in America.

In 1908, Masuo moved to Hood River, a city which had an established community of Japanese immigrants who came to the valley to work in agriculture and logging. Along with his brother Renichi Fujimoto, Masuo opened the Yasui Bros. Co. store, which carried a mixture of Japanese and western goods — examples of which are on display in the exhibition inside an immersive storefront. While they were not the first store in Hood River to carry Japanese goods, they were the most successful.

Racism and oppression were common, yet Nikkei (Japanese immigrants and their descendants) like the Yasui family persisted in establishing roots in Oregon, starting families and businesses, and shaping the social and economic fabric of the communities where they lived.

However, life for people of Japanese descent drastically changed when the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, flaming existing anti-Japanese propaganda and inciting further violence and exclusion. 

The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. Treasury Department shut down the Yasui Bros. Co. store. Renichi was briefly allowed to reopen the store for a month-long liquidation sale before it was closed completely on April 18, 1942, after 34 years in operation; it never reopened.

Under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Army agents detained pre-selected “enemy aliens,” mainly Issei community leaders such as Masuo Yasui. Although not officially charged with a crime, Masuo was arrested five days after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Several weeks later, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the U.S. government to forcibly remove over 110,000 Nikkei — including U.S. citizens — from their homes and send them to concentration camps, often in remote areas. Life in the camps was physically, mentally, and emotionally harsh, and Nikkei remained there for the majority of World War II. After the war, many members of the Yasui family returned to Oregon, although some incarcerees chose not to return home due to persistent racism in their communities.

In the decades after incarceration, Japanese Americans fought for restoration of their civil rights, monetary compensation, and most importantly, an apology from the U.S. government. Thanks to the tireless work of activists, including members of the Yasui family like Masuo’s son, Minoru Yasui, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was passed. It included a formal apology and $20,000 in monetary compensation to every surviving U.S. citizen or legal resident of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during World War II — though by then, many former incarcerees had already died. For his attempts to challenge the constitutionality of wartime curfew, Minoru was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, the only Oregonian to receive the award.

Like many families, generations of the Yasui family have preserved their traditions, history, and ongoing legacy. It is through their photographs and personal correspondence, business records, and belongings — many now in the care of the Oregon Historical Society — as well as firsthand accounts that historians have insights into the lives of Japanese immigrants and their families in Oregon during the twentieth century.

“Most Americans have immigration as part of their family history, and I hope that visitors can see parallels from their own experiences and those of their families in the Yasui story. The Yasui family’s commitment to activism and bettering their community is not only a source of inspiration but is a call to action to fight for justice and equality,” said OHS Curator of Exhibitions Megan Lallier-Barron.

The Yasui Family: An American Story is on view at the Oregon Historical Society from June 13, 2025, through September 6, 2026.

The Oregon Historical Society’s museum is open daily in downtown Portland, from 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday. Admission is free every day for youth 17 and under, OHS members, and residents of Multnomah County.

---

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of objects, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and complex as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.

Nearly 230 Students Competed In The Oregon History Day Contest On April 19; 47 Students Qualify For National Contest (Photo) -05/19/25

Portland, OR — On April 19, nearly 230 middle and high school students gathered at Willamette University in Salem for the 2025 Oregon History Day competition. Students traveled from Ashland, Jacksonville, John Day, Portland, Beaverton, Creswell, Grants Pass, Mount Vernon, and other cities across the state to present their documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances, and websites inspired by the annual theme, Rights and Responsibilities in History.

After having their projects evaluated by volunteer judges, 47 students qualified for the National Contest, which will take place June 8–12 at the University of Maryland. These Oregon students will join 3,000 competitors from across the nation at this annual celebration of student scholarship.During this trip, Oregon students will have the opportunity to explore museums and historic sites around Washington, D.C., including a special tour of George Washington’s Mount Vernon hosted by Mary Lang Bishop. They will also meet with Oregon senator Jeff Merkley and take a tour of the U.S. Capitol building with Senator Ron Wyden’s staff.

Oregon History Day, the statewide affiliate of the National History Day® program, is a student-directed, project-based, interdisciplinary learning program. Creating projects inspired by an annual theme, young historians in grades 6–12 choose topics to explore, conduct historical research, practice critical thinking skills, and analyze primary and secondary sources while considering diverse viewpoints.

Five projects were also awarded special prizes at Oregon History Day for their outstanding research on overlooked histories across Oregon. Award-winning projects include:

Asian History in Oregon Award 
Unearthing the Forgotten: The Erasure and Remembrance of Block 14 (Senior Group Documentary)
Derica T. and Lucas Z., Lincoln High School and Catlin Gabel, Portland

Black History in Oregon Award 
Nature and Society Versus Vanport (Junior Group Exhibit)
Gabriella K. and Lyric L.G., ACCESS Academy, Portland

Indigenous History in Oregon Award 
The Chief and the Shaman: The Governance of the Kalapuya (Senior Individual Exhibit)
Keira B., Westview High School, Beaverton

Women’s History in Oregon Award 
The Struggle for Immigrant Rights: Failures and the Fight for Justice (Senior Group Website)
Aashritha A. and Yatee B., Westview High School, Beaverton

Maritime History Award 
The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972: The Right to Live Undisturbed and Our Responsibility to Protect Marine Mammals (Senior Individual Website)
Pranav R., Westview High School, Beaverton

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of objects, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and complex as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.

OHS Announces 2025 Palmer Award Winners, Highlighting Outstanding Articles Published In The Oregon Historical Quarterly (Photo) -05/13/25

Portland, OR — Each year, the Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS’s) scholarly journal, the Oregon Historical Quarterly (OHQ), presents the Joel Palmer Award to the author of the best article published in the journal during the previous year. Omar C. “Slug” Palmer and William J. Lang established this award in honor of their ancestor Joel Palmer, an Oregon pioneer and political leader during the mid-nineteenth century.

OHQ’s Editorial Advisory Board votes on the first-place prize, which carries with it $500, as well as recognizes two authors for honorable mention. The recipients were announced at OHS’s May 1 Annual Meeting of the Membership, and the articles as well as all previous Palmer Award–winning articles are available to read for free at ohs.org.

The Quarterly’s board recognized Marie Hashimoto’s Fall 2024 article, “To ‘begin again where I left off’: Narrating Japanese American Resettlement in Portland, Oregon, 1945–1946,” as the winning article for 2025. In the article, Hashimoto addresses the question of what life was like for Japanese Americans returning to Portland after the federal government released them from concentration camps where they were incarcerated during World War II.

While the years of Japanese American incarceration during World War II have attracted decades of scholarly attention, Hashimoto’s scholarship focuses on a largely unexamined period that offers opportunities for new and original interpretation of firsthand accounts of Japanese American resettlement. Using a mix of scholarly and archival sources, including oral histories held at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Hashimoto argues that Portland’s Nikkei (anyone of Japanese descent who makes their permanent home outside of Japan) faced a cautious, limited welcome from local leaders — whose statements made it clear that support for Nikkei remained contingent on a quiet return that would not demand redress for the injustice of incarceration nor draw attention to continued racism. Through this scholarship, personal oral histories of returnees complicate any simplistic images of the immediate postwar period, revealing that Japanese Americans continued to wrestle with community divides and the unresolved trauma of incarceration.

“OHQ is honored to publish this important scholarship, and we are especially grateful for the clarity that such 20/20 hindsight vision can provide on the lived experience of mass incarceration,” said OHQ Editor Eliza E. Canty-Jones. “Hashimoto’s research reveals important insights about ongoing legal questions about due process and the rights of U.S. citizens and residents.”

Two articles were recognized as honorable mentions: Kimberly Jensen’s Spring 2024 article, “Gendering White Supremacy: Edna Cummins’s Defamation Suit Against the Newberg, Oregon, Ku Kluk Klan in 1924,” and Christopher Foss’s “Federal Investments and Civil Rights Contradictions: The Mixed Legacy of Congresswoman Edith Green in Oregon’s Third Congressional District, 1955–1974.”

In “Gendering White Supremacy,” Jensen examines the case of Edna Cummins, a White, divorced, single mother and former Klanswoman who won a civil suit for defamation of character against members of Newberg, Oregon’s, Ku Klux Klan. Cummins had sought protection from the Klan during her divorce, charging her husband with domestic violence. When the Klan failed to protect her and threatened her with harm, she used the courts to regain her reputation and safety. Jensen argues that the case “illustrates the durability of gendered White supremacist ideas and actions beyond the Klan in Oregon and the nation.” During that time, Jensen notes, “White Protestant supremacy remained a powerful, systemic force in Oregon, a force with which we continue to contend today.”

Foss’s article examines the career of Edith Green, who served as U.S. Representative to Oregon’s Third District from 1955 to 1974. She was one of the foremost advocates for women and children in Oregon and the United States, helping to pass iconic legislation in the twentieth century, including Title IX. As her career progressed, Green turned against many of the policies designed to expand the federal government that she had once supported, and not all her constituents — especially Black people — benefited from her work. Foss’s exploration of Green’s legacy also offers a significant analysis of twentieth-century political shifts in Oregon and beyond.

OHQ thanks the authors for bringing their works to the journal and congratulates them on this recognition of their scholarship.

The journal of record for Oregon history, the Oregon Historical Quarterly publishes well-researched, well-written history about Oregon and the Pacific Northwest for both scholars and general readers. OHQ amplifies knowledge and perspectives that traditional scholarship has often silenced and sparks relevant conversations about history. It is one of the largest state historical society journals in the United States and is a recognized and respected source for the history of the Pacific Northwest. A subscription to OHQ is also a benefit of Oregon Historical Society membership, and single-issue copies can be purchased in the OHS Museum Store.

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of objects, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and complex as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.