A Forgotten Community

As the only Japanese-language newspaper in the state, Oshu Nippo, or The Oregon Daily News, was an essential news source for the Japanese immigrant community. More than that, Oshu Nippo helped strengthen the community itself by highlighting perspectives of real people living and working in Nihonmachi, preserving stories and voices rarely accounted for in history books. Located on the ground floor of the Merchant Hotel—a building considered the heart of Nihonmachi—Oshu Nippo first started out as Oregon Shimpo in 1904, a private newspaper operated by major labor contractor Shinzaburo Ban that allowed him to communicate with workers placed across the state. It became a daily paper for the general public in 1909, when it was taken over by Toyoji Abe and renamed Oshu Nippo. Six years later, a fresh graduate of a Tokyo journalism school named Iwao Oyama arrived in Portland and took the position of editor, where he stayed for the next 34 years.

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The average issue would include international news, editorials debating issues like alcohol prohibition, a photo series like one from the Mt. Hood Association Photo Club and community announcements. Oshu Nippo also included poetry and playful stories like a 1922 article titled “Peculiarities and eccentricities of Ladies and Gentlemen of Portland.” At its pre-war peak, 20-30 employees worked at the paper, but it was brought to an abrupt pause following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Oyama was arrested and the printing equipment was confiscated (and never returned). As soon as the war ended and Oyama was released from his internment at the Santa Fe Department of Justice camp, he got back to business. Using a hand-cranked mimeograph machine to print issues, he relaunched the paper as Oregon Nippo in 1946—now a bilingual newspaper thanks to the new English language editor, Kimi Tambara, who became an influential civil rights activist of her time.

As a child growing up in Nihonmachi, George Nakata remembers the flavors and aromas of Japanese cuisine at the Teikoku Company store—the smell of pickled takuan and otsukemono; “picking up shoyu and getting mochi there for New Year’s.” He also recalls what it meant to his parents’ generation, who came to the store to stock up on the latest gossip as well as groceries. First founded in 1905 by labor contractor Mosaburo Matsushima, in 1911, he joined forces with fellow business leaders in the Japanese American community, Chotaro Niguma and Gensaku Somekawa, to form what they called the Triangular Alliance. The mercantile expanded into a multipurpose stop for postal services, money transfers to Japan and finding work on the latest railroad openings. Located on the same block as the Merchant Hotel, The Teikoku Co. served as a portal to Japanese culture and a key part of the growing community.

For a young man leaving his family’s farm for better paying work across the Pacific in the early 1900s, places like the Merchant Hotel were the closest they could have to a home in their new city. With laws prohibiting them from owning or leasing land, small hotels and lodging houses offered a place for new arrivals to lay their heads as well as a community to join for support. The Merchant Hotel, in particular, was considered the heart of Japantown at its peak, during which time it was operated by Japanese and went by the name Teikoku Hotel. It was here that young Japanese men working railroads, timber mills and fish canneries could wash their clothes at the laundry located on the same block and stock up on familiar ingredients at the Teikoku Co. mercantile on the ground floor. Dr. Ben Tanaka had offices in the building, as did Oshu Nippo—the first newspaper in the state to publish columns in English and Japanese.

Imagine you just worked a full week of long, hard days on a railroad or a farm, laboring under the sun and rain outside. What’s the first thing you want to do? Take a hot shower and change into clean clothes. That’s why people came to places like the Matsubu Bath & Laundry, one of 18 laundry and bath businesses operating during Nihonmachi’s most bustling peak around 1940. However, the traditional Japanese bath, or ofuro, is about much more than just getting clean. There is a rich history of bath houses in Japanese culture stretching back to the 1600s. Visitors thoroughly wash, scrub and rinse prior to getting into the warm tubs for a relaxing soak, respecting the cleanliness and calm of the deep ofuro baths. This was a place for people to unwind and soothe tired muscles, and everyone followed strict etiquette to keep the tubs pleasant for fellow bathers.

If you lived in Portland from the 1910s-1941 and wanted the freshest, ripest fruits and hardiest vegetables, you headed up to Market Row on NE Columbia Boulevard. This is where the Japanese agricultural community set up a string of produce stands for the public, around the same time Italian immigrants were establishing Produce Row in inner Southeast Portland, selling fruits and vegetables to groceries and restaurants. Many Japanese immigrants had invested their earnings to become sharecroppers, leaseholders and eventually farm owners. By 1908, they were becoming a significant part of the city’s agricultural landscape. Despite backlash from existing farmers who were threatened by the competition and demanded laws forbidding Japanese to own land, the community persevered.

Much like the Nihonmachi neighborhood, the Mikado Hotel was constantly evolving to fit the needs of the growing Japanese American community. When Keijiro Akamatsu and his nephew, Sugao Inouye, first opened it in 1908, the Mikado Hotel had a restaurant and laundry. The hotel was located on the second floor of the Pallay Building, which was designed by Canadian architect, Alexander C. Ewart, and the restaurant operated in one of the ground floor retail spaces. Over time, the restaurant closed and the Mikado billiards and social club opened. There was also a bathhouse in the basement—reportedly the nicest bathhouse in the West. The short, 7 foot ceiling helped contain the steam for a relaxing soak after visitors had thoroughly washed. Many of them were young Japanese laborers, but athletes and employees of Nihonmachi; men and women all came to enjoy the soothing ritual of the traditional Japanese bath, or ofuro.

By 1910, Keijiro earned enough money to pay for his wife, Sumi Akamatsu and their 2 daughters, Sameko and Michiko, to move from Okayama to Portland. Eventually Sugao and Sameko had an arranged marriage. They had three children, including Kiyo, who remembers making the hotel beds and sweeping floors before school. The physician K.T. Yamada also operated in the building for several years, as did Wong’s Laundry. Sumi later accused Keijiro of mistreatment and filed for divorce—a rare occurrence in those times—and Keijiro was deported.

Masaichi Tsuboi traveled back and forth from Portland to his home in Okayama City, Japan for a few years before landing a job at the Hachiya Watch Store and bringing his wife, Yukino, back to Portland to settle down. Right after graduating high school and marrying, his younger brother Teruo and his wife, Suma, set out to join Masaichi in Portland in 1907. Tsuboi Bros. opened its doors on West Burnside Street in 1913, selling jewelry, watches and clocks, as well as offering watch repair. The store expanded to offer Western-style clothing like Stetson cowboy hats and ties to people arriving from Japan.

Over time, Teruo took over running the business. In a 1924 New Year’s issue of Nihonmachi newspaper Oshu Nippo, an article titled, “Short Comments on the People of Portland” included a description of him, referencing the business: “ Mr. Teruo Tsuboi is a well-rounded person like a full moon. He is accurate like the Waltham or Elgin clock which he sells at the store, and he is always smiling like Ebisu, the [Japanese] god of fishing and commerce.”

Keizaburo “Kei” Koyama arrived in the US in 1915 with the dream of becoming a dentist. Born in 1898, he left his small village near Niigata to seek out the education required to be a dentist that was unavailable to him in Japan at this time. He learned English while attending Seattle Pacific, where he fell in love and married Teru Koyama in 1927. They moved to Portland after that, and Koyama graduated from the dentistry program at Pacific College (now OHSU) in 1929. He worked hard to get his practice established and become a fixture in Nihonmachi, working long hours and dedicating extra time to the community as a member of Portland's Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Organizations like this and the Japanese Association of Oregon (est. 1911) supported the Japanese community in many ways, providing legal, financial and educational assistance and helping bridge the Japanese and American cultures.

At the start of the 1900s, there was a building near the base of the Steel Bridge called the New Meyer Hotel. If you asked anyone in Nihonmachi about it, though, it went by another name: the Yamaguchi Hotel. Records show the building was built at around 1903, and from 1921 to 1941, it was managed by Shigezo and Masae Yamaguchi. The hotel took up the upper two floors of the building and served as a longer-term rooming house. The Mt. Hood Soap Company operated on the same block, and Union Station was just four blocks away. After Shigeo died around 1939, Masaye—Mae, for short—became the manager of the hotel. But that’s only part of this building’s legacy. In addition to running the hotel, Masaye served as the midwife for the Japanese community, providing much-needed assistance to Japanese women who weren’t getting the care they needed from hospitals.

Benjamin Tanaka was born in 1887 in Hawaii with a hunger to learn. However, as a child of lower class laborers who worked on sugar cane and pineapple plantations, he wasn’t even allowed to learn how to read. So, he ran away at only twelve years old, making his way to Honolulu and then to Spokane, WA. A kind woman helped get him enrolled in public school, and, against all odds, Tanaka went on to attend Spokane College, University of North Dakota, University of Iowa, and, in 1920, he graduated from the University of Oregon Medical School. Dr. Tanaka opened his general practice on the second floor of the Merchant Hotel in 1922, becoming a vital resource as a bilingual doctor working in the building at the heart of Nihonmachi. He once translated a lesson on pregnant women's health and postnatal care into Japanese and published it in Oshu Nippo for all to read.

The youth of Nihonmachi attended two schools every day. After public school Monday through Friday, students would have time to grab a snack or check in at home before heading off to Katei Gakuen for Japanese language school. To break up the long day—and get students excited for another class—there were ping pong tables that everyone looked forward to during recess. Looking back, its former students are grateful for the sense of Japanese identity it gave them while growing up in America. All of the classrooms were located on the second floor of the Povey Building, a three-story brick building designed by architect Emil Schacht for the famed stained glass manufacturer, Povey Brothers Studio, that still stands today. Documents from 1930 show discussion of the start of a Japanese school in the building, but it’s likely a former version of Katei Gakugen had formed before that.

The Issei established Japanese language schools for students from K-12 grade to get lessons in speaking Japanese, reading and writing katakana and hiragana—plus kanji calligraphy on Saturdays. They were also taught about Japanese culture to maintain a deeper understanding of their heritage, from small children learning traditional Japanese folktales like Momotaro to older students understanding concepts like giri (“duty”) and gaman (perseverance; endurance).

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a 26-year-old lawyer named Minoru Yasui set up a law office in Nihonmachi’s Foster Hotel to help the Japanese community deal with new challenges. Born in Hood River in 1916, Yasui was the first licensed Japanese American lawyer in Oregon, and he would become the first to legally challenge the government’s actions against Japanese Americans.On March 24th, 1942, the military issued a proclamation that placed a curfew on German and Italian aliens and anyone of Japanese ancestry. Unwilling to accept this violation of citizens’ rights, Yasui tested it: he walked to the Portland Police station after curfew went into effect on March 28th. He was arrested that night and ended up spending nine months in solitary confinement in Multnomah County Jail awaiting his appeal, which was denied. He was then incarcerated at Minidoka until late spring of 1944.

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One of the most important lawyers in Oregon history dedicated his life to his practice, but because he was born in Japan, was never allowed to be a licensed attorney. Daiichi Takeoka came to Oregon from Japan in 1900 when he was 17 years old, working on railroads, at sawmills and as a hotel bellboy before attending the University of Oregon Law School. He graduated in 1912, but due to the United States’ naturalization laws at that time, he could not become a citizen and could not become a licensed attorney. In order to earn a living, he sold insurance, fertilizer and worked for the Swift Company. Takeoka still advised people in Oregon and Washington on legal matters and served as president of the Japanese Association of Oregon, an organization providing legal and financial services. He later opened up his own office in the Foster Hotel, which exists today as the Lyndon Musolf Manor apartment building.

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the removal of Japanese Americans from western Oregon and Washington, all of California and part of Arizona. The Pacific International Livestock Exposition—originally built in 1921, and then rebuilt in 1925 following a fire—was selected by the military as a temporary detention center for Japanese Americans from northwest Oregon and the Yakima Valley in Washington and renamed the Portland Assembly Center.

Local orders notified all people of Japanese ancestry—citizens and non-citizens—that they had just a few weeks to prepare. They had to store or sell belongings, pack no more than one could carry and register with the authorities to get their family number—a number in place of their name, written on a tag and to be worn at all times. For the next four months, 3,676 people were forced to live at the Portland Assembly Center under the supervision of armed guards, imprisoned by a tall fence around the property.

“One day we were free citizens…the next day we were inmates of crowded concentration camps, under armed guards, fed in mess hall lines, deprived of privacy and dignity, and shorn of our rights,” recalled Emi Somekawa, who was a young mother when imprisoned at the Assembly Center. They lived in hastily constructed, open air cubicles that smelled like cow manure; they had shared bathrooms.

Although Kern Park Floral wasn’t in Nihonmachi, Sukemon Itami and his wife, Shin, planted an important seed of Portland Japanese American legacy when they established their greenhouses along SE Holgate in 1915. The business started out wholesale, expanding to retail sales once they started growing carnations and chrysanthemums. The business halted in May 1942, when Sukemon, Shin, their five children, daughter-in-law and grandchild had to report to the Portland Assembly Center. They were sent to Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, where Shin passed away during incarceration. The family returned to Portland in 1945 to find their business vandalized beyond repair. Sukemon died soon after, leaving the restart of the business to his eldest son, Shigeo, and his wife, Fumi. Shigeo not only did that—he also served on the committee for the Oregon State Alien Land Law Test Case led by Daiichi Takeoka, which successfully overturned the laws forbidding Japanese-born immigrants from renting and owning land.

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Anti-Japanese sentiment was still strong, and the family ended up hiring a white salesperson in attempts to improve sales. Another obstacle hit the family in March 1957, when a fire broke out in one of the greenhouses. No one was harmed, but the building was destroyed. The business reopened in 1957, and in 2014, granddaughter, Holly, took over and renamed it Kern Park Flower Shoppe. As sentiments evolved over time, so did their flowers, expanding to include ti leaf graduation leis and marigolds for Dia de los Muertos celebrations. Shigeo passed away in 1989, and Fumi continued to run the business with the help of her son, Frank Itami, and his family. Even into her 90s, Fumi would come by the shop and cut a few ribbons for arrangements.

When Heiji and Saizo Ohta opened a tofu shop in Nihonmachi in 1911, they knew their traditional approach to transforming ground soybeans into tasty blocks of fresh-pressed tofu would be a hit. Just as Asahi Tofu was getting going, Heiji returned to their hometown of Okayama, Japan and left the business to Saizo and his wife, Shina. They moved the business to NW 5th and renamed it Ohta Tofu. Their loyal customer base soon grew from individuals to include groceries and restaurants across town. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Saizo and Shina were incarcerated at Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, and sadly Saizo died there. Shina returned to Portland when the camp closed in 1945, grateful to find that their landlord had saved their equipment and shop space for them. She reopened the shop on her own as the Soybean Cake Company, assisted by her daughter Matsuno, who had spent the war years getting her education in Japan.

In the mid 1950s, the family changed the spelling of their name from its Anglicized spelling to Ota. As tofu started to trend as a mainstream health food in the 1970s, its appeal expanded beyond Asian communities. Restaurants and co-ops catering to vegetarians started ordering from Ota Tofu. Business was good; Shina’s grandson, Koichi, was running things with his wife Eileen, and the two moved the shop across the river to 812 SE Stark St., where it still stands today.

Portland's Japanese population went from 20 in 1890 to 1,460 in 1910, and as the community grew, they needed a place to gather. In 1903, residents of Nihonmachi wrote to the Headquarters of the Buddhist Mission of North America to request a minister. Reverend Shozui Wakabayashi arrived in Portland later that year, who first spent time working with the Japanese loggers. The Portland Buddhist Church was officially founded on November 29, 1903, with Rev. Wakabayashi as leader and Sunday services in two rented rooms on 4th Ave.

Once membership outgrew that space, the church was able to purchase a site on 10th Avenue to build a three-story new home for the Portland Buddhist Church. Completed in 1910, the building still stands today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was renamed the Oregon Buddhist Church in 1940 to reflect the growing number of people from cities outside of Portland, and again in 1995 to Oregon Buddhist Temple.

More than just a place of worship, the Buddhist Church was a social and cultural hub for the entire Japanese and Japanese American community. It was where festivals and potlucks took place, and modern weddings that blended Japanese and American traditions.​

When WWII broke out, families were able to store some possessions at the Church before being forced to relocate. Rev. Tansai Terakawa continued services at Minidoka concentration camp until he died there.

As more Japanese moved to Oregon, social clubs were established to help people connect and develop a sense of community. These associations, called kenjin-kai, represented people from the same prefecture (“ken”) in Japan. It was in this building in Nihonmachi that one of the first kenjin-kai—the Nihonjin Kai—would meet. This organization first formed as the Japanese Deliberative Council of Oregon in 1907 and was renamed the Japanese Association of Oregon in 1911.

The Nihonjin Kai didn’t reflect a specific prefecture, but rather the whole Japanese American community. They operated a Japanese Free Employment Bureau, established Japanese language classes with the University of Oregon and the YMCA, and hosted visiting foreign dignitaries. Nihonjin Kai were also known for donating fresh produce to charities during the holidays and creating head-turning floats in the city’s Floral Parade.

At the Lewis & Clark Exhibition of 1905, Bunazaemon Nii and a partner wowed the crowd with a demonstration of Kito Ryu Jujutsu. In 1926, members of the Japanese American community approached Nii about forming a judo club to help the youth strengthen their mind, body and moral character, and the Portland Judo Club was born. Once a week, students would meet on the lower floor of the Foster Hotel—originally built in 1910—to practice. Other judo clubs from Salem, Hood River and Seattle would visit for tournaments, bringing together different Japanese communities from all over Oregon and Washington. In 1932, Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, visited the dojo (a Japanese term for the place of martial arts practice and the students as a whole). When he visited again in 1938, they asked if he would choose a Japanese name for the club. He chose the characters “O” to represent Oregon, “bu” which means martial arts or training, and “kan” which means training hall.

You may recognize the Naito name from Naito Parkway along the waterfront, but the impact of this family expands across Portland and beyond. Their story begins with Hide and Fukiye Naito, who emigrated in the 1910s from the small farming town of Tara, Japan. Hide started the Naito business in 1920 on SW Washington Street and 12th, outside of Nihonmachi. Instead of selling Japanese goods to Japanese, Hide sold imported Japanese goods to white people. Hide had a way of thinking outside of the box—after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he gathered his family and moved to Utah to stay with relatives and avoid incarceration. Sam, the eldest son, and his brother, Bill, both enlisted in the army anyway, hoping to demonstrate their patriotism as Americans. Afterwards, they attended college and each got their Master’s degrees. By 1953, both brothers were back in Portland and working together on the family import business.

In 1962, the family opened Import Plaza in the historic Globe Hotel, a popular store that sold goods from around the world. Over the next ten years, the Naito brothers began buying buildings in Portland’s Old Town, leading the city’s efforts at revitalizing its oldest neighborhood and earning awards and recognition along the way.

The brothers purchased and restored more than 20 historic buildings, transforming the seedy Skid Row into the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District in 1975. The same year they renovated an old department store into the Galleria—downtown Portland’s first mall—the family opened its first Made In Oregon store at Portland International Airport. Bill was an influential supporter of the MAX light rail and the Portland Streetcar, and, while he was finance chair of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, he fundraised to make the  Japanese American Historical Plaza  possible in 1990, memorializing the pain and beauty of the Japanese American experience for generations to come.