‘F.B.I. Taken’ highlights America’s troubled past

Japanese American community leader Sadiji Shiogi is lead away by FBI the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo courtesy of Lacy Sato, The Oregonian and the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center

By Leah Ingram, Contributing Writer

The Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center is home to the remnants and artifacts of Japanese Americans who lived through the legal arrests and internment camps following the ratification of Executive Order 9066 in February of 1942. The halls of their museum on SW 2nd Avenue shows photographs, maps and life size replicas of the living arrangements at the internment camps, as well as a portion dedicated to the lesser known FBI arrests of Japanese community leaders mere hours after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Neil Simon partnered with the “FBI: Taken” exhibit in the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center to shed light on these obscure arrests and the following years of internment in the “special” camp in Santa Fe through his new documentary “Prisoners and Patriots: The Untold Story of Japanese American Internment in Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

Memorial rededicated as part of Nikkei celebration

Photo courtesy of Murase Associates

Street Roots vendor joins memorial with poetry

The Japanese American Historial Plaza, with its solemn pillars and rolling landscape, is an award-winning monument to our past, a place of respite and remembrance, and a place to both acknowledge and educate.

As part of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment 20th anniversary this year, ONE is hosting a rededication of the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Tom McCall Waterfront Park this Friday. The Plaza was originally dedicated in August 1990 to remember the hardships of Japanese immigrants during World War II and honor the bravery of the Japanese community. The poetry of Lawson Inada, among others — including Street Roots vendor Leo Rhodes — will be read as part of the ceremony.

Beginning at 5 p.m. at the Plaza, the celebration will include special guests Justice Michael Gillette of the Oregon Supreme Court; Lawson Inada, Oregon Poet Laureate 2006-2010; the Minidoka Swing Band; Portland Taiko, and many others.

A special collaborative project between Portland poet and writer Kaia Sand, Sisters of the Road, Street Roots, Transition Projects, Inc. and Oregon Nikkei Endowment will be part of this event.

The celebration then continues at the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain, just steps away from the Plaza, with a musical performance by The Slants. Crafts, food and beer will be on hand celebrate this award-winning landmark.

Tickets can be purchased at www.oregonnikkei.org.

Posted by Joanne Zuhl