The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is proud to host a free public program on Saturday, April 15, where scholars and community leaders will discuss the history of the Yasui Brothers’ Store, the enduring legacy of the Yasui family, and the critical role they played in shaping Japanese American history in their home of Hood River, Oregon. While the history of the Yasui family has been explored in books and documentary films, this conversation between noted historian Dr. Linda Tamura and Yasui family members and activists Barbara Yasui and Maija Yasui will offer personal stories and insights on the history of this prominent Oregon family.
The program will take place at 2pm at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River and will be followed by a casual reception with light refreshments. Program attendees will also have the opportunity to view a display of objects and materials relating to the Yasui family preserved in OHS’s museum and research library collections.
In 2022, OHS was awarded a LSTA Competitive Grant to process and make publicly accessible the Yasui Business records, a large manuscript collection preserved in OHS’s research library. Dating primarily from 1905–1942, the collection consists of over 180 linear feet of business and personal materials, over half of which is written in a pre-WWII Japanese language script that is difficult to translate. Homer Yasui, the father of Barbara and uncle-in-law of Maija, donated these records to OHS in 1991, yet due to its size and the language barriers present in the library collection, it was never fully processed. The grant allowed OHS to collaborate with a team of experienced translators — Yoko Gulde, Naomi Diffely, and Mami Kikuchi — whose work interpreting the records was essential for OHS catalogers.
Thanks to this project, these records will soon be available for researchers by the summer of 2023. The translation and digitization of select documents will make highlights from this collection discoverable to anyone with internet access and will help researchers better understand its contents and place in the broader history of the Japanese American community of Oregon.
“While the scope and complexity of the project was daunting, we could not be more pleased to have this opportunity to give this rich collection the attention and respect it deserves,” said Deputy Library Director for Collections Dana Miller. “It holds so much potential research value for students, scholars, or anyone who wants to learn more about Japanese American history in Oregon, and the translations allow for even more discoveries to be made within the pre-WWII Japanese language materials. We are committed to providing access to these materials and nurturing community collaborations to help broadly share this critical piece of Oregon history.”
The library collection documents the experiences and contributions of businessman and noted community leader Masuo Yasui, Homer Yasui’s father, and his family of first- and second-generation Japanese immigrants who lived in Hood River, Oregon, during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Masuo Yasui operated the Yasui Brothers’ Store with his brother, Renichi Fujimoto, for more than thirty years before they were forced to close it permanently following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, which allowed the U.S. Army to forcibly remove all Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans from the West Coast and incarcerate them in camps. The Yasui Business records document the brothers’ business activities and extensive support of their local community and offer a glimpse of what was destroyed by Japanese incarceration during World War II.
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Oregon; this public program is presented in partnership with the Japanese American Museum of Oregon and the History Museum of Hood River County.
