ILLUMINATION 2022-23: AANHPI History in the Willamette Valley

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have been part of Oregon's history for over two hundred years. These people came to the Willamette Valley for the same reasons as anyone else: to build farms and homes, to mine for gold, to work for the railroad and timber industries and other trades, and to create a future for their children.

Beginning in the 1840s, Oregon's early governments began to exclude AANHPI settlers from the place that they had helped build. New laws included (but weren't limited to):

the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act (which displaced non-white residents in favor of white settlers)
an addition to the Oregon Constitution in 1859 that forbid all Chinese Oregonians from owning mine claims and real estate
an 1862 poll tax that required a $5 yearly tax from all Black, Chinese, Hawaiian, and biracial people living in Oregon; an 1868 law which prohibited intermarriage between whites and and anyone who was Black, Chinese, Hawaiian, or Indigenous
the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892, which banned the entry of nearly all Chinese workers into the United States

These state laws, and other discriminatory practices, were put into place to discourage non-white settlement in Oregon by any means necessary. However, the stories included here, along with hundreds of others throughout the state, show that AANHPI Oregonians persevered despite these ongoing hardships, and the Willamette Valley would not be what it is today without them.

However, the stories included here, along with hundreds of others throughout the state, show that AANHPI Oregonians existed and persevered despite these ongoing hardships, and the Willamette Valley would not be what it is today without them.

The Springfield History Museum's collection of artifacts, photographs, and archives has very sparse representation of AANHPI stories. This is not by accident; museum collections are created by people, and they tend to highlight the artifacts and narratives that those people think are most important.

In spite of this, these stories can sometimes be found when we look hard enough, as in the case of this letter from a woman who grew up in Springfield in the 1890s and saw diverse people working with her father at the Southern Pacific Railroad. Through exhibits like Illumination, we hope to continue adding to these stories.

"My father had Greeks, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, mostly except no Hindus. There was young kids working as water boys, their older brothers or uncles had them come from the other lands as soon as they could help them with passage."

The business of trapping, buying, and selling animal furs brought a diverse range of people to the Pacific Northwest, including Pacific Islanders. Between 1800 and the 1890s, over a thousand Native Hawaiians came to the Pacific Northwest for this and other work. Trading posts like Fort Vancouver in Washington and Fort Astoria in Oregon relied on Native Hawaiians for success. Chinuk Wawa, a Pacific Northwest Indigenous trade language that became heavily prevalent on reservations, contains a variety of Native Hawaiian words. The Chinuk Wawa word for Hawaiians, Khanakha, comes from the Hawaiian word kanaka, which means "person".

Native Hawaiians were also depended upon by early white missionaries, including Jason Lee and Marcus Whitman: the missionaries' belief in racial ranking meant that they viewed Christian Native Hawaiians as ideal models of Indigenous conversion to Oregon's Native population.

While the United States eventually annexed Hawaii in 1898, Oregon began taking steps to remove Native Hawaiians from its borders as early as the 1840s. Called "a race...that we do not desire to settle in Oregon" by Oregon Territorial Delegate Samuel R. Thurston, Hawaiians were soon prohibited from owning property, voting, purchasing liquor, and testifying against white Oregonians in court. Many Native Hawaiians eventually moved to Oregon's reservations, where they faced less discrimination.

Above: Naukane, also known as John Coxe and "Old Cox" was a Pacific Islander living in Fort Vancouver in the 1840s.

Below: the Chinuk Wawa alphabet.

The Japanese Colony at Shotgun Creek

The town of Mabel, located 17 miles northeast of Springfield, is an example of the diversity brought to Oregon by the early lumber and railroad industries. Between 1911 and 1926, the Coast Range Lumber Company employed over 150 people in Mabel; by 1920, this included almost 30 Japanese men, women, and children. Many of these individuals belonged to the Mabel Church of the Brethren, and the cemetery there includes the graves of two Japanese men who probably lived in the colony.

The Japanese colony at Mabel was known to the citizens of Springfield and Eugene. A January 29, 1925 article from the Eugene Morning Register tells of three Japanese men who were arrested for making sake, a Japanese wine, during prohibition when alcohol was illegal. The article ends on an upbeat note. It says that one of the men arrested could not come with the sheriff today, as his wife had just had a baby. A Japanese student from the University of Oregon was be called to help translate their legal case.

In 1926, the Coast Range Lumber Company went bankrupt, and the fate of the Japanese colony at Shotgun Creek is unknown. In 1923, the Oregon Alien Land Law made it illegal for Chinese and Japanese Oregonians to own or lease property; the members of the Shotgun Creek colony possibly went to other parts of Oregon to work in mining and logging, or joined the 1/3 of Japanese Oregonians who left the state.

Kiichi Ito was a laborer with the Coast Range Lumber Company in Mabel, and died on September 5, 1924, and was given a death notice in the September 6, 1924 Eugene Morning Register. Interestingly, his death certificate at right lists his "color or race" as white. It is unknown where his wife and three children went to after his death.

Local historian Jay Swofford found the death certificate at left for 9-month old Koichi Minotoya, who was born in Portland on March 26, 1921 and died of diphtheria in Mabel on January 15, 1922.

It's unknown if Koichi and his family were visiting Mabel, or if his father was working for the Coast Range Lumber Company and they had recently moved to Mabel, but the family was not listed in the 1920 census for Mabel. Koichi's father is listed as the undertaker, which means he most likely performed the Japanese traditional cremation ritual himself. It is rumored that Koichi's remains were buried outside of the Mabel cemetery.

In 2022, Aimee Yogi and Kristi Sakai Steiner, co-Presidents of the Japanese American Association of Lane County, worked with Kimiko Marr to trace Koichi's story. They found that his name is actually spelled Koichi Minatoya, and one of his descendants is well-known Japanese-American writer Lydia Minatoya.

Tsunezro Yoshihara, Ichizaro Maeda, and the Hayden Family

In the late 1800s, the Hayden family lived in Mohawk, seven miles north of Springfield and a few miles south of Mabel. The Haydens were farmers and did not have much money. They highly valued education, and had a good home library. Their interest in learning may have been one reason why they made friends with the Japanese immigrants in the Mohawk Valley.

In 1900, the Southern Pacific Railroad built a line through the Mohawk Valley, and employed workers from Italy, Japan, Greece, China, and a variety of other countries. Along with the Japanese lumber colony at Shotgun Creek, workers lived around Marcola and Mohawk as well.

These two photographs show Tsunezro Yoshihara and Ichizaro Maeda, two of the workers living in Mohawk during this time. Maeda actually lived with the Hayden family and kept a garden on their farm, and kept in touch with the family for many years after leaving Mohawk. The photographs, with the men's addresses in Japan written on the back, were given to the Hayden family by Maeda and Yoshihara.

Marcola's Ping Yang School

The name "Ping Yang" was used for the Mohawk area as early as 1895, and a small school was built in the area and named Ping Yang school in 1896. The name Ping Yang was used for the area until about 1900, when it was renamed Donna and later called Mohawk, the name given to its post office in 1862.

While this name Ping Yang's origins are not definitively known, in 1894 most Oregon newspapers were full of news of the Japanese victory over Chinese forces in Pyongyang, Korea. Pyongyang was usually spelled "Ping Yang" in American newspapers. The Japanese success in this battle was viewed very positively by Americans during this period, due to high anti-Chinese sentiment (the federal Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the entry of nearly all Chinese workers into the United States, had been passed in 1892). It is likely that the area was named in honor of this victory.

The Ping Yang school retained its name long after the area was again called Mohawk. Beginning around 1900, Japanese railroad workers came to the area to live while building and maintaining the Southern Pacific Railroad line there, and it is possible that these workers were taught English and given religious lessons in the school, which was also used as a church by the local Methodists.

The Ping Yang School Bombings

Between the opening of the Ping Yang school in 1895 and July 1901, the school building was attacked by unknown arsonists three times. The final attack completely destroyed the building.

Various reasons have been put forth for these three bombings in six years. The Mohawk Valley was growing rapidly, with nearby mills employing over a thousand people from all around the world where just a few scattered hundred lived before. Local resident Joe Huddleston, who had arrived in the area as a child in the 1840s, voted against the building of the Ping Yang school and later campaigned against the repair and rebuilding of the school by stoking anti-Chinese and anti-immigrant fears in the area. Huddleston referred to himself and others who opposed the school as "Boxers", in reference to the anti-foreigner Boxer Rebellion in China.

No arrests were ever made in any of the attacks on the Ping Yang school. Today, the Mohawk General Store, built in 1914, faces the direction of the Ping Yang School location. It's a good place to visit, see history and enjoy locally sourced food.

South Asians in Willamette Valley Lumber Mills

Beginning in the early 1900s, hundreds of South Asians from Pakistan, Punjab, and other regions of India began coming to the Pacific Northwest to work in a variety of industries. Almost immediately they began to face significant violence from white workers; the 1910 St. John's riot north of Portland ended with the majority of the area's East Indian residents being attacked and removed from the town. Like Oregon's Black, Indigenous, Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese citizens, they were also targeted by laws that meant they could not become full citizens, own land, or vote.

Despite this, many South Asians worked as millworkers and loggers in the Willamette Valley during this period. There is evidence of a Sikh or Hindu (South Asians were usually referred to simply as "Hindus" in Oregon newspapers) settlement at Mabel, and a number of South Asian men worked for the Coast Range Lumber Company in Marcola. The men in the photos at left worked for the Calapooia Lumber Company in Crawfordsville, 12 miles north of Marcola.

An article from the April 2, 1909 Brownsville Times mentioned one of the workers at this mill, Sunda Singh (whose surname means that he was Sikh, not Hindu), having been injured on the job and transported to the hospital in Brownsville, where he was operated on and was "resting nicely and has a good chance of recovering".

Filipino Workers in Willamette Valley Hopyards

When the Philippines became an American colony after the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), Filipinos were classified as U.S. nationals, allowing them to migrate to the United States in large numbers at a time when other Asians were excluded by discriminatory immigration laws. However, this did not mean that they faced no issues in Oregon. Like Oregon's Black, Chinese, Indian, Indigenous, and Japanese citizens, they were also targeted by laws that meant they could not become full citizens, own land, or vote.

During the early 1900s and into the 1930s, many Filipinos found work in the hop growing industry in the Willamette Valley. They soon became the focus of resentment among white workers, particularly during the Great Depression in the 1920s and 1930s. While the number of Filipino workers in Springfield and Eugene hopyards is unknown, enough Filipinos lived in the area that nineteen Filipino college and high school students formed a Filipino Association in 1921.

University of Oregon and Japanese Internment

Written by Aimee Yogi, president of the Japanese American Association of Lane County

On December 7, 1941, the U.S. Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces. In a reactionmarked by hysteria and racism, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, on February 19, 1942, designating a Western Defense Zone and declared Martial Law, which gave the military the authority to remove anyone they deemed a danger to national security. "All persons of Japanese ancestry" had to register at Civil Control Stations in their home counties. By June, 1942, they were to be forcibly removed, taking only what they could carry, and incarcerated in concentration camps.

There were three Lane County residents: Chiye Arai, Woodrow Ichihashi and Hitoshi Kin Watanabe, all University of Oregon students. In fact, there were 20 other Japanese American students who were from other counties. They were: Harry Yoshiro Fukuda, Midori Funatake, Mary Furusho, Frank Hachiya, Ted Hachiya, Kenji Inahara, Harold Ito, Makoto Iwashita, Grace Ikuko Kumazawa, Alice Kawasaki, Takuo Kawauchi, Samuel Teruhide Naito, Kenzo Nakagawa, Ellen Ogawa, Tadashi Osaki, Lawrence Takei, George Uchiyama, Michi Yasui, and Robert Shu Yasui. The university was the center of the Japanese American community.

University of Oregon and Japanese Internment

Written by Aimee Yogi, president of the Japanese American Association of Lane County

The university adminstration took action at the beginning of March. Karl Onthank, Dean of Personnel Administration, lead the effort to support the students. He corresponded with his colleagues in universities with larger Japanese American populations, asking what they

could do to help these students whose education was being disrupted unjustly, suggesting transfers to colleges inland and creating a network to escort the students to their next colleges and universities.

In March, the National YMCA/YWCA organizations, the major West Coast Universities and the American Friends Service Committee formed the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council. The colleges requested admission of inland colleges for their students who were incarcerated. Students were asked to register and were guaranteed admission and transport to the new college or university, whether they were in an assembly center or concentration camp.

Most of the students registered in the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council. Then, they returned home to help their families prepare for imprisonment.

On May 28, 1942, there were no Japanese Americans in Lane County.

Above: the Roseburg News-Review, May 23, 1942 shows that by this time, there were no Japanese Americans living in Lane County any longer.

Minoru Yasui, who graduated from the U of O law school in 1939 and was the older brother of Michi Yasui and Robert Shu Yasui, was an attorney in Portland when the government placed a curfew all Japanese citizens. Yasui, hoping to challenge the Constitutionality of the executive order, spent three hours walking around downtown Portland in defiance of the curfew on the night of March 28, 1942. After three hours walking around downtown Portland, Yasui was arrested and convicted for breaking the curfew — a conviction that would be upheld by the United States Supreme Court in a landmark June 1943 ruling.

Sites shown on map:

Kelley Hospital, where Sunda Singh was taken after injury
Location of the Calapooia Lumber Company and home to South Asian railroad workers
Site of the Japanese colony at Shotgun Creek
Coast Range Lumber Company, which employed Japanese workers
Hayden family Farm, temporary home of Ichizaro Maeda
The Ping Yang school
U of O campus, where Japanese Americans were transferred away from Oregon to escape Internment
Site of 1921 Filipino Association
Hopyards in north Springfield could have employed Filipino workers

Other sites not shown on this map:

Fort Vancouver (near present Vancouver Washington) and Fort Astoria (near present Astoria Oregon) where Native Hawaiians found work in fur trade
Whitman Mission (near present Walla Walla Washington) and Lee Mission (near present Salem Oregon) where Native Hawaiians lived and worked

Source Material

This presentation would not have been possible without hundreds of hours of diligent research by many people, which was collected into this slide show.

Steve Williamson's invaluable research on the Mohawk Valley is the guiding material for this presentation. Steve is the Chair of the Oregon Asian Celebration’s Heritage Committee, and the founder of the Opal Whiteley Memorial in Cottage Grove. Follow the QR codes below to read his original articles on Asian history in the Mohawk Valley.

Steve Williamson www.storiesbysteve.com

Source Material

Several articles from the Oregon Encyclopedia and the Oregon History Project, both statewide digital resources of the Oregon Historical Society. Follow the QR codes below to read the articles.

"East Indians of Oregon and the Ghadar Party", Written by Johanna Ogden, © Oregon Historical Society, last updated September 2, 2022.

"Hawaiians in the Oregon Country", Written by Jean Barman and Bruce McIntyre Watson, © Oregon Historical Society, last updated August 8, 2022