Japantown

in the late nineteenth century to its downfall in the 1940s, Portland’s Japantown, or Nihonmachi, has served as a safe haven for many Japanese immigrants searching for opportunities in the Pacific Northwest (Katagiri). Because Oregon was a common place for the Japanese to enter the United States, many of the immigrants chose to stay in Portland (Sakamoto). Portland’s Japantown was characterized by flourishing business, schools, and a strong sense of community. Furthermore, although Japantown was originally predominantly male community similar to Portland’s Chinatown, the Japanese started families, which gave them an advantage over other minority groups and helped ease their assimilation into American society. A strong sense of community characterized Portland’s Japantown before World War II. Because multiple families lived in the same neighborhood, there were many…

When I was a mandatory soldier, I had been educated in a police school for four weeks. Compared to soldier academy, the life in the police school was so free and not tough. It was possible to use a public phone, and eat cup ramen. Furthermore, it the period, there was a big match of Korean soccer national team with an African team in Germen World Cup. The school decided to show the game to us, so we could enjoy the game. Fortunately, the Korean national team won the African team. It was so…

In Jamie Ford’s novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, he tells the story of the fallen devotion between Henry Lee, a Chinese adolescent, and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese adolescent, two lovers that are under extenuating circumstances that are preventing them from being together. Henry’s father is a Chinese nationalist, and because of World War II being fought in the story’s timeframe, he completely rejects any Japanese person, let alone a Japanese person with his only son. On the other…

the Chinese were still slow to start families (Wong, 169), and children were extremely rare (Wong, 166). In addition, although people knew about the restrictions placed on the Chinese (Wong, 25), Americans nonetheless saw the Chinese bachelor society as a “unique and unnatural social community” (Wong, 25), a defining characteristic that was put in place for white Americans to “sustain the social order” (Okihiro, 137). Although also vulnerable to the yellow peril, in contrast, the residents…

Safe Spot Again, I'm sitting in the same Chinese Restaurant for the third time this week, supposedly the first ranking Chinese restaurant in my city. The worn out Chinese red decorations hang unbalanced on the entrance door, as always. In freshmen year, a Chinese student invited me to a Chinese meeting spot, where we spoke in Mandarin. Our interests and complaints were all similar. I began to think that it was a safe corner for me. Preferring to be with people of a common culture and…

from Japanese Internment have taught Canadians that race does not matter and that the same opportunities should be applied to everyone regardless of where they come from. The Canadian government had let Japanese immigrants come to Canada however, the European citizens that were living there were not okay with it. The phrase “Asian invasion” became widely used in the media. Citizens in British Columbia were already unhappy with the Chinese immigrant’s population and saw Japanese immigrants an…

The day began with an informative three-hour bus tour around the city that highlighted places I had heard of, but never had the fortuity to see. These sights included Chinatown, Japantown, and the Castro District, and ended back down at Fisherman’s Wharf. There, we boarded on a boat on course to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is a small island located in San Francisco Bay, and was operated as a federal penitentiary from 1934 until 1963. The island was the only island prison in the country, and is now a…

Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security." Like Mackenzie King, the RCMP officers and the senior military believed that the Japanese Canadians were harmless. They knew who the true threats were, and their professional judgment was valuable. They were confident that the Japanese Canadians were no threat and if the Japanese Canadians wanted to sabotage Canada, the RCMP officers and military would have informed the people as it was their job to protect Canada. The…

spoke I felt in that room the physical presence of evil” (Marsh, 2012, p.2). It did not take long for anti-Japanese sentiment to turn British Columbians against Japanese Canadians (Frede, 2011, p.2). Many Canadian citizens already believed that the Japanese were at fault for the Great Depression and societal issues. Japanese men were also mistreated by their bosses, for example, they were given longer hours with shorter wages, and were assigned the jobs too degrading for white men to do. This…