A Question of Dignity: Oregon's Shameful Treatment of Japanese Americans

Portland Mercury:

EVERY DAY, thousands of Portlanders travel Naito Parkway as it hugs the bank of the Willamette River, carrying a steady stream of humanity through the heart of the city. It's a path that takes them past the cherry trees in Waterfront Park and within eyeshot of Chinatown, where freshly renovated buildings dominate the landscape. But while those who traverse this street might take the time to debate how to pronounce "Naito," it's unlikely they give much thought to the heritage of the man who lent his name to this thoroughfare—or question why the cherry trees were planted, or what other enterprises have occupied the nearby building at the corner of NW 3rd and Davis, where the fashionable Society Hotel now sits. As is too often the case in Portland, we have little memory of our city's past, and even less recollection of our failures as a community. There are few better examples of this than the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

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