Peek in the Park — Issei Memorial and Exhibit Issei: A Legacy of Courage
The Visitor Center at Minidoka National Historic Site opens for the season today, May 23
By Micah Hetherington, Graduate Fellow, Beyond the Barbed Wire: Japanese American Stories of the Pacific Northwest
“My citizen child
Has a title to the land
And settles me down”
-Fujie
Over 4,400 names of Issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) greet visitors at the Minidoka National Historic Site Visitor Center. The Issei Memorial and Issei: A Legacy of Courage exhibit bear witness to the endurance of the Issei generation in charting a better life for themselves and their families.
Matt Hayashi, of Ketchum, Idaho, found his great grandfather’s name, Junnosuke Hayashi, on the Issei memorial this weekend during our volunteer clean up event.
Japanese immigration to America grew in the mid to late 1800s when expansions in lumber, mining, and railroad work required high quantities of laborers. Single men made up the majority of early immigrants, with wives and picture brides (wherein Japanese women were set up with Issei men via photograph exchanges) coming over once men made enough money to send for them. Issei communities grew in urban and rural cities alike along the West coast, establishing Nihonmachis (Japantowns), churches, grocery stores, and kejinkai (prefectural associations).
As Issei created space for themselves across the country, they endured the harsh reality of anti-Asian laws restricting them from citizenship and ownership of land. The U.S. restricted Asian immigrants from citizenship with the Nationality Act of 1790, which was further solidified by the Supreme Court decision in the 1922 Ozawa v. United States case that classified Japanese immigrants as ineligible for naturalization. State-based land laws began in California with the 1913 Alien Land Law, and similar laws spread along the West Coast through the 1940s. Lack of citizenship meant restricted jobs; though lawyers like Takuji Yamashita and Daichii Takeoka got their law degrees in the U.S., they were legally restricted from practicing. This left labor-intensive careers like farming and laundry services available to Issei.
Starting in the early 1900s, alien land laws restricted Issei from land ownership. Many navigated around these restrictions, putting businesses and properties in their Nisei children’s names. With renewed anti-Japanese sentiments during and immediately after World War II, states passed further restrictive land laws, such as the 1945 strengthened Oregon land law that outlawed putting a wife or child’s name on a contract. Thanks to Takeoka and the Committee for Oregon Alien Land Law Test Case, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the alien land law in Namba v. McCourt in 1949.
After World War II, Issei had to rebuild their lives with little to nothing. Many never spoke of the concentration camps, the pain and sense of betrayal too deep. In time, second-generation Nisei and third-generation Sansei built upon the work and community building that the Issei established. The exhibit Issei: A Legacy of Courage opened to the public during the 2019 Minidoka Pilgrimage as a testament to the contributions made by Issei for future generations.
To learn more about Daiichi Takeoka’s legacy, check out the article published this week by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The Visitor Center at Minidoka National Historic Site is located at 1428 Hunt Road in Jerome, Idaho – 20 miles northeast of Twin Falls – and admission is free. Summer operating hours are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 am to 5pm. For more information, call 208-825-4169 or check out the Minidoka National Historic Site Facebook page.