Living History: Hutson Museum history project features WWII memories

The interviewer is Alo Mendoza Ramos. She is a senior in high school, pursuing a college education. Mendoza Ramos brings her experience as a child of immigrants to the topic of this interview, which is the story of a Sansei (third generation Japanese immigrant) and her family during World War II. “I am a truth seeker and I believe history tells truths,” said Mendoza Ramos. The interviewee, Patty Gilkerson, is a lifetime resident of the Hood River Valley and part of a farming family. She is a retired teacher and history buff.

— Katharine Goe, Hutson Museum

Alo Mendoza Ramos: How was the average life of a person of Japanese descent in Hood River prior to Executive Order 9066 [a presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans during the war]?

Patty Gilkerson: The Japanese that lived in Hood River worked hard to buy land and plant fruit trees, strawberries and asparagus. They were very aware that they needed to be quiet, law-abiding citizens. They attended church services in their homes. On Sundays, a Japanese-speaking minister would come from Portland to deliver sermons to the Japanese that were Methodists, and a Buddhist priest would come from Portland to preach to the Buddhists in Hood River members’ homes.

After the war, the Japanese Nisei decided that they should join the churches in Hood River. On Saturdays, a teacher would come from Portland to teach the Nisei children how to speak Japanese. The Japanese had a building that was located on the hill above the Safeway store on Cascade Street. The Japanese families met in this building for parties and picnics.

Japanese children went to school and were encouraged to excel, since education is very important to their culture. After graduating from high school, the Nisei were expected to further their education in trade schools and/or in college. The families were very poor so sometimes the children were kept home from school to help with the harvest in the fall. Education was very important, so the Nisei attended school regularly. The families shopped in the local stores and bought Japanese foods at the Yasui store in Hood River. A few times a year the families would travel to buy Japanese foods and ingredients in Portland. The Nisei children participated in the school activities and sports that the schools offered.

AMR: What was life like for Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? How was the life day-to-day of Japanese Americans affected by the hostilities which had come about after the bombing?

PG: The Japanese people were cleaning the Japanese Community Center in Hood River on the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Mr. Yasui told everyone to go home right away. They Japanese were afraid if the Caucasian people in Hood River knew they were together at the Community Center, then they might think that they were involved with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When my father’s family went to their home in Odell, my Aunt Alice burned everything that had Japanese writing on it: Family letters from Japan, souvenirs, etc.

My grandparents got rid of any blasting equipment that they had used to blow up fir trees to clear their land to plant fruit trees. They kept to themselves and were home before curfew at night. My grandparents were especially afraid since they were citizens of Japan. They knew they would not be welcome in Japan anymore and yet not all Americans were friendly to them. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, the FBI came to search every Japanese home and property. If dynamite was found, then the father of the family was taken into custody by the law enforcement officers. These men were sent to an internment in the Midwest. The Japanese families didn’t get together for church or parties during this time.

AMR: What happened to the properties of the Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps?

PG: My grandfather leased his two orchards and orchard equipment to two Caucasians orchardists in Hood River. Some of the Japanese families sold their orchards before leaving camp or while they were in camp.

AMR: What were the conditions like in the internment camps? How were the Nisei Japanese Americans recruited into the Army while in internment camps?

PG: The living conditions were very crude: Cabins with no insulation built quickly and cheaply. There was barbed wire fencing around the camp and there were U.S. soldiers guarding the camp with loaded rifles. The Issei encouraged their sons to volunteer for the armed forces to prove that they were good American citizens.

One of my uncles did not want to volunteer for the Army because the Japanese were ordered to go to camp, but he did because my grandfather insisted that he had to prove that the Japanese people are good American citizens! Mine did not want my father to volunteer since he was the oldest son and Japanese tradition is the oldest son takes care of his parents.

After the family was settled in camp, my father left camp to attend mechanics school in Chicago. Before he could enroll in the school, my grandfather asked my dad to come back to the camp and help my grandfather buy some property in Ontario, Ore. The U.S. government was allowing people to leave the internment camp if they had a job in the designated areas of the U.S. My grandfather had asked the two men who had leased his orchards for the lease payments that they owed my grandfather. With this money my dad and grandfather bought a farm in Ontario.

Since my grandfather was not a U.S. citizen, he could not own property in the United States of America, so the land was owned by my father. My grandparents, dad, my aunt and three other families moved to this property in Ontario. All these people lived and were working on this Ontario farm.

AMR: When were the Japanese Americans finally released from the internment camps? What were the long-lasting impacts on the Japanese Americans who had resided in Hood River and the Gorge as a whole?

PG: Three Japanese Nisei men came back to Hood River first to start farming their land. My Uncle Harry was discharged from the army and returned to Hood River, I think, in 1949 to work on my grandfather’s two orchards in Odell. My father and the rest of the family moved back to Odell in 1951.

The only stores that would sell items to the Japanese were Safeway, McIsaac’s and Moore Electric. Sometimes Japanese people would go to The Moore Electric Store and Mrs. Moore would tell the Japanese person to watch her store and she would go buy the items for them.

During the war, the American Legion would list the young Hood River men who were in the armed forces on a plaque. They removed the names of the Japanese Nisei soldiers. [In 2022], the Hood River American Legion had a program in Hood River and apologized that the Japanese American soldiers’ names were removed from the county plaque. That gesture was very appreciated by the Japanese Americans!

When George Akiyama came back to Hood River, he wore his army uniform to get a haircut. The barber refused to cut his hair! When my father went into a local hardware store to buy a hammer, he was told that they didn’t have any hammers. When he turned around to leave, he saw the sign over the door “No Japs allowed.”

Many of the Nisei did not teach their children to speak the Japanese language. I asked my mother why she didn’t teach me to speak her parents’ language so I could communicate with my grandparents. She said that she was teaching me to be a “good American citizen.” After the war, the Japanese Americans remembered the businesses that would allow them in their shops and treated them with respect. Now they continue to shop at these businesses.

AMR: How long was the process of having an apology issued by the government for the internment of Japanese people? Who was involved in having an apology acknowledged?

PG: The Japanese American Citizens League (a national club formed by the Japanese Americans after the war) and several senators and representatives from Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii were involved in getting reparation checks to the camp residents and an apology from the U.S. government. I think this happened during President Ford’s time in office.

AMR: What has the county of Hood River done to right the wrongs caused by the discriminations of Japanese Americans?

PG: The American Legion apologized to the Japanese American citizens [in 2022]. Hood River County has dedicated State Highway 35 to be dedicated in honor of the Nisei Soldiers of World War II. This was done in August 2023.

AMR: How has Hood River welcomed Japanese Americans today?

PG: Each year after World War II, the feeling in the community has become more welcoming since the Japanese Americans are involved in many aspects of Hood River County. Many Caucasians have personally apologized for the behavior and attitudes during World War II and the years right after the war.

AMR: Can there be any lessons taken from the events of 1942 and the aftermath of the Japanese Internment camps?

PG: Yes, we hope that a group of people will be treated with respect even though the country they have immigrated from has different views than we have in America. We need to appreciate all cultures and treat everyone with respect. Also, a group of people should not be imprisoned if they have not committed a crime.

I was very fortunate that my grandfather could speak, read and write English. He attended English night classes at the YMCA in Portland. I asked him questions about what his life was like in Japan and about the war. My dad and his siblings did not talk about the war and discrimination that they endured because it was a painful time.