A Deeper Look: Hood River County

Hood River County

For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Isaiah 61:11

Hood River County is the beginning of what I have dubbed the Columbia River Region, comprising Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, and Morrow – all counties with the Columbia River as their northern border.

So – Hood River. One of the last counties created in Oregon, it came into being in 1908. Hood River is the County seat. The area has long been known for agriculture, the fertile Hood River Valley famous for fruit orchards and vegetable farms long before the county was formed.

A few years ago one of my brothers found a set of Troutdale (Multnomah County) high school yearbooks from the early 1930’s. Our father graduated from that area during that time, so he bought one. He was intrigued by the number of Japanese students listed, children of local farmers. While our family had lived in the area since the turn of the century, we didn’t recall anyone ever mentioning the Japanese community in eastern Multnomah and Hood River Counties.

Hood River County

 The Japanese began immigrating to Oregon in the 1880’s, and their story is in danger of being lost to history. What I know of the Japanese story in Oregon goes back to my time spent in Ontario in Malheur County – currently Malheur has the highest percentage of Japanese of any county in the state - where many Japanese settled after World War II, one of the few towns in Oregon to welcome the Japanese Americans recently released from internment camps.

It was there I was introduced to the terms Issei, Nisei, and Sansei, the terms for first, second, and third generation immigrants. Nikkei refers to all immigrants across all generations. 

In the 1870’s a Scot, Andrew McKinnon, was teaching in northern Japan and married Miyo Iwakoshi. In 1880 they, along with their adopted daughter, moved to the Gresham, Oregon area and established a sawmill. This became the community of Orient and Miyo was the first Japanese immigrant in Oregon. In 1885 Shinto Takaki moved to Portland, started a restaurant, married, and became the means by which Japanese laborers began coming to Oregon. For much the west’s early history, Chinese laborers worked on the railroads, but in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act limited immigration of Chinese. Conditions in Japan and the shortage of Chinese laborers drew young Japanese men to Oregon, beginning in Portland.

While some of the laborers were there to work and send money home, many of the young men, as one might expect, were lured by the drinking, gambling, and other vices available in early Portland. In 1893 the Reverend Sadakichi Kawabe established the Portland Japanese Methodist Church (now Epworth United Methodist Church) and, with the support of the leaders of the Japanese Portland community, set about to curb the vice.

By the turn of the century the young men had become more settled, sent for Japanese wives, and determined to build a life in Oregon. By 1910 3,418 men – Issei - had immigrated to Oregon to work in railroads, canneries, farms, and logging. About one-fourth had moved into east Multnomah and Hood River Counties as farmers. They worked hard and prospered, even on the marginal land they were allowed to buy or lease, and this began to make the mostly white settlers around them nervous. In 1919 the Anti-Asiatic Association formed in Hood River, the members pledging not to sell or lease land to the Japanese. In 1923 60% of the Japanese in Oregon were in agriculture and the Oregon legislature passed the Alien Land Law, which prohibited Issei from owning land. (But they could buy it in the name of their Nisei (American-born) children.) Most Japanese farmers continued to farm and raise their families, prospering in their adopted country.

Then came December 7, 1941, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed for the removal of all persons of Japanese descent from a strip two hundred miles wide along the west coast.  

In the spring of 1942, all the Japanese in Hood River County were sent to, first, Portland, then to Pinedale in northern California, and then to various internment camps in isolated areas of the intermountain west.  In all, 120,000 Japanese residents, many American citizens, were removed from their homes and businesses along the west coast and sent to internment camps.

When the war was over, some attempted to return to their homes and farms, including those from Hood River. The American Legion post in Hood River received national notoriety when they removed the names of sixteen Nisei servicemen from a public roll of honor and sponsored a full-page ad in the local newspapers which began, “Japs are not wanted in Hood River.” The ad warned that the safety of the Japanese could not be guaranteed if they chose to return to their homes.

In 1988, in an unprecedented move, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology to the Japanese for the internment during World War II. In addition, reparations were paid to 62,000 surviving internees of $20,000 each.

How do we pray for Hood River?

And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:33

Spiritually, it helps that there was a public apology by our country’s leader, and reparation made to those interned during World War II. Did Oregon or Hood River County also issue an apology?

Repent for our forefathers’ racism and prejudice during the early years, as well as the hostility during and after World War II toward the Japanese.

Hood River County has a Board of Commissioners. Currently the Board is Karin Joplin, Arthur Babitz, Bob Benton, and Les Perkins.

Pray for wisdom and leadership of the Commissioners and other leaders.

Pray for revival in Hood River County.