Coming Home speaker series:

When Heroes Weren't Welcome Home
Lecture by Linda Tamura, followed by a question and answer session and book signing

Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Free, open to the public

When a group of World War II war heroes returned to their hometown, storeowners refused to serve them. Community leaders had removed their names from a local war memorial and proposed a Constitutional amendment to deny them of their citizenship. The racist hometown homecoming of these Japanese American veterans gained national notoriety. Linda Tamura's talk, based on her book Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence, highlights events of the past and present. Tamura is a professor of education at Willamette University and is the author of The Hood River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon's Hood River Valley. This program will be held at PSU, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 238.

Coming Home: Voices of Return and Resettlement, 1945-1965 is an exhibit that traces the reestablishment of the Japanese American community in Oregon after World War II and examines the injustices of war-time relocation. The Coming Home exhibition has been woven from personal stories of return and resettlement by Nikkei — men, women, and children of Japanese descent — forced from their Oregon farms and homes and incarcerated as "enemies" during World War II. Most were American citizens. Many had lost everything. Determination and memories of place, family and community guided them home. Visit www.oregonnikkei.org to learn more about Coming Home.

This exhibition and programming are made possible in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department; Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH's grant program; Portland State University, Center for Japanese Studies; University of Oregon; Samuel Naito; and Friends of Oregon Nikkei Endowment.

Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center
121 NW 2nd Avenue
Portland, OR  97209
503-224-1458
www.oregonnikkei.org