The Yasui Family & The American Dream High Desert ESD Welcome Teachers! Kevin D. Hatfield, PhD

1. The Yasui Family & The American Dream High Desert ESD Welcome Teachers! Kevin D. Hatfield, PhD Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of History Assistant Director for Academic Initiatives, Residence Life 541-346-1977 kevhat@uoregon.edu

2. Thematic Analysis of American History • American Dreams. This theme refers to the desire and effort of individuals and groups to improve their personal, political, and economic standing within American society. • Growth of Democracy. This theme encompasses the struggle of individuals and groups to define, exercise, and ensure civil rights and political freedom for all members of American society. • Expansion of Borders and Influence. This theme addresses the role of geographic, political, and economic expansion in American history, from early colonization to modern globalization. • Cultural Contact and Conflict. This theme refers to the dynamic interactions of people from diverse cultures and how these interactions have shaped American society. • Industrial and Technological Change. This theme refers to the liberating and limiting effects of innovations and inventions and their impact on our nation’s social, economic, and environmental condition.

3. Historical Thinking & Expository Writing • Themes Function as Interpretive Lenses or Analytical Frameworks for Historical Inquiry • Themes Dovetail, Overlap, Reinforce, Compare, and Contrast • Nothing “Magical”, “Exclusive” or “Inevitable” about the number of themes (5) or the scope of these five themes. • Themes NOT content or chronology specific. The themes are designed to contextualize all topics, events, actors, ideas, and time periods. • Themes applicable to all learning levels—not just High School A.P. U.S. History.

4. THEMES & HISTORICAL CONCEPTS Causation: Explains Cause-and-Effect Relationships Explains Change and/or Continuity Over Time Agency: Explains the Power/Influence of Human and Non-Human Forces *What Was the “Agency” of a Particular Individual or Historical Actor? i.e.: What influence did Nat Turner have on Slave Resistance? *What Was the “Agency” of broader, external, non-human forces? i.e. How did the growth of market capitalism affect slavery and civil rights?

5. Themes, Primary Sources & Pedagogy • Shift from a nearly singular instructional focus on content knowledge/mastery and the memorization and recitation of arbitrary body of factual information, to intended learning outcomes that foster inquiry-based learning and higher order cognitive reasoning: 1) critical thinking 2) problem solving 3) expository writing 4) interpretive analysis 5) Intellectual habits & Academic Skills

6. Freshman Seminar

7. Freshman Seminar: History 199:Uncovering the Past of the “Real” Wild West • An Apprenticeship in the Historian’s Craft • Re-introduce students to the historical process • Students as Historians: Doers not Spectators; reorient students from: “Passive Receivers” of factual data to “Active Authors” of explanatory narratives • Perform “hands-on” historical inquiry through the thematic analysis of primary sources, archival field research & CRITICAL THINKING • Comprehension through discussion, practice, and peer teaching in addition to lecture, reading and memorization. • Introduce students to disciplinary expertise, methodology, historiography, and essential questions of the field of history.

8. Scaffolding Thematic Primary Source Analysis Before performing original research in the archives, student groups analyze three carefully selected and sequenced sets of primary sources with progressive complexity. Move from clear authorial intent (diary, journal, memoir) with structured/coherent narrative to increasingly more fragmented, incomplete, and internally contradictory evidence (Klamath Allotment Case File or Chinese Exclusion Act Case File). Divergence of interpretations between student groups examining the same sources clarifies concept of historiography and dispels notion of fixed or meta-narratives conveyed by reading textbooks! Raises interpretive questions of bias, perspective, provenance, authenticity, inference, completeness.

9. American Dreams: The Big Ideas • The Land of Milk & Honey: The Dream of an American Paradise. • Rags to Riches: The Dream of Individual Success Through Work Rather Than Privilege. • A City Upon a Hill: The Dream of an Ideal Commonwealth and Social Contract. • The Yeoman Republic: The Dream of a Modern Republic founded Upon Land-Owning Citizen Farmers. • The Melting Pot: The Dream of a Homogenous and Classless Nation of Immigrants. • First American Dreams: The Dreams of Non-Immigrant Indigenous Cultures. • The Frontier Thesis: The Dream of Opportunity for Improvement Over One’s Place of Origin

10. Excerpt from Student Research Project: Freshman Seminar 2007 • Students’ Questions • How did the evacuation order and relocation affect Michi and Shu? •  2)  How many Japanese American students were enrolled at the UO at that time? •  3)  How were they treated by fellow students after Pearl Harbor? How were they treated by faculty and administrators? •  4)  Were they allowed to continue school? •  5)  Were they allowed to return after WWII? •  6) If they left, were did they go? Yasui Family 1923: (back, from left) Min, Kay, Chop; (seated, from left) Michi, Roku, Shu (on Shidzuyo’s lap). Stubborn Twig

11. 3 May 1942: Civilian Exclusion Order No. 346 Issued by General John Dewitt

12. Families like the Yasuis were allowed to take “only what they could carry” by hand. Baggage belonging to evacuees from the assembly center at Puyallup, Washington, is sorted and trucked to owners in their barrack apartments at Minidoka Internment Camp in Eden, Idaho.

13. Yasui Family Interned at Pinedale Assembly Center (Fresno, CA)

14. The Yasui Family assumed they would be relocated to the Portland Assembly Center at the International Exposition Stockyards. Women work in the laundry room at the Portland Assembly Center. (National Archives image)

15. Yasui Brothers Store, Hood River, Oregon. Circa 1910. Reproduction of the Yausui Brothers Store at the Oregon Historical Society Museum. Masuo Yasui and his brothers opened the store in Hood River in 1908 and faced its forced closure after Pearl Harbor and subsequent liquidation.

16. “So far this war has been fought in America, at least, with a minimum of the witch-hunting and hate-hysteria which typified the “hang the Kaiser” sentiments of 1917. But in Eugene, the other day, there was unwelcome evidence that something of this nature is coming to the fore. In letters to President Roosevelt and to General John L. Dewitt [Western Defense Command], members of the Military Mothers’ Service Club cited the residence of a few Japanese students on the University of Oregon campus as ‘serious threats’ to the safety of this area and asked that they be removed. Each of these Japanese students—all of them with high scholastic records—is . . . obeying regular curfew laws and is under close supervision at all times by University officials. Students on this campus feel no rancor toward their Japanese classmates. They know each of them well, and until these students indicate in some manner tendencies other than pro-America, they feel no sense of being ‘threatened’” — Helen Angell, editor

17. Uncovering the Past of Student Life at the University of Oregon “Just Practicing. . . In case evacuation orders are true, Americans of Japanese ancestry, Kenzo Nakagawa, left, Shu Yasui, right.” Shu Yasui (right), an honor-roll Freshman majoring in pre-medicine and living in the men’s residence hall assists his classmate with the mock move. Freshman Kenzo Nakagawa (left) wearing a UO baseball cap and Oregon T-Shirt, loads a suitcase into his car on the UO Campus.

18. “Japanese-Americans Forced to Leave Campus Soon” (ODE 12 May 1942) War affects everyone—but students of Japanese ancestry are individuals whose whole scheme of life will be affected by war conditions. It will be necessary for all students of Japanese ancestry to leave the University of Oregon for other schools out of the restricted zones or for camps provided by the government. Whenever family finances make it possible these students plan to try to gather the shattered remnants of their college careers together and carry on their education under the difficult situations of other schools. Shu Yasui plans to attend the University of Denver for summer sessions. In the fall he may attend the University of Colorado. His mother, 2 brothers and a sister have been living in their home town of Hood River. They are to be evacuated today. Yasui has a brother Roku, who is a junior in engineering at the University of Michigan. His sister, Michi, is a senior in English at the University of Oregon. Yasui was a brilliant student in high school and has made honor roll grades in pre-medics at the University.

19. UO Administrators sought unsuccessfully to secure Senior Michi Yasui an exemption from the 8:00pm curfew regulation for Japanese Americans to allow her to attend her graduation commencement at McArthur Court on 31 May 1942. “Speech interests have filled much of the activity time of Michi Yasui, prominent member of Hendricks Hall. She is a member of Sigma Delta Rho, speech honorary and the women's symposium team. Phi Theta Upsilon also claims her as a member.” — Oregana

20. “Would it be possible for her to attend the Commencement Exercises under the custody of the Dean of Women? It would seem that this is one of the unforeseen contingencies of a general ruling on curfew. The difference between being in the girls’ dormitory on the campus after 8 P.M. and being at the Commencement three blocks away would seem very trivial, and the spirit and letter of the law could be upheld by the custody of the Dean.” — Letter from Earl Pallett, UO Executive Secretary to John H. Daly, Special Attorney, Department of Justice, Portland, OR.

21. Letter from Wallace Howland, Deputy Chief, Civil Staff, Wartime Civil Control Administration Denying Pallett’s and Onthank’s Petition on Behalf of Michi Yasui. (6 May 1942)

22. UO Policy Regarding “Evacuation” of Japanese American Students 1.) All Japanese girls are to report to the Dean of Women’s Office and secure a withdrawal card. All Japanese boys are to report to the Dean of Men’s Office and secure a withdrawal card. 2.) Both groups are to take the withdrawal cards to their respective instructors and secure grades for the courses in which they are registered at the present time. 3.) All students are to take these withdrawal cards to the Information Window in the Registrar’s Office and indicate which option they prefer: – (a) refund of fees for the term but no credit for the term, or – (b) not fees refund, but full credit for the term in those courses in which they have a grade of a “C” or better, and a withdrawal in other courses. 4.) After indicating the option they prefer, they will immediately fill out the balance of the forms and secure refund or fees, if any.

23. Shu Chose the Option of Receiving Credit for his Courses, Rather than a Tuition Refund Oral Historian Kessler recounted: “Shu went door-to-door asking all his professors to assign his final grades early because he might have to leave before the term was over. The first four teachers gave him A’s. Then, with much trepidation, he entered the office of the ROTC instructor who had given him such a rough time. He explained his situation and handed him the report card. The instructor looked at the four A’s and then peered intently at Shu through narrowed eyes. After a long moment he scribbled something on the card, handed it to Shu and said, “Dammit, go on!” When he got out of the office, Shu looked at the card. It was another A.”

24. “It was actually a fluke. I could have been stopped because of the five-mile travel restriction. But if I’d sat around waiting for anything, I probably would have been sent to one of the evacuation camps. A lot of things would have been different.” – Michi Yasui Ando Michi made a clandestine departure from her residence hall room in Susan Campbell Hall and bough a ticket for a late-night greyhound bus ride to Denver, CO to join her brother, Shu.

25. Japanese-American Students Enrolled at UO in 1942 • Chiye Arai: University of Minnesota • Harry Fukuda: Drake University (Des Moines) • Mary Furusho: Baldwin-Wallace College (Berea, OH) • Thomas Hayachi: Unknown • Harold Kay Ito: Agar Manufacturing Co. (Chicago) • Makoto McKinley Iwashita: University of Colorado • Grace Kamazawa: University of Denver • Alice Kawasaki: Temporary Assembly Center, Portland, OR • Samuel Teruhide Naito: University of Utah • Kenzo Nakagawa: University of Utah • Tad Osaki: North Sacramento Assembly Center, CA • Lawrence Fumio Takei: Unknown • George Shingo Uchiyama: University of Utah • Michi & Shu Yasui: University of Denver (Many transferred with the Assistance of Karl Onthank & the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council)

26. University of Oregon President Paul Olum Presents Michi Yasui Ando her Diploma on 15 June 1986 Michi married Toshio Ando in Denver, raised six children, received her Master’s degree in Education and served as a teacher in Denver public schools for three decades. In the mid 1980s University of Oregon Archivist, Keith Richards, encountered the Onthank records regarding Michi’s graduation petition. He contacted Michi immediately and the University invited her to the 1986 graduation ceremony where she received her diploma in English 44 years late.

27. Students Attended Dedication of Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial on Day of Remembrance (19 February 2007) Japanese Americans residing in Lane County and the southern Willamette Valley were required to report and register for internment under Executive Order 9066. Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial located near the site of the Civil Control Office at 34 West 6th Avenue in 1942 (between the Hult Center and the Hilton Hotel today).

28. The Memorial was dedicated on the “Day of Remembrance” 19 February 2007, the 65th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature of Executive Order 9066. Michi passed away on 15 January 2006 and this memorial stone has become a permanent part of the EJAAM.

29. The UO conferred honorary degrees to 20 former Japanese American students on 6 April 2008. Eight degrees were issued posthumously.