in other words
april19
2018
The Good Ol ’ Days
By Tobie Finzel
Vernonia’s Japanese Community and
World War II
This article was previously published in
the Voice’s September 19, 2013 issue.
Additional information and updates
have been added.
From the early 1920s, many
people of Japanese ancestry lived in
the Vernonia area. The Inouye family
owned and operated the Vernonia Laun-
dry. Mary Kato ran a “chop suey” res-
taurant. The Soejima and Kuge families
came to the area in the 1920s as railroad
workers in an all-Japanese crew. Their
children attended Vernonia schools and
were good students who participated in
school activities. They had also lived for
a few years at Clark and Wilson Camp
Eight, one of the several Japanese timber
and railroad worker camps.
From the time the Oregon-
American mill was built until after
WWII, company housing was racially
segregated. The O-A “Japanese Colo-
ny” was located where Anderson Park
is today. In 1927, Oregon-American
needed additional rail spurs built in their
forest holdings which prompted the es-
tablishment of its own railroad construc-
tion company. They hired thirty to forty
Japanese laborers and housed them in
a segregated bunkhouse with its own
cookhouse and dining room about a
quarter mile from Camp McGregor. The
camp foreman and his wife ran the camp
with the latter serving as cook and bunk-
house manager.
Following the Japanese Em-
pire’s attack at Pearl Harbor on Decem-
ber 7, 1941, wartime paranoia led the
US government to take steps resulting in
taking approximately 120,000 Japanese
Americans from their homes and farms
on the West Coast to internment camps
inland. Sixty-two percent were natural-
ized American citizens, or Nisei, born
in the USA to legal immigrants. Due
to racial prejudice in the first part of the
twentieth century, many of the first gen-
eration immigrants (Issei) had lived as
registered aliens for two to four decades
because they had been denied the abil-
ity to become citizens. Even veterans of
World War I were interned.
On May 20, 1942, nineteen
Vernonia residents of Japanese ances-
try were taken by bus - escorted by two
truckloads of soldiers – to the Portland
Livestock Pavilion where they awaited
relocation along with others such as the
Oregon-American railroad section crew
who were similarly removed from their
Oregon homes. With little advance no-
tice, they had to abandon or sell at low
prices most of their possessions. The
May 21 st Vernonia Eagle article that re-
ported the removal added “Vernonia citi-
zens who saw them leave felt relieved to
think that this possible source of danger
was leaving, but with that feeling of re-
lief was mingled regret that some well-
known and liked, worthwhile Japanese
populace were required to abandon their
homes.” An unconfirmed rumor at the
time circulated that an unknown Japa-
nese person was seen on a remote log-
ging road and was assumed to be secret-
ly communicating with the enemy. At
the end of the War, however, not a single
American of Japanese origin was found
guilty of any kind of treason or espio-
nage; those convicted for the same were
all Caucasians.
Among those taken away that
May included the Soejima and Kuge
families. Several VHS students went
to the stockyard – renamed the Portland
Assembly Center – the next day to talk
with their classmates through the wire
fence until a guard forced them to leave.
Toshi Kuge had been 1934 VHS Stu-
dent Body President and was in medical
school when the relocation commenced.
Roy Soejima, Class of 1941, was an
honor student, sophomore class presi-
dent and active in sports. Ben Soejima,
VHS 1942, was on VHS winning teams
in football and basketball, and his sister
Kerry, also VHS 1942, was in the glee
club. They were all Nisei, American-
born children of Japanese parents.
The final relocation of the 2,400
Oregon Japanese-Americans detained in
Portland to the hastily constructed relo-
cation center in Idaho didn’t occur until
September. Nisei of fighting age were
wanted by the military but were only al-
lowed to join the Army and serve in all-
Nisei units. Ben and two of his brothers
enlisted while his parents and sister were
interned at the Minidoka camp in Idaho.
They were assigned to the 442 nd Regi-
ment, an all-Nisei unit that fought its way
across Europe. Toshi Kuge served as an
assistant to the head doctor at the Port-
land Assembly Center and later helped
treat people in relocation centers. After
the war he went on to have a success-
ful medical practice in Portland. Toshi’s
brother, Tommy, enlisted in the Army
and was killed in the war. A few years
later, Ben’s younger brother, Bryan, also
joined the now-desegregated Army and
fought in the Korean War.
Over 650 of the Nisei regiment
were killed in action and twenty earned
the Congressional Medal of Honor in
2000. Although they fought valiantly
and earned numerous medals and cita-
tions, it has only been in recent years
that their part in the victory has been ful-
ly recognized. In 2012, along with other
surviving members of the 442 nd Regi-
ment, Ben Soejima received a Congres-
sional Gold Medal for his service during
the war. A 2013 reception at the Oregon
Historical Society marked the opening
of a new exhibit on the Japanese-Amer-
ican soldiers of World War II. Ben, age
90 at the time, was one of the honorees
and wore his medal with pride.
Although his family did not re-
turn to Vernonia after the war and his
siblings are deceased, Ben returns to
Vernonia annually for the Old Grads Pic-
nic and enjoys visiting with his long-ago
schoolmates. The Soejima family made
a generous donation to the new school’s
athletic facilities. The boys’ locker room
coach’s office is named in Ben’s honor,
and he has made additional contribu-
tions to Vernonia Education Founda-
tion’s Sports Initiative. He also donated
a set of Clark and Wilson Lumber camp
coins and other Vernonia memorabilia to
the museum.
Many of the Japanese-Ameri-
cans who lived in the camps understood
the paranoia that led to their internment
and were incredibly gracious, at least in
their public communications to others,
about their acceptance of the situation.
Judd Greenman, General Manager of
Oregon-American, communicated with
many of the former O-A workers who
were in service during the war by send-
ing letters and copies of the Vernonia Ea-
gle. He received a letter from one of the
former Japanese rail section gang whom
he had known for 31 years that read:
“I do hope you are OK and do-
ing all you can for the good old Uncle
Sam every day. It sure was one night-
mare to leave dear old Oregon and dear
friends to evacuate to this new city of
Vernonia
Veterinary Clinic
Donʻt wait for the sun!
Get your MOWERS tuned up now!
Mon, Wed & Saturday
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Call for Appointments
(503) 429-1612
Or 24 hr. Emergency Number (503) 397-6470
700 Weed Ave. Vernonia, OR
Minidoka. We hear and read a great deal
of the prejudice against the Japanese on
the coast. Well we can’t very well blame
them at this time as there exist too many
propaganda. Still we are happy to say
we have a big obligation to pay to this
country for the happy years we have en-
joyed in the past. I am sure there will
be good will among every one when the
war ends, and I am very happy indeed
to have good many real friends on the
coast who really trust and remember us.
Our gang from Keasey, Oregon, are all
in very good spirits and hoping for the
day that we can go back to the coast.”
From Virgil Powell’s Diary
Virgil Powell (1887-1963) was a long-
time resident whose family had a farm in
the Upper Nehalem Valley between Na-
tal and Pittsburg. Each year from 1906
until 1955, he kept a regular diary of his
activities. He made little mention of
current world events in his diaries, and
there was no mention of Pearl Harbor or
other big news from the war years. He
did, however, note his purchase of War
Bonds in May 1942, and earlier that
year he went to work as a fireman at the
O-A mill at age 55 when so many of the
younger workers had enlisted in the ser-
vices.
Tuesday, May 26, 1942: Went
over town got haircut and
purchased $1325 in bonds.
Hauled scrap lumber from mill
afternoon. Fair forenoon but
rained very hard at times dur-
ing afternoon.
The Vernonia Pioneer Museum is located
at 511 E. Bridge Street and is open from
1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays (ex-
cluding holidays) all year. From June
through mid-September, the museum
is also open on Fridays from 1 - 4 pm.
There is no charge for admission but do-
nations are always welcome. Become
a member of the museum for an annual
$5 fee to receive the periodic newsletter.
We now have a page on the Vernonia
Hands on Art website, www.vernonia-
handsonart.org If you are a Facebook
user, check out the Vernonia Pioneer
Museum page. The museum volunteers
are always pleased to enlist additional
volunteers to help hold the museum open
and assist in other ways. Please stop by
and let one of the volunteers know of
your interest in helping out.
Don’t Sell it!
Pawn it!
Small and Large Animals
Open
7
Oil Change • Sharpen Blades
Filters • Cables • Pull Ropes
We pick up & deliver!
Family owned & operated for over 45 years
834 Bridge St., Vernonia (503) 429-6364
For fast cash!
Baseline
Pawn, Inc.
2245 Baseline St., Cornelius
(Across from Fred Meyer)
503-530-8119
State Licensed PB-0388
Open
everyday
at 10 a.m.