Local teams
spring into action
SPORTS • 8A
This group
simply draws
WEEKEND
EDITION
FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015
142nd YEAR, No. 188
ONE DOLLAR
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Strip
club
sign
causes
a stir
Suggestive, but
Annie’s sign is
protected as
free speech
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Keiko Ziak unfolds a Yosegaki Hinomaru on a table in her home in Naselle, Wash. The Yosegaki Hinomaru are common flags covered in
well-wishes by a Japanese soldier’s family and friends. The soldiers carried these flags with them into battle during World War II. The
flags were taken by American soldiers as prizes after battles and brought back to the United States after the war. Rex and Keiko Ziak are
working with others to try and return these Yosegaki Hinomaru back to families in Japan.
Rex and Keiko Ziak spearhead effort to reunite
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By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
B
efore sending their young
men to serve in the military
during World War II, Japanese
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by family members and friends for
the soldiers.
Each Japanese soldier carried at
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Once they were discovered by
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came highly prized treasures of war
and were brought back by the thou-
sands as souvenirs, according to lo-
cal historian and author Rex Ziak of
Naselle, Wash.
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highest accomplishments on a battle-
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an amazing accomplishment.”
Now 70 years later, many Amer-
Submitted photo
ican veterans and their families are
realizing the souvenirs are actually In this photo, a Japanese soldier is seen with his family and two Yosegaki Hinomaru before the soldier
personal items that belong to Japa- was sent off to fight in World War II.
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represent the only surviving trace of
the young men.
RETURNING CEREMONY
Individual efforts have been made
OBON and the 41st Infantry Division are hosting a returning ceremony at the Barbey Center at
by veterans in recent years to return
the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria at 2 p.m. Monday.
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The ceremony is the first official transfer of battlefield souvenir flags from American veterans back
See FLAGS, Page 10A
St. Helens
dock redo
not on state
funding list
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
“We got a huge response,” Har-
mon said. “And we did it again for
Christmas and then for St. Paddy’s
Day.”
See STATUE, Page 7A
See DOCK, Page 10A
Pendleton
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gets physical
By PHIL WRIGHT
EO Media Group
E.J. HARRIS — EO Media Group
Pamela Harmon and her husband, Tim Becker, have been decorating the
bronze statue of Jackson Sundown on Main Street in Pendleton since Hal-
loween. The couple are now petitioning the city to allow them to continue
decorating the statue.
the Nez Perce man who at the age
of 53 won the Pendleton Round-
Up in 1916. Harmon said she is a
fourth-generation descendant of Sun-
down’s, and she and her husband first
decorated the statue last Halloween.
See SIGN, Page 7A
SALEM — Six transportation
projects — but not a much-debated
dock renovation that was a proxy in
a wider debate over coal exports to
Asia — will share $7 million in state
money.
The Oregon Transportation Com-
mission voted 3-1 Thursday for the
allocation of lottery-backed bonds
under Connect Oregon, which funds
projects other than highways and
bridges.
But the list omits the top-ranked
project, which proposed $2 mil-
lion for renovation of a World War
II-era dock at Port Westward near
Clatskanie. The Port of St. Helens
proposed to match it with $3 million
to develop it for use by ocean-going
ships.
“These are the kind of projects
that are going to revitalize rural Or-
egon,” said commission member Su-
san Morgan, also a Douglas County
commissioner, who was the lone dis-
senter.
“I think that to deny the people
in Columbia County the opportuni-
ty to do this – to add to the wealth
and strengthen the social structure of
their county – is a negative way to
go.”
The project ranked high last sum-
mer, when the commission dropped
proposed funding for it on a 3-2 vote.
Then-Gov. John Kitzhaber removed
the commission chairwoman, Cath-
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later.
A subsequent review by a panel
ranked the project atop a list of 31
considered for almost $7 million re-
maining in Connect Oregon money.
to Japanese families.
PENDLETON — A scuffle over
decorations on Pendleton’s Jackson
Sundown statue has led a couple to
petition the City Council for its ap-
proval to continue dressing up the
bronze.
So far 29 people, including the
couple who started the petition, have
signed their support.
Pamela Harmon, 50, and her hus-
band, Tim Becker, 39, live on the
100 block of Pendleton’s South Main
Street above the bronze of Sundown,
born
Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn,
A bawdy new sign for Annie’s Sa-
loon is causing a stir, but the advertis-
ing is legally protected free speech.
The Astoria strip club’s sign depicts
the silhouette of a long-haired woman
bending over suggestively to resem-
ble the shape of an ‘A.’ It replaces a
softer image of a blond-haired woman
lounging with her head resting on her
arms.
Linda Middleton, who owns An-
nie’s, described the new red-white-
and-black sign as a “cartoon-type
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saloon.
“It’s just a lady,” she said. “And
she’s making an ‘A’ shape — like, you
know, the letter ‘A’ — for Annie’s.”
Middleton obtained a sign permit
IURPWKHFLW\LQ-DQXDU\WKDWUHÀHFW-
ed what is known as a “face change”
to the old sign.