Heroes Unheralded: Stories from Nisei World War II Veterans and their Families

On May 11 at 6:30 PM the CWU Museum of Culture & Environment welcomes Dr. Linda Tamura, Professor of Education Emerita, Willamette University. She will address American World War II veterans of Japanese ancestry, their unwelcome return home, and how communities have moved forward to honor them and address past wrongs. This research is rooted in Dr. Tamura’s questions about growing up in Hood River, Oregon, which gained national notoriety for its racist wartime acts. She also recognizes local citizens who stepped forward in support, despite facing scrutiny themselves. Dr. Tamura challenges us by asking: “What if Americans who served valiantly overseas found there was still a battle to wage at home? What would you do?”

This event will also engage in conversations about the experiences of Americans of Japanese ancestry in central Washington, with faculty and students sharing local stories from the Densho Digital Repository, an oral history archive that documents the history of forced removal and detention of Americans of Japanese ancestry. We will end by asking, “How do we apply messages from Dr. Tamura’s research to our central Washington history?”