Bill Sumio Naito, who died at age 70 in 1996, was a Portland-born son of Japanese immigrants who became one of the city’s most significant business and civic leaders. Erica Naito-Campbell, his granddaughter, grew up next door to him and has written a new biography of the man who lends his name to the road thousands of people drive and bike on every day. The book, “Portland’s Audacious Champion,” details Naito’s life from growing up in East Portland, through military service in World War II, to his role in much of Portland’s iconic geography: from the Portland sign near the Burnside Bridge to Waterfront Park. Naito-Campbell joins us to share more.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Jenn Chávez: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Jenn Chávez. If there’s a landmark you think makes Portland’s downtown or Old Town neighborhood special, there is a shockingly good chance that Bill Naito had something to do with it. Portlanders drive and bike down the parkway named in his honor every day, along the Waterfront Park he helped create under the glowing Portland, Oregon sign atop his company’s former headquarters. More than 20 preserved historic buildings, the Pioneer Courthouse Square Christmas tree, downtown’s first mall, transit, museums, the trees themselves – Bill Naito was involved.
Erica Naito-Campbell is Bill Naito’s granddaughter and grew up next door to him. She’s the author of a new biography about his life, “Portland’s Audacious Champion.” It chronicles not only his achievements as a business and civic leader, but also his experience as Aniki, the son of Japanese immigrants, growing up in Portland in the years leading up to World War II. Erica Naito-Campbell joins me now to talk more about him. Erica, thank you so much for being here. Welcome.
Erica Naito-Campbell: Thank you for having me.
Chávez: Bill Naito was this beloved, influential entrepreneur and civic leader in Portland. You’ve written an entire book about his work and legacy in the city. But first I want to know – what was he like as your grandfather?
Naito-Campbell: He was incredibly loving and doting. He called me pumpkin, and because I lived next door, it was rare that I went more than a couple of days without seeing him. But he was also my employer from the age of ten when he paid me 25 cents to work in the family warehouse.
Chávez: Oh, really? You know, I personally have found that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become increasingly interested in my grandparents’ history, their lives outside of our family, and my relationship to them. What made you want to explore your grandfather’s life in depth like this through writing his biography?
Naito-Campbell: In 2009, I started working on an exhibit for the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. And I know it will sound not realistic, but I actually didn’t conceptualize him as Japanese. He was almost like Santa Claus, where he didn’t have a race.
Chávez: Oh, interesting.
Naito-Campbell: He was just larger than life and he loved me so enormously, that’s what I looked at. So when I started to help doing some family research, I was kind of shocked that he didn’t speak English until he walked into first grade. I did not conceptualize our family as that type of immigrant. Well, I didn’t think of us as immigrants at all actually, but my grandfather was kind of a stereotypical second-generation immigrant, where only Japanese was spoken in the house, where Japanese books, Japanese songs… so it kind of shocked me into wanting to understand more.
And once I started looking, a lot of things became clear because of generational trauma, and the way our family is dysfunctional is because he was struggling to adapt to America, which was his home, and his parents, who were very much Japanese. And then you add World War II, and Pearl Harbor, and Executive Order 9066, and the expulsion of our family from Portland, and suddenly a lot of things made a lot of sense, in me personally. So I was very grateful for that initial push by the exhibit.
Chávez: You’ve talked a little bit about his childhood, which I think is not as often known or talked about as his accomplishments as a civic leader. And, like you mentioned, he was growing up in the years leading up to World War II, he was in high school during the Pearl Harbor attack. Bill and his family narrowly avoided being forced into incarceration camps by relocating with family in Salt Lake City, which was outside of the exclusion zone. And I know he went on to enlist in the U.S. military after he finished high school. But as you’ve mentioned, this period of his life, and the racism he and other Japanese Americans endured had a deep effect on him. What did he carry with him forward from this time?
Naito-Campbell: He carried what I like to call a vengeful desire to prove himself. It wasn’t just a run of the mill, I want to show you I’m a good American, but I want to make you choke on it. I want you to look at me, and see the greatest Portlander that has ever walked this earth. And that humiliation he felt when he was forced to leave Washington High School. You know, he went in the middle of class so no one would see him clear out his locker. He didn’t say anything to his friends. He didn’t say goodbye and his friends hadn’t said a bad word, but he was so ashamed of even being associated with being an enemy of the country that he couldn’t face them.
So when he comes back, he’s not just trying to make a life. He is trying to make white society know the mistake they made, because he is going to become so critical to every aspect of the city he’s going to make it undeniable that Bill Naito never should have been doubted. He never should have been kicked out. And here’s why. Here are the 50…60…70 things I’m going to do to make you regret that choice.
Chávez: And it really does seem like that many things that he did. It was almost challenging to prepare to talk to you because I was like, if we talked about all of these, we would be here all day. I know when he first returned, he joined the family business, which at the time was a wholesale import business – Norcrest China – and they wanted to open a store to compete with Cost Plus, which was coming to town. And they chose the location in Old Town in Portland. It was known at the time as Skid Road. This store – Import Plaza – was the beginning of his long relationship and dedication to the Old Town neighborhood. What attracted him to Old Town, what was special about it to him that he felt was worth sharing and investing in?
Naito-Campbell: There was a very personal reason to invest in Old Town, and that’s because before Pearl Harbor, it was Nihonmachi. It was Japantown. And my family lived on 58th and Burnside, but if you wanted to go to a Japanese dentist, doctor, you wanted to go to grocery store, you had to go into what is now Old Town. And so he would go to the dentist in the Merchant Hotel. They would ride the trolley, actually, all the way down Burnside, which is one of the reasons for his love of vintage trolleys.
And so once Executive Order 9066 was issued, that community got totally destroyed. And by the time he’s come back to Portland in the early 60s, it’s really hard to see even any remnants, but the buildings are still there, and the memories they hold, and the meaning they hold for the community, and they’re being demolished to make way for parking lots. So he and my great uncle Sam start buying those buildings and saving them. And it was an act of reclamation. They were saving what was left of Nihonmachi, which were those old buildings.
Chávez: And this is just part of his dedication to purchasing historic buildings, renovating them, instead of tearing them down, which he did from a small to very large scale, which I know sometimes could be extremely risky. This was not the limit of his interest in historic preservation, and in general, in remembering the city’s history through the landscape of the city itself. Why do you think he was so passionate about that? Preserving Portland’s history for its residents, the people walking through these neighborhoods every day.
Naito-Campbell: I think he understood, deeply, that as human beings, we can’t know ourselves if we don’t know history, and not just our personal history ‒ like me learning about my grandfather, for instance ‒ but the wider history, the context in which choices were made. And oftentimes a building is the clearest way to see that. If you go into Old Town, there’s the Fleischner Mayer, which is all brick, five stories. There’s the Oregon Leather building right next door, which is white, two stories and then you have the NW Natural Building, which is giant in comparison, and all glass. And each of those remind us of a different time, and what mattered, and what we valued. And so, you can always avoid a book you don’t like about a history you prefer not to remember. You can avoid an OPB interview if you want. But if you are walking down a street, you cannot avoid a building. It is one of the clearest ways that we say who we were, who we are, and where we are going, and that’s why he focused on that.
Chávez: That is beautiful. Thank you. So yes, I was truly amazed, reading this book, at how many landmarks in Portland your grandfather had his hand in. Not time to talk about every single one. Do you have personal favorites that strike you as inextricable from the city?
Naito-Campbell: Well, obviously the White Stag sign. I mean, that’s iconic with Rudolph. And I love Christmas, just like my grandfather did. So, obviously, the Christmas tree ‒ the giant Christmas tree ‒ in Pioneer Square. But Japanese American Historical Plaza in Waterfront Park is probably the most important to him. And I think the most important to Portlanders, whether they realize it or not. Because our spring centers on the cherry blossoms. You know, everybody descends like locusts to get that Instagram picture with the cherry blossoms in the background.
For him, it was the most important thing he did in his whole life, to commemorate the wrong that was done, to commemorate the resilience of the community he was proud to be a member of, and I just wish that every spring instead of saying, come see the cherry blossoms in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, newscasters would say, Japanese-American Historical Plaza.
Chávez: What a great idea. We’re putting that out into the universe today, for next time. You know, talking about all of his different projects in terms of his style, his personality as a business person, the types of things he felt strongly about doing, what set him apart from other people who were doing similar work than him – working in real estate or in business at the time?
Naito-Campbell: I would say the most prominent difference was that he was obsessed with taking risk. Most business owners will take a calculated risk, but Bill wanted, again, to prove that he was the best. And so the only way you could really show it is doing something like buying Montgomery Park, where it was either going to be bought by Bill or it was going to be made into a hydroponic tomato farm. And he bought it without a really concrete sense of what to do with it. He just knew he wanted it. And it was so huge, the risk was so huge, but the reward would be even bigger. And he had such faith in himself that he could make it work. And he had an undying faith in the people of Portland.
And I want to take this opportunity to remind our leaders that the reason we had the successes we had in the 70s and 80s and all of Bill’s successes is the belief that Portlanders knew what was best for them. And you just had to ask them, and listen, and you had to trust them. So he had this undying belief that he could buy a million square-foot building in a place where there was no office, where I think we have to go back to where 405 is just being built. And he believed Portlanders would meet him there, and they did.
Chávez: You know, he did all of these things, in part, by constantly collaborating with other people and they were powerful people, like the mayor sometimes, and sometimes they were students or first time business owners. And it strikes me, too, that he was a Japanese-American Person of Color working in this white business community. And you write about how he helps newer business owners, like other People of Color in the business community. What do you feel he gave to the people that he worked with?
Naito-Campbell: He gave total support. I like to tell the story of Jeanette Spencer. When Saturday Market came out, she was an African-American woman ‒ this is 1974, and she’s a woman ‒ and I like to remind people, because we don’t remember, but women didn’t have the ability, if they were married, to get their own credit cards. And so you have that, and then you have an African-American woman in Portland, Oregon, and he was always there to listen.
If she came up to his office, he would make time .And sometimes she was asking questions, but sometimes she might just be saying, I’m having a hard time. And he would always say, Don’t believe your own down thoughts, you will do great. You will do well, I believe in you. And he would pump anybody who came to him, any of those entrepreneurs, he would never say anything negative, and he had an incredible ability to take a negative and make it sound like it was the greatest thing that ever happened to you.
And he did that, over and over, whether you were the mayor. You know, Bud Clark didn’t have a great first 18 months. He needed someone in his corner, the same way Jeanette needed someone in her corner, the same way his high school student employees needed someone in their corner. He could always be counted on to make you puff up your chest and throw your shoulders back and face the day.
Chávez: He seems like a really good dude. How do you feel when you walk or drive around downtown Portland or Old Town, surrounded by all of these places that your grandfather helped create?
Naito-Campbell: To be honest, I feel frustrated because a lot of his ideals and values have kind of taken a back seat to the demon of greed. And I see a lot of places where he would have been really angry – although with a smile – and chided leaders to say, what are you doing here? You know, reminding them, get back to the core of why the city exists. It exists for the Portlanders, not for owners who buy our buildings to make money, not for tourists who come here. It’s for the people who live here. And he would want us to get centered back to that ideal of a city that is made up of people first, not profits.
And so, I feel, from the grave, I feel his frustration, because we’ve kind of circled back. In the book, I talk about how the 50s and 60s were. We’ve got a lot of similarities now, and he would want to roll up his sleeves and say, Okay, let’s get back to work.
Chávez: Well, I’m glad we have this opportunity now to revisit his values and his work. You mentioned the exhibit at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, which of course he also had a hand in creating. It’s open for the rest of this week. Among other things, it includes a recreation of his sometimes chaotic desk. My desk is also very chaotic. What has this exhibit meant to you?
Naito-Campbell: I think one of the exemplary parts of the exhibit is how big the pictures are, so that you can feel immersed in his presence, which is how many people felt. I’ve given many talks, and the number of older men who come up to me with tears in their eyes saying, thank you for reminding me about Bill. He made this big of a difference to me. And I didn’t even know who they were. I think if I had done the interviews with every single person who felt that way, I never would have had time to write the book.
So going in there and feeling his presence, and the desk is really incredible, and people are taking those old phone message notepads and writing messages to him and throwing them on the desk the way it would have been if he were at it today. A lot of those messages are hopeful and grateful, and I’ve really appreciated seeing that impact.
Chávez: I’m so glad that you can see it too. Just one more question for you before I let you go. What values or passions did Bill instill in you that you’ve taken forward in your work and your life?
Naito-Campbell: He taught me that social justice should be the natural state of being. Not just something that we put on top of everything else, but that equality and equity should drive our decisions.
And the other thing he taught me was that trees are the most important things on this planet and you should always take time to spend time with them. So, I do. My backyard was his backyard and my trees, some of them are his trees. And I do go out there, and if I’m having a hard day, I will hug them and I will tell them I love them, and remind myself that no matter how hard things are, there are some things that will always be there for us.
Chávez: Thank you for sharing that. All right, everyone, go out there and spend some time with trees today. Erica Naito-Campbell, thank you so much for joining us and sharing about your grandfather today.
Naito-Campbell: Thank you so much for having me.
Chávez: Erica Naito-Campbell is the author of the biography “Portland’s Audacious Champion,” about the life and work of her grandfather, Portland civic leader, Bill Naito. For more information about the museum exhibit in Portland about his life visit jamo.org.
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