Japan

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066, which sent people of Japanese descent – many of them U.S. citizens – from their homes to “relocation centers,” resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Every two years, people come from all over the country to Klamath Falls to remember the Tule Lake internment camp, just south of the Oregon border. Today, we listen back to a conversation we recorded at the Tule Lake Pilgrimage in 2016. We talked to Satsuki Ina, one of the organizers of the pilgrimage and a former resident of Tule Lake. We also spoke to former resident Jimi Yamaichi, and Akemi Yamane, whose parents were incarcerated there.

As Tokyo Sando prepares to close its doors on Sunday, owner Taiki Nakajima intends to take an extended break in Japan, but says he could possibly return.

A new project to memorialize the 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII will include soil from 75 former internment sites including one in Portland. Chisao Hata joined OPB to talk about the legacy of Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest and her participation in the Irei monument project.

Vistors convened at the Portland Japanese Garden this week to honor the life of a Japanese leader assassinated earlier this month, and reflect on the ties that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his family had to the Pacific Northwest.

Japanese people bid their final goodbye to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday as a funeral was held at a temple days after his assassination that shocked the nation.

Shinzo Abe had been Japan's longest-serving prime minister and remained a force in politics after stepping down in 2020.

Kane Tanaka, who was born in 1903, held the title of oldest person alive for the past three years. She died Tuesday at a hospital in western Japan.

The Portland Japanese Garden's sister organization the Japan Institute will soon have a new home thanks to a multimillion dollar project aimed at promoting peace and cultural understanding between the United States and Japan.

A Japanese princess who gave up her royal status to marry her commoner college sweetheart has arrived in New York as the couple left behind a nation that has criticized their romance.

Japan’s preparations for the next coronavirus surge include adding thousands more hospital beds to avoid a situation like last summer when many COVID-19 patients were forced to stay home, even when they needed supplemental oxygen.