pdxjacl

Looking for something to do in August? We got you covered.

Saturday, August 2nd from 2 PM - 9 PM: Obon Fest at

Sunday, August 3rd from 8 AM to 12 PM: Japanese American Historical Plaza Clean Up

Wednesday, August 6th from 6 PM to 7 PM: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembrance at the Japanese American Historical Plaza

Sunday, August 9th from 1 PM to 2 PM: will be hosting an artist talk at 220 PDX Building for their current exhibit, Sadako and Paper Cranes: Through Our Eyes.

Sunday, August 17th from 12 PM to 5 PM: Our annual Nikkei Picnic! Join us from an afternoon of food and fun. Please the poster for full information. If you’re interested in volunteering please DM us.

Join us for our next Prefecture Club at the end of the month! We will taste sake from different prefectures and view a short presentation on how sake is made and what decides the different grades of sake.

Please be sure to RSVP at [email protected] as space is very limited!

Date: Wednesday, June 25th
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Where: Japanese American Museum of Oregon
411 NW Flanders St., Portland, OR 97209
RSVP: [email protected]

Because this event involves alcohol it will be only 21+!

Please keep swiping to enjoy pictures and videos from our last Prefecture Club where we made maguro-don, enjoyed a sashimi cutting demonstration, and learned about Kanagawa-ken.

Thank you to for honoring the Portland JACL with the Minoru Yasui Activism Award! We will continue to honor his legacy of fighting for equality, justice, democracy, and civil rights.

Please see ’s inspiring acceptance speech, as well as snippets of opening remarks by Minoru Yasui Legacy Project’s Co-Founder Peggy Nagae and Yasui’s granddaughter Chani Hawkins.

Come support Veleda’s bake sale April 17th-18th! All proceeds are going towards the Veleda Club Scholarship. It will be during Ikoi no Kai at Epworth Methodist Church.

Our next Prefecture Culture Club Meeting will be focusing on Hiroshima-ken! We will be eating kaki-furai (fried oysters) and we will all be making our own yakisoba-okonomiyaki.

When: March 15th
Time: 12 PM - 2 PM
Where: Epworth United Methodist Church, 1333 SE
28th Ave, Portland, OR 97214

An RSVP is required to participate. If interested, please email mailto:[email protected] by Monday, March 10th.

Justin will be presenting a short talk on Hiroshima and Setsy-san will share a story about her journey from moving from Hiroshima to the US on the Hikari-Maru!

We hope to see you there! Keep swiping to see videos from our last meeting where we made our own mochi and sampled it with Ozoni broth from three different prefectures.

Reed College will be presenting a film screening and artist visit with activist, artist, and elder Nobuko Miyamoto, musician Derek Nakamoto, and filmmaker Quyên Nguyen-Le.

Date: March 5
Time: 7 PM - 9 PM
Location: 3203 Southeast Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202-8199

The event will feature a screening of “A Movement in Song,” a new documentary by director Nguyen-Le about Miyamoto’s life as a dancer, singer, and Asian-American activist. Musical performance by Miyamoto and Nakamoto and a Q&A with the artists to follow.

For those who cannot attend, the film is currently streaming on

will be hosting a fun-filled Youth Mixer on March 8th! Expect engaging games, prizes, crafts, snacks, and thought-provoking conversations on civic engagement.

You can RSVP by scanning the QR code!

Thank you to everyone who showed up this past weekend! Both at our showing of “Omoiyari: a Songfilm by Kishi Bashi” in Portland and at the rally at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma. Thank you to and .

For those who could not make it, please read an excerpt of Portland JACL President Jeff Matsumoto’s speech:

As we recognize the 83 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which lead to the forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, we need to see what is happening today with the mass detainment and deportation of migrants. When we hear how the Foreign Terrorist Organizations designation and Alien Enemies Act of 1798 are being resurrected, we know what can happen when a people are deemed “enemies of the state”

So we must act. Write or call your congressional representative and our Senators Wyden and Merkly to become co-sponsors to the Neighbors Not Enemies Act (HR 630 and S193 respectively). We need to be the allies of today because so few stood with us 83 years ago.