{"id":"ddr-ohs-1","model":"collection","collection_id":"ddr-ohs-1","links":{"html":"https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ohs-1/","json":"https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/ddr-ohs-1/","img":"https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-ohs-1/ddr-ohs-1-256-mezzanine-2e07060908-a.jpg","thumb":"http://ddrmedia.local/media/ddr-ohs-1/ddr-ohs-1-256-mezzanine-2e07060908-a.jpg","parent":"https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/ddr-ohs/","children":"https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/ddr-ohs-1/children/"},"parent_id":"ddr-ohs","organization_id":"ddr-ohs","signature_id":"ddr-ohs-1-256-mezzanine-2e07060908","title":"Yabe Family Papers Collection","description":"Digitized selections from a larger collection that documents the lives and activities of the Yabe family, particularly the first generation (the Issei) who immigrated from Japan to California in the early 1900s, and the second generation, the Nisei. Major topics represented the collection overall include the experience Mitsuye (Jyoko) Yabe as an immigrant to the United States; the family's business and community activities in Los Angeles, California, through 1942; family members' experiences of forced removal and incarceration during World War II; Miyuki \"Miki\" (Yabe) Yasui's advocacy for redress after the war; and her extensive research on family and Japanese American history. The 275 digitized items that are viewable in the Densho Digital Repository and Oregon Historical Society's Digital Collections consist of photographs, school documents, correspondence, and genealogical research.\r\n\r\nThe 275 digitized selections are a small portion of the overall collection, which consists of 2.8 cubic feet of material, and is available for use onsite at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.","breadcrumbs":[{"id":"ddr-ohs-1","model":"collection","idpart":"cid","label":"1","api_url":"https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/ddr-ohs-1/","url":"https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ohs-1/"}],"_fields":["id","record_created","record_lastmod","status","public","title","unitdateinclusive","unitdatebulk","creators","extent","language","contributor","description","physloc","rights","accessrestrict","userrestrict","prefercite","bioghist","scopecontent","relatedmaterial","separatedmaterial","signature_id"],"record_created":"2025-09-30T11:32:39","record_lastmod":"2025-12-10T15:13:31","status":"completed","public":"1","unitdateinclusive":"1939-1946; 1977; 2000-2006","unitdatebulk":"1939-2006","language":["eng","jpn"],"contributor":"The Oregon Historical Society","physloc":"The Oregon Historical Society","acqinfo":"Homer Yasui and Barbara Yasui (daughter)\r\n3312 E. Republican St.\r\nSeattle, WA 98112\r\ndaruma52@gmail.com\r\n\r\nOregon Historical Society\r\n1200 SW Park Ave\r\nPortland, OR 97205\r\n503-306-5222\r\nMathieu.Deschaine@ohs.org","custodhist":"The Yasui Brothers Company business records (Mss 2949) (1904-1990, 1908-1942 bulk) encompass 179 cubic feet of text based documents. Decades after being saved in a basement by a family friend during incarceration, Homer Yasui donated these records to Oregon Historical Society (OHS) in 1991, on behalf of the family. Homer retained his family’s most personal records and added his own extensive historical and family research, including interpretation by other family members. In December of 2022, he and his daughter Barbara Yasui donated these family papers to OHS.","processinfo":"Scanned by Micah Merryman in Feburary of 2025, processed by Kathryn Bolin between June and October of 2025.","rights":"cc","userrestrict":"All use rights requests must go to the Oregon Historical Society\r\n\r\nThe Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in its collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.","prefercite":"Courtesy of the Yabe Family Collection","bioghist":"Kenden Yabe was born in 1888, the eldest son of famed Okinawan karate instructor Kentsu Yabu. Between 1906 and 1908, he immigrated to Hawaii, finding work in agriculture. After several years, he moved to Southern California, where he worked variously as a gardener and a cook in a restaurant, before opening and operating a produce stand. In 1917, Yabe met twenty-year old Mitsuye Jyoko, who had recently arrived in the United States from Ehime prefecture, Japan. They married in El Centro, California, in August 1919.\r\n\r\nBetween 1921 and 1926, Mitsuye and Kenden Yabe had four daughters: Emi; Elosa, who died at age 2; Rayko; and Miyuki, who was also known as Miki. The Yabes supported their family through the operation of their produce stand until 1939, when Kenden Yabe, then 51, died after an automobile accident. Mitsuye Yabe, widowed at 42 and unable to speak much English, took a job in Los Angeles running a small hotel near Japantown, where she and her three daughters lived for two years. Then, in 1942, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the subsequent issuance of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mitsuye Yabe and her three daughters were among the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed and incarcerated by the U.S. government. The Yabes were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where both Rayko Yabe and Miyuki Yabe finished high school. Mitsuye Yabe and Miyuki Yabe obtained work releases from the camp, and from late 1944 until about 1946, they worked at Seabrook Farms, a cannery in New Jersey that employed many Japanese Americans as laborers.\r\n\r\nFollowing World War II and the end of incarceration, Emi Yabe married Bill Wiitala, an engineer, and they later resided in northern California. Rayko Yabe lived in New York with her husband, Isaku Konoshima, a math teacher, and Miyuki Yabe enrolled in Drexel College in Philadelphia. Mitsuye Yabe lived for a few years with each of her daughters and a sister before returning permanently to Los Angeles around 1960. She became a U.S. citizen in 1980, and died in 1985 at age 88.\r\n\r\nMiyuki Yabe graduated from Drexel College in 1949 with a degree in education. In 1950 she wed Homer Yasui, a surgeon from Oregon who had briefly been incarcerated with his family during the war. In 1954, after completing his general surgery residency, Homer Yasui was drafted and assigned to the U.S. Naval Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan, where the Yasuis lived with their two young daughters for 18 months. Afterward, they relocated to Portland, Oregon, near Homer Yasui’s hometown of Hood River, where they raised their daughters, Barbara and Meredith, and their son, John. Homer and Miki Yasui were active in civic organizations including the Portland branch of the Japanese American Citizens League, and were advocates for recognition of Japanese American history and redress for wartime incarceration. Miyuki (Yabe) Yasui died in 2018, and Homer Yasui died in 2023.","relatedmaterial":"Additional collections at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library relating to the Yasui family include: the Yasui Brothers business records, Mss 2949; Masuo Yasui letter to Sagoro Asai, Coll 956; the Bernard B. Kliks papers relating to Minoru Yasui and University of Oregon Law School reunions, Coll 920; oral history interviews with Randall B. Kester, SR1278 (1992) and SR 11093 (2005); and an interview with Homer Yasui and Jeff Uecker on Hotline/Golden Hours, SR 0946 (1992).\r\n\r\nCollections relating to the Yasui family that are held at other libraries include: the R. Sims Collection on Minidoka and Japanese Americans, Mss 356, Boise State University Library Special Collections; interview with Japanese Americans in Utah, ACCN 1209, University of Utah Library Special Collections; Mike M. Masaoka papers, Mss 0656, University of Utah Library Special Collections; the Gordon K. Hirabayashi papers, Coll 3159, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections; and the Minoru Yasui papers, Archives and Special Collections, Auraria Library, Denver, Colorado.\r\n\r\nMore than 900 photographs of the Yasui family and Yasui Bros. store are available online in the Densho digital repository, ddr-densho-259","search_hidden":"","download_large":"ddr-ohs-1-256-mezzanine-2e07060908-a.jpg"}