Masuo Yasui (far left) was a store merchant and landowner who was among the first-generation Japanese immigrants who formed a community in Hood River at the turn of the twentieth century. OHS Research Library, Yasui family papers, Coll. 949, box 38, folder 2.

Portland, OR — The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) and Densho are excited to announce a significant grant award from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for Citizen(s) Yasui: Illuminating the Japanese American Experience through the Yasui Family Collections. This two-year collaborative digitization project will create over 17,000 digital files from the Yasui family papers, Yasui Brothers business records, and Yabe family papers collections preserved in OHS’s research library. 

This grant award is part of CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices program, designed to support efforts to digitize materials that deepen public understanding of the histories of people of color and other communities and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or unattended. Citizen(s) Yasui is one of 18 funded projects that, through archival digitization efforts, ensures that new generations can engage with and learn from the stories, contributions, and cultural heritage of underrepresented groups.

“Public discourse requires an honest and rigorous understanding of our past; it is imperative that we expand access to these vital materials to foster scholarship and enrich our collective knowledge,” said CLIR president Charles Henry noted in a press release announcing the grant awardees. 

Building on the successes of recent projects highlighting and translating a selection of Japanese language materials, Citizen(s) Yasui will cover a much larger sample of these historically significant collection materials. Rare among archival collections in size and content, these three collections document early twentieth century immigration, business, farming, family, and community life in Oregon; Japanese American incarceration and separation during World War II; the work of later generations to rebuild in post-WWII America; and decades of activism to acknowledge incarceration and seek justice.

This project will enable free online access to these primary source materials documenting the Japanese American experience through OHS Digital Collections (digitalcollections.ohs.org), Densho Digital Repository (ddr.densho.org), and the Digital Public Library of America (dp.la). 

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of photographs, books, maps, manuscript materials, films, oral histories, objects, and belongings. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history available to all. We preserve our state’s history and make it accessible to everyone in ways that advance knowledge and inspire curiosity about all the people, places, and events that have shaped Oregon. 

About Densho

Densho is a nonprofit organization started in 1996, with the initial goal of documenting oral histories from Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. This evolved into a mission to educate, preserve, collaborate, and inspire action for equity. Densho uses digital technology to preserve and make accessible primary source materials on the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans and presents these materials and related resources for their historic value and as a means of exploring issues of democracy, intolerance, wartime hysteria, civil rights and the responsibilities of citizenship in our increasingly global society.