Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Scholars from the United States, Canada, and Japan gathered on the University of Washington campus from May 4 to 6, 2000, to reflect on the century-long presence ofNikkei, persons of Japanese descent, in the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia. The Nikkei Experience in the Pacific Northwest Conference, held in conjunctionwith the celebration ofGordon Hirabayashi as the 2000 DistinguishedAlumnus ofthe College of Arts and Sciences, sought to bring together the latest research into the regional history of Nikkei outside the usual California-centered framework. Recognizingthe fluidity ofmovement andcontact across politicalborders , the Pacific Northwest was interpreted to encompass the Canadian Southwest of British Columbia, a region that had the heaviest concentration of Nikkei in Canada in the prewar era. Conference organizers also recognized that the history of the Nikkei has also been dominated by the events ofWorld War II, and our goal was to place the incarceration years withinthecontextofitshistoryinthe region. Conferenceparticipants represented an eclectic group, including sociologists, educators, attorneys, historians, and artists, whose backgrounds in architecture, anthropology, law, ethnic studies, literature, music, religion, documentary film making, oral history, and the visual arts informed their presentations. The completion ofthis anthology owes much to the conference participants as well as other individuals and groups that enabled the conference to take place. John Findlay, past editor of PacificNorthwest Quarterly, provided early encouragement to pursue the conference and publish a collection of essays. Bruce Hevly, director of University ofWashington's Center for the Study ofthe Pacific Northwest, provided valuable guidance for the conference and anthology project. Financial support was provided by the EmilG. and KathleenT. SickFundand theCenterfor theStudyofthe Pacific Northwest; with additional funding from the King County Landmarks and xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Heritage Commissiont; the HenryM. Jackson School ofInternational Studies , Canadian Studies Center; the Kenneth S. Allen Library Endowment; Friendsofthe UW Libraries; UW Libraries Manuscripts, SpecialCollections, and University Archives; and the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities. We thank our two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript whose insightful comments and suggestions helped us to improve the anthology. We also thank Patricia Roy for her help in furthering our understanding of Canadian history. We are grateful to the UW DepartmentofAmerican EthnicStudies and its stafffor providingassistance and support for the anthology . We also want to acknowledge Kim McKaig and Sara Early of Pacific Northwest Quarterlyfor their assistance in the productionofthe manuscript and to thank Kim McKaig for her essential organizational work on the conference . Additional thanks go to the University of Washington PressMichael Duckworth, Naomi Pascal, and Marilyn Trueblood, for their guidance throughout the project. We appreciate the skillful copyediting by Mary Ribesky,who helpedto improve the manuscriptsignificantly.The editors are grateful to Pacific Northwest Quarterly for permission to republish Patricia Roy's essay. Finally, the editors wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to the contributing authors for their valuable research and contribution to the field of Nikkei history. We also thank our families for their patience and support throughout this long endeavor. ~KiJlllCoooty t 6 ~&Heritage Commission Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest ...