The Oregon Historical Society in Portland, in an exhibit called “Oregon My Oregon” tells the state’s history from its aboriginal inhabitants through the present day. A series of displays tell the story of “Capitalism and Ethnic Labor.” Capital was invested in canneries, mines, sawmills, warehouses, and transportation facilities. It was, however, not money that made these enterprises successful, but that hard work, sweat, and blood of low-paid ethnic workers. According to one display:
“African-Americans labored in the coal mines on the Coquille River. Chinese men re-worked the placer tailings of the gold diggings. Norwegian and Swedish women worked as house servants in Portland. Laborers from India and Japan helped lay the region’s railroads. Italian stonemasons constructed much of the Columbia Gorge highway. Irish shepherds tended the sheep of Morrow and Lake Counties.”
Chinese men put in long hours sliming (that is, gutting, descaling, and beheading) and packing salmon. By the 1890s, more than 2,000 Chinese were working in the canneries in Astoria.
Japanese:
The museum’s display about the Japanese features the Yatsui Brothers store.
According to one display:
“Four generations of Japanese-Americans have helped shape the economy and culture of Oregon. Hard-working and determined, the Issei, or immigrant generation, charted the way. The course was hard: manual labor on railroads, establishing truck farms and orchards, and living humbly to try to save money to buy land. Then came World War II and internment policies. More than 120,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans were locked in camps. Many lost everything: homes, farms and personal effects.”