Great Plains lecture: “Rescuing” Japanese American Histories of Nebraska (Read More)

Learn about the vibrant histories of Japanese Americans in Nebraska from the late 19th Century to the present and the community-led efforts to maintain them in this screening and panel discussion. This event begins with a screening of Nebraska Public Media’s recently aired “Nebraska Stories: Rescuing the Japanese Hall” episode (30 minutes), followed by a panel of Japanese American community members, Vickie Sakurada Schaepler (Japanese Hall and History Project Coordinator), Kim Hachiya (community descendant), and Sharon Ishii-Jordan (Professor Emerita at Creighton University and community descendant), and the senior producer of “Nebraska Stories,” Kay Hall. This event will be moderated by Dr. Donna Doan Anderson. This is part of the Paul A. Olson Great Plains lecture series by the Center for Great Plains Studies.

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Early Japanese Settlers in Nebraska (Read More)

Although the majority of Japanese immigrants settled in Hawaii, California, and the West Coast, some pushed further inland, to work on the railroad and coal mines, ending up in Nebraska. A few died from illness, the Spanish Flu, train accidents, their gravestones written in Japanese characters. Others returned to Japan or moved to larger cities. But some stayed, put down roots, raised families, farmed, published newspapers, opened businesses, worked in meat packing plants, laundries, pool halls, and restaurants. This talk will illustrate their journey from Japan, and some of the various paths that brought them here, as well as the transitions they made along the way. Speaker: Julie Ushio, a member of the Advisory Board at Japanese Hall, Legacy of the Plains Museum, in Gering. She grew up in Alliance, Nebraska, where her Japanese grandparents settled.

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