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TUALATIN CENTENNIAL
January 3, 2013
1979
—Edward ByromEl-
ementary School opened.
1982
—Bridgeport Ele-
mentary School opened.
1985
—Tualatin Commons
Park opened.
1992
—HazelbrookMiddle
School opened.
1992
—Atfalati Park
opened.
1992
—Tualatin High
School opened.
1994
—Tualatin Com-
mons, a community gather-
ing place, opened with lake
and fountains.
1996
— Ibach Park opened.
1997
—Brown’s Ferry
Park opened.
2000
—Jurgen’s Park
opened.
2004
—NewTualatin Ele-
mentary School opened as
old brick school closed.
2005
—Old Methodist
Church was moved, refur-
bished and opened as Tuala-
tin Heritage Center.
2008
—The old brick store
was moved east and refur-
bished.
2008
—New library was
built.
2009
—WES commuter
rail line opened, running
fromBeaverton toWilson-
ville.
TUALATIN
TIMELINE
TIMES FILE PHOTO
The WES train shows its face.
By SAUNDRA SORENSON
Pamplin Media Group
W
hen World War I
broke out in 1914,
Art Sasaki said, it
was replicated on
the playground almost every
day where his father went to
school: “People of German de-
scent had it out with people of
English descent.”
His father, who lived in the
Tualatin area
from 1914 on,
was asked if he
would find it
tough to go
home and
speak a differ-
ent language
at home, and
he said no, the
majority of
kids he went to
grade school
with were of a
German, Polish
or Swiss/Ger-
man base —
the vast major-
ity of kids that
he went to
school with
were the first
born American
children of for-
eign immi-
grants.”
When Sasaki himself attend-
ed Sherwood High School from
1958 through 1962, his class-
mates had mostly German or
Italian last names.
“When I was in high school,
if you took out the people who
were axis countries in World
War II — Italy, Germany, Japan
— you wouldn’t have much of a
student body left,” he said.
The Sasakis’ two-year expul-
sion to an internment camp —
where Sasaki himself was born
—might have marked them as
pariahs in other towns or coun-
ties. Not in Tualatin. When
they returned home in 1944, not
only was the farm and house in
good repair, but the crop had
been harvested, all thanks to
the Michaels family, who the
Sasakis had employed in the
past.
“We had a means of income
when we came back” from the
camp, Sasaki said.
“Tualatin was incredibly sup-
porting and
accepting of
our family,
despite the
conditions
that pre-
vailed,” he
said. “We
made a liv-
ing raising
strawberries,
which is la-
bor-intensive
during har-
vest season.
It wouldn’t
have been
possible if
we didn’t
have pickers during harvest
season.”
“A lot has to do with the fact
that the people who came here
got dumped on somewhere
else, so why dump on anyone
here?”
But at a time when those of
Western European descent
strove to set themselves apart
in distinctive groups, didn’t Sa-
saki — or his father — ever feel
like “The Other?”
When he did, Sasaki said, he
used it to his advantage. Tuala-
tin was not a community that
made a point of alienating oth-
ers.
“And on the first day he’s
walking to school, and the guy
that lived on the corner asked
him if he had a name. And the
guy said, ‘Do you have an
American name?’”
When Ojiro said no, the man
replied, “I’m Arthur. You can
use mine.”
Years later, the younger Art
Sasaki would use his heritage
to his advantage.
“Sherwood High School was
253 people total my senior year,
when I became student body
president. I made it a point of
knowing every kid’s first name.
Long story short, not only were
we well accepted, I used it to
my advantage. If you want to
get noticed, just look different.
We were the only Asians
there.”
He points out, too, that when
he was growing up, there were
only two clubs in the entire
state where Jewish golfers
were welcome. One of them
was the Tualatin club, which,
he points out, “they started
from scratch!”
Tualatin's track record
on race and culture
A different kind of
cultural consciousness
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Camp Minidoka Block 39 Barrack 12 in Jerome County, Idaho, in 1943.
“Tualatin
was
incredibly
supporting
and
accepting
of our
family,
despite the
conditions
that
prevailed.”
— Art Sasaki,
Born in an
internment camp
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A family snapshot in 1944 shows Art and Nami Sasaki
along with children Joyce, Sue and Art.
Continued from page 21