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Vancouver Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services invites you to the Nikkei Neighborhood Park Naming Celebration
Friday, July 15, 2022
Music at 7PM
Ceremony at 7:20PM
Nikkei Neighborhood Park
NE 52nd Street & NE 137th Ave, Vancouver, WA
Featuring live music with the Minidoka Swing Band, Japanese storytelling by Alton Takiyama-Chung, and a performance from Portland Taiko.
More information on the name from the City of Vancouver:
The name Nikkei Park was chosen to honor the Japanese American truck farmers who grew crops in the early 1900s in the area where the park is now located. Truck farmers were a vital part of the local food supply. By 1930, 47 percent of truck farmers in Clark County were Japanese American.
During World War II, Vancouver’s Japanese American farmers were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to prison camps. Of the 19 Japanese American households on record in Clark County in 1940, only one moved back after release from the prison camps. That family was required to buy their land back from its caretaker and start over from scratch.
Selecting the name Nikkei Park is a way to remember the families that experienced this great injustice and honor their legacy with a place that is filled with beauty, joy and a sense of belonging.