Summer 2013 - Oregon State Library: State Employee Information ...

they were able to form a community within
the internment camp. All of them were well
liked in Arroyo Grande, so neighbors and
friends took care of their property while they
were gone. Despite the hardships they had to
endure, they returned and became successful
in a community that welcomed them back. A
farmer, Haruo Hayashi, became a member of
the Lucia Mar School Board and two of his
sons became doctors.
I enjoyed the other stories as well in this
issue, especially the one about the Japan-
Oregon connection [“Big Wave, Small
World”]. Keep up the great work.
Jerry Cronin ’64, ’67
Pendleton
In 1942, U.S. Marines were battling the
Japanese in the Guadalcanal jungles.
American aircraft carriers were sunk by
Japanese warplanes. So many ships were
sunk in the Solomon Islands “slot” that it was
nicknamed Iron Bottom Sound. The fighting
was a match of equals that could have gone
either way. The American public was frightened
of a West Coast invasion. We cannot
condemn 1942 policy using our 2013 mores
and sensibilities. The prospect of a readymade
collaborationist population, following
a Japanese invasion, impelled the internments
of Japanese Americans.
Philip Ratcliff ’79
Cloverdale, California
I want to congratulate you on another
excellent issue. In the, ahem, somethingsomething
years since I graduated, Oregon
Quarterly has never looked nor read as well
as it does on your watch, in my professional
opinion. I was especially excited to see two
features on subjects pertaining to my area of
expertise, Japan.
You may be aware that Frank Okada, one
of the UO’s most celebrated professors of fine
arts, was the younger brother of author John
Okada, whose No-No Boy was among the first
novels to be published by an Asian American.
The plight of Word War II–era Americans of
Japanese ancestry is closely tied to the history
of the university. My former professor
of Japanese, Yoko Matsuoka McClain, had
her own struggles to contend with during
her climb to tenure at the UO, where she all
but single-handedly established one of the
first and best programs in Japanese language
study of any American public institution. I am
proud to have been a student of hers.
Joe Hlebica ’77
Redding, California
Tears, Cheers, and Jeers
Your editor’s note in the most recent issue
[“Rhapsodic Utterances of Joy,” Spring 2013]
was stunning. It brought me to tears several
times. What you’ve done for your grandfather
with this short article, and by publishing
a link to his essay, is an act of love.
John Harn, MFA ’82
Beaverton
The illustration accompanying the editor’s
note immediately caught my eye. As a sophomore
almost 60 years ago, I was enrolled
in the first-year German class taught by the
late professor Wolfgang Leppmann. One
of the required texts was Gerhard Wiens’s
Bilderlesebuch für Anfänger (Picture Reading
Book for Beginners). The book is a collection
of folk stories in which the text is sprinkled
with illustrations to help students better
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8 OREGON QUARTERLY | SUMMER 2013