Friday, March 28, 2008

Japanese Gate, Expo Center MAX Station


We took public transit out to the Portland Expo Center for the Green Living Show tonight. This is one of the timber Japanese gates at the Expo Center MAX Station. (You can see more photos of the gates by clicking the link.) The gate is strung with replicas of steel internment tags assigned to Japanese American citizens during World War II. The gates, in addition to steel placards at the station, are a reminder of a sad time in our nation's history. The land out here, on the edge of the Columbia River, was a temporary Japanese internment center.
I felt weird walking through these gates after getting off the train. We passed through them casually at first, as I imagine most people do. But when I realized what they stood for, I had to make photos. Still, it seemed it would have been appropriate to pause longer to recognize and reverence what went on here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love this! Marianne