Riverside museum exhibit shows struggle of Japanese-American family in internment camp
The exhibit portrays the unimaginable challenges facing the Haradas, a Japanese American family who operated several successful businesses in Riverside.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The emotionally stirring exhibit, “Reading the Walls: The Struggle of the Haradas,” continues its run at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum now through the end of January.
The Haradas family in 1928. This is the last photo of the family taken together. (Courtesy photo)
The exhibit portrays the unimaginable challenges facing the Haradas, a Japanese American family who operated several successful businesses in Riverside until shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack, the family, like most Japanese-Americans, was placed in an internment camp.
The museum exhibit chronicles the nearly 100-year history of the family and their quest for the American Dream during a dark period in U.S. history.
According to the museum’s information on the family, the Haradas prospered, operating a series of restaurants and boarding houses in Riverside. With the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt, however, 120,000 Japanese Americans — including the Haradas — were dispossessed of property and stripped of their civil rights.
Of particular interest in the museum exhibit is the history of the Harada family home in Riverside, which still stands today. Under the stewardship of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, the National Historic Landmark Harada House represents a significant civil rights case in California.
The home, bought by family patriarch Jukichi Harada in the names of his American-born children, was contested in court in the landmark California vs. Jukichi Harada, et al. The Riverside County Superior Court upheld the children’s ownership of the home under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, essentially proclaiming that as natural-born citizens of America they had every right to own property.
The cost to view the exhibit is by donation. For more information, visit www.riversideca.gov/museum or call 951-826-5273.
Toni McAllister is SWRNN lifestyles editor. She can be reached at toni.mcallister@yahoo.com.
Tags: Jukichi Harada, pearl harbor, Riverside Metropolitan Museum, SWRNN
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