Riverside Museum Associates

07/13/2021

The Harada House Foundation is thrilled to announce that the state of California has awarded $7 million “to the City of Riverside for the preservation of the Harada House” (AB 129/2021-22, Section 273, Section 19.56, No. 151). This award was made along with many other awards in the final California state budget adopted June 25, 2021, and will fund the rehabilitation project for the house, one of Riverside’s two National Historic Landmarks, which is currently structurally unstable.

With this funding, the Harada House is well on the way to its future as an educational resource on the issues of immigration, civil rights, and social equity.

The Harada House is a place where the Harada family fought for the rights of US-born children of immigrants to own property in 1915-1918. In World War II, the Harada family was forcibly removed from their homes, including the family home in Riverside, California, as part of the US government’s mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.
A special shout-out goes to Assemblymember José Medina, who took the laboring oar to secure this funding in Sacramento.

And many thanks to Senator Richard Roth, Congressional Representative Mark Takano, the City of Riverside, and the Museum of Riverside for their efforts to make this funding happen.
@repmarktakano @generalroth @cityofriverside
Image courtesy of the Harada Family Archival Collection, @museumofriverside.
#assemblymemberjosemedina

07/12/2021

Photos from The City of Riverside, Once Upon a Time in Riverside's post

07/10/2021

Riverside, you have a chance to join the Riverside Museum Associates and help us keep our history alive. The city is opening, Heritage House will be open again in September. Mike's History Hikes is now part of the RMA. If you care about the history of our city, become a member today!

07/10/2021

Jukichi Harada, circa 1930s.

The inscription on the back of this photograph suggests it was taken at an event for the Japanese Association of Riverside, for which Jukichi served as president.

Repost from the Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

07/10/2021

Photos from Museum of Riverside's post

07/01/2021

The Museum of Riverside celebrates meeting its fundraising goal for Harada House all at once! A generous allocation from the state of California of $7 million ensures that the rehabilitation of the house and construction of its interpretive center will be completed in full and as quickly as practically possible. With Sumi Harada, Mark Rawitsch, author of "The House on Lemon Street," first nominated Harada House as a local historical landmark in 1977. The house earned its National Historic Landmark status in 1990. Rawitsch’s book tells the story of the Harada family’s struggle to realize their American Dream, from immigration to their challenge of the California Alien Land Law to their forced removal during World War II and beyond. Rawitsch states, “This new support ... means that future generations will be able to learn from the Harada story in ways that should make our country a better place to live and to understand that our diverse history is something all Americans should be proud to know.”

06/21/2021

Jukichi Harada with his eldest child, Masa Atsu, 1909.

Although Masa Atsu was born in 1899, he did not meet his father until late 1902, when Jukichi returned briefly to Japan from the United States. In 1903, Jukichi permanently moved to the United States, later reuniting with Masa Atsu at the Angel Island Immigration Station in 1904.

Repost from the Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

06/20/2021

What is Juneteenth? Some call it the real Fourth of July, as the holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved people in the United States in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom. This happened more than two months after the end of the Civil War. During the War, some Black soldiers in the Union Army rode through Confederate states reading copies of the Emancipation Proclamation to spread the word to those who were still enslaved. This day honors the jubilant news and asks of Americans if this promise of equality has been kept. Just this week, Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law, new legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002719398/

06/08/2021

Photos from Harada House Foundation's post

06/04/2021

Congratulations to our colleagues at the Trujillo Adobe for the inclusion of their site on the "11 Most Endangered Historic Places" list for 2021, issued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Harada House was named to the 2020 list. This national distinction draws attention to the plight of notable historic sites across the country that are in danger of loss, attention that often leads toward rehabilitation and rescue. Historic image depicts the grand opening of the Trujillo School, circa 1875.

06/04/2021

Today marks the U.S. Postal Service’s release of the “Go For Broke” Forever stamp. The stamp commemorates the contributions of Japanese American soldiers to the U.S. Army in World War II. The stamp is named in honor of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated units in U.S. history. Composed almost entirely of Japanese Americans, the 442nd’s motto was “Go for Broke,” meaning they would do anything to prevail. Both Yoshizo and Harold Harada served in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team and returned home safely to the U.S. after the war.
Image courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service.

06/01/2021

Mine Harada and Saburo Kido wedding portrait, 1928.
Mine Harada and Saburo Kido were married in Riverside on May 20, 1928. The newlyweds lived in San Francisco, where Kido operated his own legal practice and Mine worked in an Asian souvenir store, where she made more than double the salary of her husband.

Image courtesy of the Harada Family Archival Collection, Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

05/28/2021

“1924 in front of Hiraima home Pasadena.”

Back row from left: George Ota, Masa Atsu Harada, Tomo Ito, Mine Harada, Mrs. Hiraima. Front row from left: Clark Harada, Ken Harada with baby Harold.

Repost from the Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

05/24/2021

Yesterday, May 23, 2021, was the 79th anniversary of the Harada family’s forced removal and incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II. The incarceration of some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry is one of the most infamous violations of civil rights in our country’s history.

Amid the current rise of hate crimes against Asians and the continuing systemic racism against communities of color in our country, the Harada House Foundation solemnly commemorates the anniversary and shares this remembrance from Naomi Harada, a granddaughter of Jukichi and Ken Harada. It was Naomi’s father, Harold, who inscribed the date on the wall of their family home in Riverside, California with the date and time of their forced removal.

When asked to write my thoughts of the forced removal of my father - Harold Harada, my mother, grandparents, aunts, and uncles from their homes on the West Coast, I became solemnly pensive. I think of tremendous loss on a grand scale: The loss of civil rights and the absence of protection of those rights, doled out by a nation that promises “liberty and justice for all.”

On a smaller scale, there is the personal loss. While it is unknown if the incarceration hastened my grandparents’ demise, the fact remains they died in the Topaz incarceration camp. My siblings and I never got to know our father’s parents. I think about how my family left pets, friends, neighbors, teachers, and personal treasures behind, not knowing if they would ever see them again. My Auntie Sumi lost her means for a livelihood after the war because the family business, the Washington Restaurant, was gone. In letters I have only recently seen, Jess Stebler, a family friend who cared for the Harada House during the war, warned Auntie Sumi not to return to Riverside alone, that she should wait until my father or another brother could accompany her. He was genuinely concerned for her safety. As a child, I knew that Auntie Sumi worked cleaning houses, which causes me to pause on what opportunities were available to her, as her brothers went on to advanced degrees.

My parents met in Topaz. My mother’s family lost everything because of the incarceration.

How different might life have been if it were not for the forced removal?

Naomi Harada, granddaughter of Jukichi and Ken Harada and daughter of Harold Harada, May 23, 2021

#StopAsianHate

05/20/2021

From left: unknown, Mine, Harold, and Clark Harada at Mount Rubidoux, 1920s.

The Harada family took a number of family photographs at Mount Rubidoux over the years. The park was founded by Frank Miller, a key ally of the Haradas during their 1916-1918 legal battle to retain ownership of their home.

Repost from the Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

05/20/2021

Harada House in Riverside Marks Asian Immigrant Civil Rights

Harada House in Riverside Marks Asian Immigrant Civil Rights

The Harada House in downtown Riverside is a marker of the fight for civil rights that Asian immigrants underwent in California. Tony Shin reports for NBC4 at 6 p.m. on May 18, 2021.

05/18/2021

Register at tinyurl.com/EndAAPIhate

05/11/2021

“James” Matsuda, waiter at the Washington Restaurant, circa 1911.

The Harada family took over ownership of the Washington Restaurant circa 1910. The restaurant specialized in “American” food like fried chicken, steak, pork chops, and potatoes. They also served breakfast staples like fried eggs, omelets, hotcakes, and oatmeal.

Repost from the Museum of Riverside We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House.

05/06/2021

May 5th is Kodomo no Hi, or Children’s Day, in Japan! On this day, once known as Boys' Day, families fly carp banners called koinobori, to represent all the members of the family. Today we celebrate this holiday with the release of a video highlighting the life and art of Miné Okubo, who spent her childhood years in Riverside. Pictured is a book published in 1949, with illustrations by Okubo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5xhvGYao1Q

05/01/2021

Photos from Docenting at Heritage House Museum's post

05/01/2021

Don’t know what to do this weekend? How about joining the world’s largest science project? The iNaturalist City Science Challenge was once a biodiversity battle between museums in big cities, but now it’s a global snapshot of life on our planet. From Bratislava to Urubamba, Cape Town to Cape Cod, you can just use your cell phone and the iNaturalist app to photograph and upload the wild world around you. Our “city” is actually the entire Inland Empire, a land that offers deserts and mountains, forests, lakes and regional parks. Don’t like spiders and snakes? How about hummingbirds and wildflowers? Any wildlife you document from April 30 to May 3 will add to the final total of species in the Inland Empire. You’ll be surprised who else lives in your neighborhood. Find out more:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2021-inland-empire

Photo: A Bryant’s Woodrat nurses her pup in a cave at Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park. Photo by D.J. Long, Museum of Riverside.

04/20/2021

What's for Dinner?

What's for Dinner?

04/15/2021

Build-A-Bug

Build-A-Bug

04/08/2021

Photos from Museum of Riverside's post

04/08/2021

Left to right: Mine, Sumi, Ken, and Jukichi Harada in the Harada House backyard, circa 1923.

This photograph was taken around the time Mine graduated from high school. After attending community college and working at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula, she moved to San Francisco. Working in a gift shop in Chinatown, Mine strung pearls and sold Asian souvenirs.

Image courtesy of the Harada Family Archival Collection, Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House. https://www.haradahousefoundation.org/donate

04/06/2021

Photos from City of Riverside, CA - City Government's post

04/02/2021

Ever wonder why the @museumofriverside collects insects? Join them during the Virtual #RiversideInsectFair as they present “Small Things Can Tell a Big Story” a behind the scenes look of their Entomology collection. 🦋🍃🌸 #ILoveRiverside

03/29/2021

Jukichi and Ken Harada, circa 1905-1909.
In 1905, the Harada family was reunited. Jukichi had left Japan in 1903. Ken and their son, Masa Atsu, journeyed to California in 1904. While Masa Atsu was permitted entry into the US, Ken was turned away at Angel Island Immigration Station and required to return to Japan. In 1905, she successfully entered the United States via Canada. Shortly after her arrival, the family moved from Redlands to Riverside.

Image courtesy of the Harada Family Archival Collection, Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House. https://www.haradahousefoundation.org/donate

03/27/2021

Today is National #StopAsianHate Day.

03/26/2021

Jess Stebler, a friend of the family, managed all the Harada affairs in Riverside during their incarceration. Stebler maintained their house on Lemon Street, served as a property manager for rental properties, paid taxes, and secured insurance. He purchased and mailed numerous items that the Haradas required at the concentration camp but had been unable to take with them. His genuine compassion for the family is evident in the numerous letters he wrote to the family.

Image courtesy of the Harada Family Archival Collection, Museum of Riverside. We need to keep the story alive and save the Harada House

03/24/2021

Meet the Women (and Places) Who Inspired Our Women’s History Campaign Design | National Trust for Historic Preservation

Meet the Women (and Places) Who Inspired Our Women’s History Campaign Design | National Trust for Historic Preservation

Get to know the six women featured in our Where Women Made History campaign design and the places where they made history.

03/24/2021

They failed a 'loyalty test.’ Now, Japanese Americans incarcerated at Tule Lake camp reclaim their stories

They failed a 'loyalty test.’ Now, Japanese Americans incarcerated at Tule Lake camp reclaim their stories

After failing a loyalty test, Northern California WWII camp inmates faced a backlash. 75 years later, Tule Lake survivors reclaim their stories.

03/23/2021

Alice Rowan Johnson was a teacher who broke barriers in Riverside. Born in San Bernardino in 1868 to a mother who was born a slave, Alice graduated with honors from the California State Normal School in Los Angeles, a teachers’ college that would one day become UCLA. Upon her marriage, a local newspaper described her as “well known for her intellectual accomplishments.” First teaching in San Bernardino in 1896, she signed a contract to teach at the Trujillo school in Riverside, making her the first African American schoolteacher in Riverside and quite possibly the first African American to teach white children in California.