A PORTLAND STORY. Bill and Sam Naito — A Portland Story is currently on display at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center (ONLC). The exhibit focuses on the history, work, and legacy of the two Naito brothers through historic family photographs and ephemera in addition to archival images from ONLC. Pictured are Bill and Sam as young boys (left) and a flyer from the Naito Gifts store. (Photos courtesy of the Naito family)

From The Asian Reporter, V19, #47 (December 1, 2009), page 11.

By Allison Voigts

When I first moved to Portland and heard the Naito name invoked (usually in the context of directions: "Take Naito Parkway to the Hawthorne Bridge"), I imagined NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, had some profound effect on the city, not a family of successful Japanese businessmen.

Fortunately for ignorant newcomers like me, the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center’s (ONLC) exhibit about the Naito brothers clears up any confusion about this homonym. Bill and Sam Naito — A Portland Story tells of the Naito brothers’ rise to influence in Portland using video interviews, photographs, and memorabilia donated by the Naito family.

Similar to many of Portland’s Japanese, the Naito brothers grew up in Nihonmachi, or Japantown, an area covering 30 blocks in what is now Old Town. Their parents, Hide and Fukiye, immigrated to Portland from a small farming town near Kobe, Japan before their sons were born.

This made Sam, born in 1921, and Bill, born in 1925, American citizens. The boys grew up straddling two cultures, attending Mount Tabor Elementary School while living a traditional Japanese lifestyle at home. They often worked in Hide’s curio shop on S.W. Washington Street, which their father ingeniously marketed to whites seeking a hint of Japanese exoticism in their homes.

But Hide’s business, and the brothers’ lives in Portland, came to an abrupt halt with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Like the rest of Oregon’s Japanese residents (many of them American citizens), the Naitos were forced to leave their home and business behind. The family moved further inland, relocating to Utah to live with relatives, fortunately avoiding the prison-like internment camps where many of their neighbors were sent.

Sam, who was attending the University of Oregon, finished his studies at the University of Utah before enlisting in the army in 1945. Bill enlisted after completing high school one year earlier, serving as a Japanese interpreter. When the war ended, Sam earned a business degree at Columbia University and returned to Portland to help his father reestablish the family business. Bill followed in 1953 after attending Reed College and the University of Chicago, and the brothers became co-workers and business partners.

The family decided to sell fine Norcrest China, working out of the basement of their home before opening the Import Plaza store in Japantown’s old Globe Hotel in 1962. Both brothers proved to be shrewd businessmen despite their opposite personalities — Sam was formal and reserved while Bill was bubbly and often messy.

The brothers became champions of historical preservation. Their purchase of Import Plaza led to a succession of historic buildings preserved by the Naito Company, which in turn led to the foundation of the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District in 1975. Soon the Naito legacy extended beyond Old Town, as the brothers became highly respected and the most recognized minority businessmen in the city.

Bill helped found the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, and although he was never able to view exhibits at ONLC (he died in 1996), his brother contributed family treasures and attended the October opening of the current display.

Mari Watanabe, the endowment’s executive director, said the exhibit was meant to correspond with the dedication of the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain in Waterfront Park, held last August, as well as an ongoing display about the Naito brothers at the University of Oregon White Stag building.

Bill and Sam Naito — A Portland Story is on display at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, located at 121 N.W. Second Avenue in Portland, through January 10. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00am to 3:00pm and Sunday from noon to 3:00pm. To learn more, call (503) 224-1458 or visit <www.oregonnikkei.org>.