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Linda Tamura

Linda Tamura is one of three editors-in-chief of The Oregon Encyclopedia and is professor of education emerita at Willamette University. A third-generation Japanese American, she grew up on her parents’ apple and pear orchard in Hood River. Tamura is the author of The Hood River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon’s Hood River Valley (University of Illinois Press, 1993) and Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence: Coming Home to Hood River (University of Washington Press, 2011). Her most recent article received the John McClelland Award at the Washington State Historical Society. 

Author's Entries

  • Augustus M. Tanaka (1923-2015)

    The son of immigrant parents, Augustus Masashi Tanaka served in the U.S. military while his father was imprisoned during World War II. He practiced medicine for thirty-five years in Ontario, Oregon, and became the first minority elected as president of the Oregon Medical Association. Tanaka was born in Portland …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Kinzo Suzuki (1840?-1882?)

    Kinzo Suzuki was an early settler of Oregon who arrived in Portland as a political refugee from Japan—an immigration path that was atypical among early Japanese immigrants, who most often came to the United States as laborers. Though he began life in Portland as a servant and lamplighter, Suzuki went …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Sherman Burgoyne (1901-1964)

    Until he arrived in Hood River in 1942, William Sherman Burgoyne had never known any Japanese Americans, but he became an unwitting target when he came to their defense. The descendant of a British general who had been defeated by American troops at Saratoga, Burgoyne was born in Stevensville, Montana, …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Shizue Iwatsuki (1897–1984)

    A humble wife, mother, and public servant in Hood River, Shizue Iwatsuki was also an internationally recognized poet. Born in Okayama, Japan, in 1896, Shizue graduated from high school at a time when Japanese law required only six years and yearned to become a nurse. In 1916, she immigrated …

    Oregon Encyclopedia