 
Reading the Walls
Jan 29, 2009 - Jan 30, 2010
Opening Reception:
Thursday, Feb 5, 2009
Arts Walk 6:00 – 9:00 pm, Free
Taiko Drum Performance by TaikoMix
Sushi Demonstration by Oishii
Ikebana (Japanese Floral Arranging)
First Sunday:
Reading the Walls
Sunday, Mar 1, 2009 1–4:00 pm, Free
Learn how Japanese American families in Riverside lived during the time of World War II through the story of the Harada Family. First Sunday is a monthly series of family programs that feature activities for children and families.
Related Events
November 6, from 6 – 9 pm during Riverside Arts Walk, the Museum will feature a special reception that will include a discussion by Author and Camp Anza Historian, Frank Teurlay. The event is free and open to the public.
 Arts Walk:
The Art of Origami
Thursday, Mar 5, 2009 6–9:00 pm, Free
Learn the art of Japanese paper folding and make a crane for the Paper Crane Peace Memorial Project.
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Reading the Walls
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Paper Crane Peace Memorial
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The Harada Story
 Under the stewardship of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, the National Historic Landmark Harada House is among the most significant and powerful civil rights landmarks in California. This site and the story of the Harada family embody local, state, national, and international issues of civil and individual rights, democracy, immigration, assimilation, and citizenship.
Reading the Walls: The Struggle of the Haradas, a Japanese American Family tells the nearly 100 year history of one immigrant Japanese family and their quest for the American Dream. That dream was partly fulfilled when their ownership of the home, bought by family patriarch Jukichi Harada in the names of his American-born children, was contested in court in the landmark State of California vs. Jukichi Harada, et al. The Riverside County Superior Court upheld the children’s ownership 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.
Until 1941, the Haradas prospered, operating a series of restaurants and boarding houses in Riverside. Jukichi Harada and his wife Ken watched proudly as their seven children grew and worked and went to school and began families of their own. The realization of their dream was shattered in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the advent of World War II. With the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt, 120,000 Japanese Americans were dispossessed of property and stripped of their civil rights.
Their story is a California story and a truly American story. It is a saga of hardship and struggle to achieve the American promise of freedom, citizenship, and a better life. |
