Aya Fukuda on skates with a friend by the Merchant Hotel doorway, Portland, Oregon, ca. 1938. Photo courtesy of Yoji Matsushima.

The Merchant Hotel, the current home of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center , was one of the central buildings in Portland’s Japantown. It housed the offices of the Japanese language newspaper Oshu Nippo , a laundry and bathhouse, medical offices, Japanese drygoods store, and the hotel itself was at times managed by Japanese. For more information, please contact the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center at 503-224-1458 or go to www.oregonnikkei.org . No photographs may be reproduced without written permission.