Excerpt from Chapter 4
When two o'clock arrived about fifty men and two hundred women and children gathered at the port dock in front of William S. Colvin's general merchandise store as planned. Before starting their march, the group listened to Colvin and Pritchard deliver speeches of protest. Arthur B. Griswald recalled Colvin urging the demonstrators to action. Colvin argued that the Pacific Spruce Corporation brought the Japanese workers into Toledo, and it was now up to the citizenry of the town to kick the Japanese out whether peacefully or by force. With his skewed version of nationalism he said, "I appeal to every man who respects his flag to join the line." Colvin asked for a volunteer from the American Legion to carry the American flag from his store. When no one came forward, he handed the flag to an intoxicated Martin H. Germer who walked in front of the crowd as a flag bearer. As the column organized, children jostled for their place in line.
Colvin, Charles A. Buck, H. T. Pritchard, Frank Sturdevant, and L. D. Emerson were among those leading the column of protesters along the boardwalk. The crowd followed the railroad tracks to the county road, passing by the baseball field.
Owen Hart, his brother, Rollie, and Chris Bredstead had gone to play in a Sunday baseball game but found that the game had been cancelled. They were at the ball field when the protesters passed by. Owen and Chris got caught up in the excitement and joined in.
The crowd then crossed over the bridge at Depot Slough. The whole course had taken fifteen to twenty minutes to walk. At the overpass a private planked road forked off onto mill property and went alongside Tokyo Slough to the Japanese housing about fifty yards away.
C.D. Johnson, Dean Johnson and a group of deputized Pacific Spruce employees were standing on the platform piling separating the public easement from private mill property and stopped the group from going any further. The Johnsons, who had been deputized the day before by Sheriff George Horsfall, were determined to protect their property and their right to manage their company as they best determined.
Pritchard, acting as spokesman for the demonstrators, approached C.D. Johnson and asked if he could see the "head man" (referring to Japanese foreman Ichiro Kawamoto). Almost immediately Johnson pushed Pritchard in the chest and told him to get off the property. The protesters who had held back up to this point started moving closer. Aware of the emotionally charged air, Johnson promptly drew a line indicating a point of trespass. He warned the crowd not to cross the line and said, "Your apparent intentions are foolish." As the throng moved closer an old lady with a stick was about to hit Johnson in the face, and men beyond the Southern Pacific right-of-way began picking up rocks. The group of indignant protesters had quickly turned into an angry mob.
Most of the women and children went onto the county road overpass to get a good view of the action, which also kept them off the company property as C.D. Johnson had warned. Many of these people were yelling and urging the fifty-plus men to move on. "Down with the Japs," "Out With the Japs" and "Hang the Japs" were repeated over and over.
Sheriff Horsfall had deputized mill office manager John F. Markham the night before. At the moment Johnson was threatened by the old lady with the stick, Markham, who was standing near Johnson, drew his handgun and warned the crowd, "Gentlemen, I represent the law, stand back." He pointed the gun into the crowd at close range, "Stop or I'll have to kill somebody. I'm a deputy sheriff, and it's my duty I'm doing." C.D. Johnson then pointed his finger at Markham as he said to Pritchard, "If he shoots a half-dozen of you, you're to blame." Pritchard replied to Johnson, "There are no guns in our crowd," and made no effort to leave.
As long as Markham had the gun in his hand, the mob was kept at bay. Suddenly, fifteen year-old Sonny Carson attacked Markham. The youth's hands shot up, pulling the revolver out of Markham's hand and the riot started. Markham swung at a member of the mob but was quickly overwhelmed and severely beaten.
During the fight Owen Hart was hit in the face and knocked momentarily unconscious. He also lost two teeth during the clash.
Another company deputy, Frank W. Stevens, put his hands up in an attempt to stop the surging mob and was told, "We don't want anything but the Japs. We're here to get them and we're going to do it." Overwhelmed by their numbers, Stevens couldn't stop the horde from pushing past him as Martin Germer carried the flag onto the platform where Stevens had been standing just moments before.
People were yelling, "Get the Japs, string them up." Company Deputy George C. Allen noticed the smell of alcohol in the air as he did his best to get control of the situation. He was quickly overrun as someone said, "get out of the way." Allen was then pushed to the ground. Pritchard courteously picked up Allen's hat and handed it to him then continued towards the Japanese housing. As the rioters passed them, C.D. Johnson and his defeated men followed.
Ichiro and Ito Kawamoto had been watching from their house as the fight described above broke out. They were alarmed with the unfolding drama and retreated into their home, locking the door in hope of protecting themselves and their children. They heard rocks and sticks hitting the houses as the mob rushed in.
A.R. Richardson, a sixty-year-old contractor, had picked up Markham's handgun during the fight at the property line. He now carried the pistol close to his body as he walked towards the Japanese houses. He might have been protecting the gun from the rest of the crowd, but the fact that it was loaded made the potential for deadly force very real.
As with the threats she'd witnessed earlier that day from her backyard garden, Mamie Altree now saw the noisy mob throwing rocks and sticks into the compound as they approached. She saw Germer carrying the American flag and recognized Owen Hart who was in pain from his injuries and now looking for the man who hit him. She heard people yelling, "Bring them out, bring out the Japs" repeatedly. She also saw A.R. Richardson carrying the gun. Mrs. James Burns of Eddyville was also present when the mob entered the Japanese housing. As with Altree's observations, Mrs. Burns later described similar events.
When the fifty-plus rioters entered the housing area, they immediately scattered among the four or five alleys that ran between the homes. With the women and children watching from the railroad overpass, there still remained twice as many men (and a few women) in the mob as there were Japanese.
Owen Hart entered the housing area with Chris Bredstead looking for the man who had knocked out his teeth. He thought it was Bob Richardson and was about to hit him when someone told him that it was not Richardson but a guy named Lyall R. Bolton. Hart "started looking for Bolton and when [he] found him among the Japanese houses, Hart offered to finish the fight." The two men resolved their dispute then parted.
As the mob attempted to get at the Japanese, Hart, in the frenzy and chaos of the riot, crawled through an unlocked window to get inside one of the houses. Meeting no resistance he unlocked the door and told the frightened inhabitants to go outside. At the same time Germer was outside rushing wildly about, waving the flag and urging the mob to "get them out!" All of the Japanese were ordered to pack their bags and wait outside.
One of the mob members knocked on the door of Filipino Donato Angillis and asked him to come outside. The man asked Angillis if he was Japanese and he answered, "no." The trespasser then made it clear to Angillis that none of the Asians were welcome in town and that an automobile was being provided for his departure. The intruder then moved on to another house.
At the foreman's house, Mrs. Kawamoto looked on in fright as William S. Colvin and two other men broke into her home using a big piece of wood as a battering ram. They told Mr. Kawamoto to get out of the house in "two minutes." He asked why and they replied, "It don't make any difference why, we don't allow Japs around here any more." Kawamoto resisted, saying, "I belong with the mill and am going to stay right here." With that act of defiance one of the men said, "If you don't get out I'll hang you up and kill you. Kawamoto repeated that he was not going anywhere. Two of the men grabbed him and threw him down on the floor and for a second time demanded he leave:
I was hurt and couldn't get up. I couldn't say anything I was too scared. Then they kicked me, pulled me up and socked my jaw. My nose began to bleed. Still I didn't . . . go and the fellows took me by the arms and led me out. I was so scared I could hardly talk. My wife and babies were crying.
While testifying about this episode, Mrs. Kawamoto said, "They kicked his face and he bled much. I thought he was cut with a knife." She said that two white men pushed her husband out of the house, and she followed holding her baby, George, along with her other two children (three-and-a-half year old Kiyoshi and two-year old Shizue). She said, "I felt very sorry, I never felt such a feeling in my life." Mrs. Kawamoto explained, "I thought my husband and my children and I would be killed." She stood by the house as her husband was taken towards the duplex housing.
Kawamoto tried to reason with Colvin on behalf of the Issei. He told Colvin if the people of Toledo were so determined to make the Japanese leave, then at least let them wait until the next day when a scheduled train would be available for departure (#402 at 12:55 a.m.). Colvin would not agree and Kawamoto had to give in. He said, "we go" and began knocking on doors to encourage his crew to pack up and come out of their houses. Peter Tangen, one of the mob members commented later that Kawamoto went to at least three of the houses telling his workers to come out. While Ichiro was separated from his wife and trying to organize the other Japanese employees he saw Sheriff Horsfall arrive along with Deputy Jess Daniel and Deputy Plank. When the Sheriff arrived the Japanese were not putting up any resistance. Out of fear of further harm to himself, Ichiro did not talk to the Sheriff. He was concerned for his life and the lives of his wife and children.
Horsfall and Daniels ordered the mob to leave as an intoxicated Martin Germer resisted the Sheriff. Germer was immediately arrested for trespassing, along with William Colvin whom Sheriff Horsfall had noticed leaving Kawamoto's house. Deputy Daniels took the two men towards the jailhouse while Horsfall began writing down names of the fifty-plus people present.
Nothing in the research indicates that Sheriff Horsfall questioned anyone about Markham's handgun. A.R. Richardson had probably thrown the pistol into Tokyo Slough by this time.
The crowd was starting to break up when Germer and Colvin returned, yelling, "Come on fellows, the Japs haven't gone yet. They've got to get out this afternoon." When the mayhem rekindled, Germer again rushed wildly about, waving the flag and yelling, "Get them out! Get them out!" Archie L. McMurray said at the trial that by the time Germer returned, most of the Japanese were already huddled outside of their houses.
When C.D. Johnson saw Colvin and Germer return he approached Sheriff Horsfall and said in frustration, "Sheriff, I turn the property over to you." Then he left with his men and walked to the company office building located across the slough. From there they watched the outcome, which took about another forty-five minutes.
Tamakichi Ogura later recalled, "They were pulling my shoulder and everywhere was a great noise, and I was falling down." The people in the mob told him that he was not wanted. During this chaos Ogura approached Deputy Daniels for help. Daniels said, "You better get out of this town or they're going to kill you!" Ogura replied, "Everything has been misrepresented to us. We would not have come if we knew how unwelcome we would be. If we had enough money we'd get out." Within the hour he was handed a small amount of money for a train ticket, which he immediately returned to the City Marshal, George Schenck.
Ichiro Kawamoto returned to his wife about thirty minutes after he had been forcefully taken away. Two men and a woman from the mob escorted him. The woman was Mrs. Inez Riggs of Devitt. She was in Toledo that day visiting her daughter, Mrs. A.M. Wirfs. Mrs. Riggs later recalled that from what she could see at the time, Mr. Kawamoto was not injured. She also commented on Mrs. Kawamoto, "This lady being so nervous and frightened, we went in [to her house]. I told her they needn't be frightened, that nobody was going to hurt them. She didn't seem to understand much." Not all of the women in attendance were as kind. As Mrs. Kawamoto began preparing to leave, an unknown woman came up and started jerking laundry off of her clothesline. She threw the laundry at Mrs. Kawamoto saying, "Here, you forgot something." Mrs. Kawamoto already had every intention of leaving.
A man and young woman came by the Kawamoto's house at this time and noticed the Kawamoto family dog. "I had a pup three months old," Ichiro later related. "I paid fifteen dollars for it. A white man and young lady came along and admired it. "This is a pretty nice dog" the man said and then took it. "You won't need the dog anyway because you're going to be killed in a few minutes." Although the Sheriff was present, people continued threatening the Issei.
Lack of resistance by the Japanese during the riot most likely saved lives. Any of the Issei could easily have fought back with passion and anger. However, if they had put up a fight, there could have been further consequences, since the mob had a handgun and was initially out of control. Although all of the Asian employees were intimidated and insulted, Ichiro Kawamoto was the only one physically attacked (although Tamakichi Ogura was knocked to the ground).
From the Pacific Spruce Mill office C.D. Johnson and the other mill officials kept a close watch on the activities taking place, Johnson recognized the determination of the protesters attacking the Japanese:
Forty-five minutes later we saw the mob marching the Japanese in a sort of squad, down the track. People were cursing in the crowd as they herded the Japanese out of the houses. People on the platform cheered [as the Japanese walked by], and then they followed.
Johnson saw the Japanese driven like cattle to Hill Street (Main Street today) where cars and trucks were waiting to take them out of Lincoln County to Corvallis. Mr. Wirfs, a member of the mob, helped carry bags from the Japanese housing to the waiting vehicles. At the 1926 trial, he stated that there was a lot of luggage, and he wanted to hurry up the expulsion.
Deputy Daniels re-arrested Germer. This time he was put in the jailhouse and remained incarcerated until later that evening (most likely to sober up). Four other people were also detained and charged with participation in a riot: W.S. Colvin, C. Buck, H.T. Pritchard and James Stewart.
As Deputy Daniels locked the jailhouse door, a group from the mob confronted him. Morris Adderson of Siletz demanded the jail keys. Daniels, who was firm and calm, refused to give them up and said, "I have seven bullets and when they are gone, and I am dead, you can take them." That ended the argument. All but Germer were later released on their own recognizance. These arrests provided some of the names that were used in the lawsuit the following year.
The cars and trucks used to transport the Japanese had been hastily arranged along Hill Street. One of the rioters, a Toledo farmer named H. A. Schlecht, went ahead of the Japanese to arrange for transportation with the Fred Horning Transfer Company to carry passengers and luggage. He commented later about his action, "I just took it on myself to order the trucks and I went to town to get [them]." George Parrish, a lifelong resident of Toledo, recalled in a 2004 interview that his father, who was one of the truck drivers, told him that Fred Horning donated at least two trucks to transport the Japanese. Another Horning Transfer employee who drove the Japanese was Howard (Smitty) S. Day. Day testified at the trial the following year that City Marshal Schenck had paid him twenty dollars to take the Japanese baggage and some of the Japanese to Corvallis located about fifty miles inland. Schenck handed Day the money and said sarcastically that the driving services should be donated. Prior to loading all of the Issei into the vehicles, A.R. Richardson passed a hat around to collect money. He reasoned that the money could be used by the Japanese to purchase train tickets from Corvallis to Portland. When he attempted to turn over the collection, Mr. Koichi Yamano, refused to take it. His wife, Kazu took the money and passed it to Ogura who then gave it to City Marshal Schenck. Ogura told Schenck, "We don't want that kind of money," and suggested that Schenck give it to a charity.
Schenck then "shoved" Ogura and two other Issei into an automobile driven by a one armed man. A. M. Wirfs also passed a hat around and collected over fifteen dollars and then gave the money to Ichiro Kawamoto. Like Yamano, Kawamoto returned the collection to City Marshal Schenck. The total in these two hats was thirty dollars and thirty-six cents. Mr. Youjiro Mitani was one of the Japanese loaded onto a truck. He commented at the trial that his driver, "drove recklessly and with an abandon and carelessness that caused ...great alarm..." In 1925, the road to Corvallis had hundreds of curves and it didn't take much speed to create a wild ride in the back of one of those old wooden trucks. During all of this confusion Mr. Mitani lost his watch which was valued at twenty-seven dollars.
Owen and Rollie Hart both offered to take people to Corvallis in their cars. Owen later insisted that no force was used to get the Japanese to ride with him. He shared cigarettes and had friendly conversation during the drive and noticed that his passengers seemed frightened. Owen later commented, "When we reached Corvallis they got out of the car and thanked me for bringing them."
In all, twenty-two Japanese resident laborers, four Filipino employees, one Korean worker, two women and three Japanese American children were loaded into cars and trucks and driven to Corvallis. Long-time Toledo resident Sid Neal was only five-years-old in 1925. He still remembers the image of that day quite vividly:
They ran the Japanese out of Tokyo..., which was a housing area, located west of the mill across from Tokyo Slough. The houses were built on pilings. At that time we lived on the highway about three miles from town. When the procession passed by our house we came out to watch. Dad said, "well, that's the Japanese that are leaving." There was car after car and there were some trucks. I remember seeing their possessions loaded on top of the cars.
As the vehicles reached the Corvallis train depot and people unloaded their belongings, some of the Japanese shook hands with their drivers and others said they were going to sue the Pacific Spruce Corporation for bringing them into the hostile town.
Arrangements were made with the Southern Pacific agent for emergency transportation to Portland. Twenty-four of the Issei left on a chartered Red Electric train that night. After arriving in Portland, they stayed at the Takatsugu Misao Hotel on SW 2nd, in downtown Portland. The hotel was owned by the Hasegawa Business Store. That night they talked about what had just occurred and what they should do next. A number of the men soon found work at sawmills located in Columbia County north of Portland.