Pictured in row 1 (from left) are Sayuri Hara, Hanako Duff, Selina Uehara, Mona Brines, Kou Yuasa, Claire Coffey, Lindsay Persaud, Midori Carrollo, Tyler Saito Takasumi; second row (from left) Kiyoshi Kiyokawa, Myles Mathies, Reiko Nitta, Issa Ono, Kai Maeda, Isaac Matsushima, Aiden Yee, Koshi Tamiyagi, Masahiro Nakano, Ichiro Tanada, Lili Baechel; third row (from left) Kenshiro Duff, Dylan Nakaji, Lennon Kalapsa, Trillium Ono, Takumi Schmidt, Mason Birney, Avery Hughes-Davis, Reon Sano-Ochiai, Issai Honda; and fourth row (from left) Kegan Egusa, Ren Gregie, Keiden Meyer, Joshua Strege, Thelonius VanDam and Alexander Jiminez. (Photo: Curtis Suyematsu)
The greater Portland area held its 78th Annual Japanese American Graduation banquet to recognize the achievements of 35 local high school seniors on May 4 at the Riverside Golf and Country Club.
With 215 people in attendance to celebrate and congratulate the students in the class of 2025, $35,000 in scholarships were awarded to the outstanding students to help start their college careers. The annual banquet is sponsored by Portland JACL, Gresham-Troutdale JACL, the Buddhist Henjyoji Temple, Epworth United Methodist Church, the Japanese Ancestral Society of Portland, the Nikkei Fujinkai, the Nichiren Buddhist Temple, the Oregon Nisei Veterans, the Oregon Buddhist Temple, the Veleda Women’s Group and Shokookai of Portland.
In addition to the scholarships, each student received the book “Facing the Mountain, a True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II” by Daniel James Brown, donated by the Oregon Nisei Veterans.
