James Card:Editor

For a really wonderful evening, stop by the downtown area on the Third
Thursday of each month through September. Enjoy an evening of fun and live
entertainment, free cupcakes from Sugar Cube, a chance to win the giftbasket(s) and best of all "THOSE FAMOUS SNOWCONES"This year Third Thursdays will
have a major part in promoting theTouchstone Project for the Plaza.
The first event that Jim Card andJohn Clark attended was the Third
Thursday of June and what a greattime it was. The setup was on Main
Street by Amiton Furniture. Asnow cone machine was loaned
by Gresham Ford. Free snow
cones for everyone and a great
display for the Touchstone
Project. Jim and John collected
the"bingosheets",
which
required each participant to visit
each business indicated on thesheet. The participant had to get astamp for that location. Onceturned in to the snow cone
location, the bingo card was enter
into a drawing for the gift baskets
filled with prizes from local
businesses, including the Garden.
About 70 bingo cards were turnedin.
Jim and John had so much fun
working with the people from thedowntown business groups. Of
course this could not happen
without a lot of kidding and humor
with the kids and families
stopping by for a free treat.

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5:30 to 8:00 pm, third Thursdays of each month.

The number of visitors to the Garden seems to increase each week as theweather continues to improve. It is amazing how many people visit for thefirst time. Some are coming from quite a distance; Beaverton, Hillsboro,
Hood River and the Dalles.
A young couple were relaxing on the most easterly bench of the garden
recently. They asked a few question about the park and stated they were
new to the area. The lady was from Gresham and the gentleman from LosAngeles. They had stumbled onto the park during their visit.
Most visitors that travel a longer distance have the Japanese Garden as adestination. Those that live close are split into two sections. Some aremaking the Garden a destination. But most just happen to come upon theGarden even though they may visit the park somewhat frequently.

JUNE 2018 EDITION

Page 1early 1970's garden project. This album ison display at most Gresham Ebetsu Sister
City Association functions and is available
for private showings on request. Includedin that information are pictures of theproject, the landscape, the park and thesurrounding areas. Kaz visited the garden
in later years as shown by the Gresham
Outlook. He was disappointed with the up
keep and maintenance of the garden. He
attempted to get assistance from the Cityand the community to help maintain thegarden without success. Unquestionably
his main disappointment was from the lackof respect for the garden by theft and trash
and vandalism. The volunteers of Tsuru
Island are reminded of those same
feelings whenever they come to work inthe garden and see trash and vandalism.
Kaz and others had hoped to undertake arefurbishment of the garden in the 1980'sand 1990's, but little was accomplished.

In the early 1970's a number of JapaneseAmerican Nisei became interested indoing a project at Main City Park. Many ofthese families were associated with theGresham-Troutdale Japanese American
League. Kazuma (Kaz) Tamura and others
started the project now known as Tsuru
Island Japanese Garden. The original
garden was given the Japanese name forthe crane.
The “Tsuru” crane is the Red-crowned
crane only found in east Asia and is one of
the rarest cranes on earth. It is also asymbol of longevity, luck, and fidelity.
Check out the "Dance of the Crane" on theinternet.
The Tamura family migrated to this area inthe early 1900's, logging off and farming
the current family owned farm-site. Kazwas born in Gresham in 1921 andattended Gresham high school andgraduated from Benson High School. He
had hoped to get involved in radio repair
school after obtaining his ham radio
certification. That all changed for Kaz andhis family as well as their fellow Nisei,
during WWII. The family was forced toleave the farm and were placed at theMinidoka Internment camp in Idaho.
Three years later the family returned tothe Gresham farm and continued theirsuccessful farming operation.

Volunteer Appreciation Picnic
7/10/2018 5-7 pm
Hot dogs, burgers, music andfun
Bring your own lawn chairs
and blankets
RSVP by 6/29 – 503-618-2469

To continue fostering the Garden into thefuture for the next 50 to 75 years, anendowment program has been initiated.
Donations to the Garden are placed into
this fund.
And the new program,“Touchstone" engraving, funds willcontinue to enable the upkeep of theGarden.

In 1944, Kaz and Helen Taniguchi weremarried and purchased a separate farm in
Carver, Oregon, where they grew
vegetables and bedding plants. They
raised their two children Paul and Pamela(Oja) while managing both farms until theTamura parents passed. Kaz and Helen
were involved the Japanese-American
League, the Epworth Methodist Church,and the Oregon Farm Bureau.

An area as the Ebetsu Plaza set aside forengraved messages on 8x8 bricks
produced by John Clark and the portable
CNC machine. To see more information
how you can help keep this dream aliveby going to www.ebetsuplaza.com andwww.greshamjapanesegarden.com.

Tomiko Takeuchi was fortunate enough toobtain the original scrap book from theISSUE 29

Kaz passed away after a tragic tractor
accident on the farm in October of 2009
and was proceeded by Helen in August
2000. What a gift to Gresham and thecommunity. Our thanks to Kaz and all of
the original volunteers for giving us aplace that we can enjoy, grow with andpass on to a future community. It is anhonor and privilege to be a part of thisproject.

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June 30, 2018 completes the 7th year
the Japanese Garden was adopted. This
spring has been amazing for thegarden. New growth is on every plantand new fruits coming onto the plants
for fall color. We saw hundreds ofbright red berries on the holly and thenandina during the winter, and since
been eaten by wildlife.
It is a reminder when looking atpictures from the first six years of allthat has been accomplished and all of
the volunteers that have participated.
You can view these changes by goingtothewebsite,www.greshamjapanesegarden.com,
which is maintained by Sue Hughes atResolutions. While there check out the
many pictures within the "interactivegarden" which is maintained by Bill
Peterson. When looking at the list andseeing something like "building thebridge". Also think about how many
volunteer hours were given and how
many months it took to accomplish thetask. Seven years...think what will
happen in the next 10 years.
There is a chance to glimpse at thematurity of some of the plant materials
by looking at the plants that wereoriginal to the first garden 45 years
ago. We are not looking for how bigaround or how tall the shrub or tree
might get, but rather at the training of
the shrub, tree, vine or ground cover.
How well it has performed throughpruning and training and general care.
And not least of which is the roll that it
plays with the rest of the garden. The
volunteers will be looking at the trunks,
the bark, the blooms, leaves and bloom
colors, branch structure and vigor, andthe textures, size, colors and shapes as
they blend together with surrounding
plants. Nothing in nature matches - itjust blends and flows.

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The Garden has been veryfortunate to have been giftedmaterials and funds and use ofbuildings. Over the past years
major projects were completed –building the bridge and pavilion,
major trees have been planted,
wonderful bonsai selections weregifted by Bentwood Tree Farm,large specimens plants donated by
Ty Card, the new path in-front of the"Resource Center", Ebetsu Plaza,
the greenhouse from Toni andBarry, the wood from the City ofGresham, taming of the grasses
around the island, just to name afew. All of these projects werefunded by donors.
The real challenge now begins tocontinue our efforts and to ensurethat the garden will remain andcontinue to prosper for decades tocome. it is necessary so that what
happened over the past 45 years
does not happen again. Sadafumi
Uchiyama told Tomiko and Jim in
the first 90 days of this journey that
"if they like what they see, they will
follow". The "garden endowment"
funds will continue to enable thegarden to flourish.

The answer to the recent
vandalism is to invest into newcameras that have the samefunctionality as our current
set. There will be efforts
made to have cameras at theResource Center and storageyard.
The process of researching
grants is in process andhopefully will be obtained by
the end of July 2018.
If a camera had been in placeat the Resource Center it
would have captured the theftof a very special tree in theplaza. The plant had to havetaken 2 people to lift the pot
and it had to have been hauled
in a truck or van because of
the size and configuration. We
are also in communication
with various departments in
the City to discuss a volunteer
program that would allow
monitoring of the cameras.
Also to create a neighborhoodsecurity group to walk Main
City Park.
In the meantime, pleaseacknowledge all the efforts
John Harold puts forth tomonitor the cameras. And for
his research andcommunication with thecamera manufacturer toresolve access issues. He also
keeps in touch with the NET(neighborhood enforcementteam) officers.
THANK YOU John.

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