大江源太郎ノート：合衆国北西部製材業の一日本人労働者

At the mid−1920s, the Japanese exclusion movement by the labor unions, which had been stilled since the late 1910s, resurged in the Pacific Northwest. Disappointedly, many Japanese in the Pacific Northwest lost their respect for the cause of the labor movement of the United States in the late 1920s and 1930s. A few people, however, continued to seek the organization of the Japanese workers and their solidarity with the white labor unions. Gentaro Oe, a Japanese worker of the Pacific Northwest lumbering industry was one of them. There are not many historical documents that mentioned Oe and I can clarify his life and accomplishment very little. He was, however, one of the diligent contributors of the Taihoku Nippo (Great Northern Daily News), one of the vernacular newspapers in Seattle in those days. He gave his comments on the problems concerning the situation of Japanese workers in the lumbering industry of the Pacific Northwest in many articles published in this newspaper. I introduce some of them in this note. From them, it is clear that he was proud of being a sawmill worker in the Pacific Northwest and hoped that the fellow Japanese workers also would respect themselves. For that purpose, he wished the organization of the Japanese workers of the lumbering industry.