General Merchandise Store

When a Japanese community in a certain region began to grow substantially, a number of stores operated by Japanese which catered to the growing needs of the Japanese residents began to cluster in some town blocks to form a Japanese town. Among them, a general merchandise store was important. Yasui Brothers Store which was started in the late 1900s by Yasui brothers in Hood River, Oregon would be its typical example. Many of the Japanese residents in Hood River Valley were initially hired as laborers to work in lumber mills or forests. They soon obtained permission from the lumber companies for which they worked to develop the abandoned hillside lands dotted with stumps of fallen trees into productive orchards and to lease-farm on them. Many years of labor and efforts while still continuing to work at lumber mills did finally convert the waste lands into productive orchards of apples and pears. Yasui Brothers Store in the town of Hood River catered to the daily needs of not only those Japanese farmers who were living in the immediate neighborhood, but also those Japanese who came to farm in the surrounding agricultural communities in the Hood River Valley. The Brothers' store sold a wide range of goods, including Japanese dried and canned food, pots and pans, agricultural as well as carpenters' tools, candies for kids, ceramic wares, watches, jewelry, and dolls, In addition, Masuo Yasui, younger brother, was an insurance agent and a real estate broker. And, he was a recognized leader in the Japanese communities in Hood River Valley, serving as an elected officer of the Japanese Association of Oregon.