Oregon Coast World War 2 Exhibit Opens Soon in Cannon Beach

Updated 04/30/2015

(Cannon Beach, Oregon) - On December 7, 1941, citizens across the nation heard the shocking news. Pearl Harbor had been attacked by Japan. World War II had begun. No matter how small the town, the repercussions of this war echoed across the nation. Cannon Beach and other coastal towns were no exception. (Photo: blimp over Cannon Beach in 1944).

The Cannon Beach History Center & Museum will open their latest exhibit, “WWII on the Oregon Coast” on Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23 with two presentations by local historians, authors, and documentarians. The first presentation will take place on Friday, May 22 at 7 p.m. by Alisha Hamel who will be giving a presentation on Oregon's role during WWII. Hamel is a member of the Oregon National Guard's historic outreach program and is actively involved with the Oregon Military Museum. She is well known for her acclaimed documentary, "The Jungleers" about the 41st infantry division’s role during WWII.

Saturday's presentation will be given at 7:00 p.m. by professor Ellen Eisenberg who will be presenting her latest book, The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal During WWII. Eisenberg has taught in the History Department since 1990, and holds the Dwight and Margaret Lear Chair in American History. She teaches courses on American history since the Civil War, American social history, American Jewish history, American immigration history, the 1960s, Reconstruction, the Holocaust, and a research seminar called History in the Archives.

The next presentation take place on Friday, June 12 at 7 p.m. and will be a panel discussion put on by the History Center and the Oregon Historical Society. Panelists will offer carefully prepared presentations, leaving plenty of time for audience questions and discussions. Dr. Laura Jane Gifford is a historian of modern American politics with a special interest in the unique dynamics of Oregon's political landscape. Steve McQuiddy is the author of Here on the Edge, the story of how a small group of World War II conscientious objectors plowed the ground for the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s; he writes and lectures on the eccentric margins of Pacific Northwest history. Dr. David G. Lewis is an independent educator, author, and anthropology researcher who lives in Salem, Oregon, in the homeland of his people, the Santiam Kalapuya.

Crater in Warrenton, left by Japanese shelling

The Cannon Beach History Center & Museum’s “WWII on the Oregon Coast” exhibit will share a collection of stories and memories from the Oregon Coast of those who lived and served during the war. The goal of the exhibit is to shed light on events that occurred on the Oregon coast, while exploring how the war impacted the state and its coastal communities. The exhibit will be on display through February of 2016 and has been sponsored by the City of Cannon Beach and the Oregon Humanities Community Project.

This program was made possible in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH's grant program.

The Cannon Beach History Center & Museum is located at 1387 South Spruce Street, across from the Cannon Beach Fire Station. They are open Wednesday through Monday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information visit www.cbhistory.org

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