NIE and Densho: The WWII Odyssey of King County's Japanese Americans

2 APRIL 12, 2015 | Sponsored Newspapers In Education Content EARLY 20TH CENTURY: AN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY Graph based on data from Quintard Taylor’s “The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 108. Japantown, 1920s, Seattle WA. Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry. Graph based on data from Shotaro Frank Miyamoto’s “Social Solidarity among the Japanese in Seattle” (Seattle: University of Washington, 1939), 68. Population of Japanese Immigrants and U.S. Citizens of Japanese Ancestry in Seattle Japanese immigration to the Pacific Northwest began at the end of the 19th century. Most immigrants worked in the logging or railroad industries, both of which needed a supply of cheap labor. Others turned to farming, particularly in the river valleys south of Seattle. By the 1920s, an urban cluster of Japanese-owned businesses had formed in Seattle at Main and Jackson Streets near 5th and 6th Avenues in today’s International District. Many Japanese Americans lived in multi-ethnic residential areas further east. The Katos lived in a home on 18th Avenue near Yesler. “Well, all kinds of people [lived] in the neighborhood,” recalled Akiko. “There were many Jews and a Chinese family, and several black families, and we went in and out of each other’s homes all the time.” But discrimination was also a fact of life for Japanese Americans and other ethnic minorities at that time. Immigrants from East Asia could not purchase land or become naturalized American citizens like immigrants from other parts of the world. In 1924, the United States ended immigration from Japan . By the end of the 1930s, Shosuke Sasaki held a degree in banking and finance from the University of Washington, but like many other highly-educated young Japanese Americans, jobs commensurate with his education were hard to find. “For us, anyone of Japanese descent, it was just a solid wall of prejudice. And there was absolutely no chance of getting any work,” he recalled. Instead, he managed his family’s rental apartments. By 1940, there were 6,975 Japanese Americans in Seattle, making them the largest ethnic minority group in the city. Though Japanese Americans made up less than two percent of Seattle’s population, their segregation and age distribution magnified their impact in certain areas. For instance, Japanese American students made up 32 percent of Broadway High School’s entering class of 1942 and nine percent of Garfield High’s. Japanese Americans also operated 206 hotels and 56 apartment buildings, or 63 percent of the city total, and 225 restaurants or 45 percent of the total. 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1905 1915 1925 1935 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Japanese American African American Chinese American Filipino American Seattle’s Ethnic Minority Population 1900—1940 Today, over 30 percent of Seattle’s population is non-white, and the city includes large populations of immigrants from China, Vietnam, Somalia, Cambodia and other countries. How do their experiences compare to that of Japanese Americans before World War II? What effect does ethnic discrimination have today? 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1905 1915 1925 1935 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 U.S Citizens of Japanese Ancestery Japanese Immigrants