Preserving California’s Japantowns is the first statewide effort to identify and document historic resources from the many pre-WWII Japantowns that thrived across California. Explore former boarding houses, fish stores, florists, churches and other sites that made up pre-WWII Nihonmachis. Although hidden to most passersby, hundreds of places across California still hold the stories of pre-war Japantowns that were built by Issei and Nisei, then devastated by wartime forced removal and incarceration. Only three historic Japantowns still survive with portions of their historic, cultural and social identities intact in Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco. Preserving California’s Japantowns has completed reconnaissance level surveys in nearly fifty communities from San Diego to Marysville that begin to answer the questions: "Where were California's many other Japantowns? And what remains of them?"
Preserving California's Japantowns is led by Donna Graves and Jill Shiraki with sponsorship by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council and generous support from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.
Find out more at: www.californiajapantowns.org/
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Waterside Workshop rents boats that have been built or refurbished through their youth training program. Peaceful on the water, despite the 80 freeway just to the ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Great photo and fascinating history, thanks for sharing. (read more)
thegeographyofmarybrown
Religious services, community events, athletic clubs, and Japanese language classes sponsored by Nikkei churches provided critical social connections for the dispersed Orange County community. The earliest ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
The Furuta family donated land adjacent to their home in 1904 to establish the Winterburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission to serve the Japanese American families scattered across ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
This 1912 home next to the Wintersburg Presbyterian Church belonged to the family of C. Mitsuji and Yukiko Furuta. C.M. Furuta began life in the United ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Most of the sites we surveyed in Bakersfield's historic Japantown have been demolished and replaced by parking garages, empty lots or new construction. The Japanese Methodist ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
In 1941, this building at the corner of 5th Avenue and Market Street held the Ginza Beauty Salon, Ohori Sewing School and Saito Photography Studio along ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Founded in 1902 with the support of around fifty members, the Placer Buddhist Church was the heart and soul of the community. Made up of three ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Constructed in 1925, Long Beach’s Japanese Presbyterian Church at 1333 Locust Street was a center for the community for over fifty years. This 1930s photograph shows ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
The Fourth North American Tenrikyo Church, pictured with its subtle "mon" or Japanese insignia made from wood in the eaves of the entryway, remains a modest ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Originally the Hinode Store, 4 Main Street was one of the first Japanese-owned businesses in Lodi. Opened in the early 1890s, the store sold goods to ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Enmanji Buddhist Temple has a remarkable history. Built as a Japanese exhibit hall for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, the structure replicates the style of an ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Nisei girls perform on the stage of Berkeley Lincoln Elementary School (now called Malcolm X School). In the first half of the 20th century Japanese Americans, ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
With the rapid growth of the community, this hondo (temple) was built in 1938 on property then owned by the Buntaro Nakamura family at the corner ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
The Harada House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. In 2004, the Harada family donated their home to the City of Riverside, under the ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
The Maple Cafe was one of a number of Japanese American-run establishments in downtown Riverside before WWII. (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Perched grandly on the corner of Kern and G Street, the Fresno Betsuin, a three-story rectangular structure with Japanese influence on its hip gable roof and ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
Monterey's Nihonjinkai (Japanese Association), which began in 1908, constructed this community hall in 1926 on Adams Street between the Higashi Hotel and Yokohama Laundry. While the ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
One of several churches and temples serving Berkeley Nikkei prior to WWII, the Free Methodist Church was founded in 1916. It stood in this building on ... (read more)
Preserving California's Japantowns
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