Beyond ‘The Big Three’ Japantown
Today’s J-towns may consist of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose but the ‘Preserving California’s Japantowns’ project is uncovering 43 other J-towns that once existed across the state.
On any given day patrons of the Sun Café in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District dig into their dishes of scrambled eggs and sausage and the occasional chow mein. Although the menu may have changed, Yuki Kawamoto, 80, can still remember the same Sun Cafe from the 1920s and 1930s when it was a part of a once-bustling San Diego Japantown.
The Sun Café was owned by the Obayashi family back then and it sat beside several other Japanese businesses — names like Nippon Shokai, Kawasaki Grocery Store, Miyako Restaurant, Kondo pool hall and Mamiya barbershop — that once lined the area around 5th Avenue and Market Street, but are all gone today.
The Kawamoto family ran and also lived in the Empire Hotel on Fourth Avenue during the 1930s and Yuki fondly recalls the once burgeoning Japantown where he and his four siblings grew up. Although some of the historic buildings like the Sun Cafe still stand amongst blocks of restaurants, night clubs, and clothing stores, most tourists and residents alike are unfamiliar with the area’s Japanese American history.
Today, Yuki gives walking tours of the former J-Town area so its history won’t be forgotten.
“Japantown was a thriving and vibrant community before World War II, encompassing many Japanese owned businesses,” said Kawamoto. “I think it’s important to preserve this part of San Diego history because it is part of our history and to know why it existed.”
“We hope someday that we can ask the city council to put up flags or something designating that area as Old Japan Town or something to let visitors know that we were there once until World War II,” said Mich Himaka, 74, whose family once operated the Himaka tofu shop.
San Diego is one of 43 lesser-known California Japantowns that organizers of the “Preserving California’s Japantowns” project are determined to document and preserve. Sponsored by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council and funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEF), the project organizers are currently researching these areas and outreaching to members of the community for help.
“Japanese Americans were a part of the history of this state, an important part. This project is a way to tell their stories,” said Donna Graves, a cultural historian helping to lead the project. “We are looking for physical memories so history won’t be lost.”
The project’s 43 cities includes: Alameda; Bakersfield; Berkeley; Brawley; Cortez; El Centro; Florin; Fowler; Fresno; Gardena; Gilroy; Glendale; Guadalupe; Isleton; Livingston; Lodi; Lompoc; Long Beach; Marysville; Monterey; Mountain View; Oakland; Oxnard; Pasadena; Sebastopol/Petaluma; Riverside; Sacramento; Salinas; San Diego; San Mateo; San Pedro; Santa Ana; Santa Barbara; Santa Maria; Santa Monica; Sawtelle; Stockton; Terminal Island; Vacaville; Venice; Visalia; Walnut Grove; and Watsonville.
“It is amazing,” said Jill Shiraki, project manager, who noted that even preservationists and historians they have talked to are surprised to learn there was once a Japantown in their communities. “They don’t see it in their histories.”
Monterey and Watsonville had a J-Town?
When the Monterey Bay Aquarium was building its Outer Bay Wing, a sign on the office door read “Seapride,” a name most passersby would assume fitting but for Maki Oda it was a source of unexpected family pride. Her father’s fish cannery business from 1926 had been named Seapride Cannery and today part of the Aquarium stands in its place.
Monterey’s miles of blue ocean along a rugged coastline of pine forests has made this area famous and is likely what attracted JA families during the early 1900s, a community that was a large part of the city’s sardine fishing and cannery industry. Before long Monterey could boast its own burgeoning Japantown with businesses like Sunrise Grocery, Mas’ Barbershop, Higashi Hotel, and Azuma Tei Restaurant. The city also had its own JACL Hall.
“The Buddhist Church used the JACL Hall for their services and I went to Sunday school every Sunday. I had Boy Scouts meetings in the basement,” said Larry Oda who recalled older Nikkei telling stories about his grandfather’s cannery. “I remember Mr. Torakichi Tabata at Sunrise would always give me a candy bar whenever we went to buy groceries.”
During the 1900s Watsonville was as famous as the three remaining Japantowns today according to longtime area resident Mas Hashimoto, whose father ran a restaurant, catering and sake brewery in the heart of Japantown, a business that doubled as their home right next to the Buddhist Church.
Like many of the early settlements, a large farming industry was the attraction for many of the JA families who owned a number of businesses in the Watsonville Japantown including barbershops, pool halls, a grocery store, manju store, photography shop, and a gas station. There was a baseball field and the Toyo Community Hall too.
The Japantown also had its own whorehouse for both whites and non-whites.
“Watsonville’s red light district was famous,” said Hashimoto. “After the war, many soldiers and sailors from Monterey would come knocking on our door. As a child I would show them the whorehouses which was on the next block away. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope used to joke about it on their radio shows during the week of the Crosby golf tournament.”
Not Just San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose
For many of these California Japantowns, the onset of WWII and the years of internment would ultimately cause their demise. Forced to leave everything behind after evacuating from the West Coast, many families did not return to their pre-War lives, preferring to resettle in other areas.
Today, the three remaining big three Japantowns still attract tourists and locals alike, but remnants of these long-forgotten J-towns still exist if you look closely enough.
On any given weeknight, sounds of Tai Chi instruction, a waltz, or taiko drumming can be heard from the historic JACL Hall in Monterey that is still used by community members. On weekends the building is host to Japanese language classes and both Buddhist and Christian services.
Organizers of the “Preserving California’s Japantowns” project know that most of what they hope to find will be found in the memories of those Nisei who lived and grew up in these once-thriving communities. For historians like Graves, their knowledge is priceless.
“The only thing non-Nikkei know about Japanese Americans is the internment. They have no physical picture. We want people to stand where Japanese Americans once worked, lived, and farmed. First person narratives,” said Graves.
And for these Nisei, they know that often their stories are all that’s left of an important part of JA history.
“I think it’s important we preserve our history for our own future generations because I don’t think anyone else will,” said Himaka. “I only hope we can get our Yonsei and Gosei more involved … to keep it going."
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