San Francisco Japantown History
San Francisco's Japantown, Nihonjin machi or Nihonmachi, is the oldest Japanese community in the continental United States. (Nihonjin translates to Japanese people, Nihon translates to Japan and machi to town.) Only three Japantowns remain in California with the other two located in Los Angeles and San Jose. The year 2006 marks San Francisco's Japantown 100th anniversary in its current location in the Western Addition. Japantown is located in the area bordered by O'Farrell on the South, Pine on the North, Fillmore on the West and Octavia on the East. The following is a brief history of San Francisco's Japantown beginning with 1906.
Sources: Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, Japantown Task Force, Inc. and National Japanese American Historical Society. (Please see the other timelines for Pre-1906 and Community Institutions history.)
1906 TO 2006
1906: April 18: The Great Earthquake and Fire devastates San Francisco. Japanese enclaves in Chinatown and South of Market are devastated but South Park and Western Addition survives and thrives. The Japanese government contributes $246,000 to the City of San Francisco for earthquake relief, more than all other foreign nations combined.
Japanese community relocates to the present Japantown (O'Farrell to Pine and Octavia to Fillmore) in the Western Addition with a small concentration in South Park (south of market between Second and Third Streets and Brannan and Townsend). A few Japanese businesses returned to Chinatown until World War II (WWII).
In June, anti-Japanese agitation renews. Physical attacks against Japanese residents become common.
October 11: The San Francisco School Board orders the segregation of 93 Japanese school children. After the Japanese government protests, President Theodore Roosevelt forces the Board to rescind the order. The School Board forces a compromise from President Roosevelt to greatly curtail Japanese immigration resulting in the 1908 "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the United States (U.S.) and Japan, which drastically reduces immigration of Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. via Hawaii, Mexico or Canada.
1907: Frequent riots in San Francisco to protest the presence of the Japanese. Anti-Japanese riots are also reported in nearby Berkeley and Oakland.
"Picture brides," many of whom had never met their husbands prior to immigrating, begin arriving at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. Families are soon established and the second generation of Japanese Americans, or Nisei, is born. Nisei are citizens by birth and therefore legally able to own property.
1909: The California Flower Mart, initiated by several Japanese Americans, is established and is the first grower-operated wholesale flower market on the Pacific Coast.
1910: Per the 1910 U.S. Census, 50 Japanese-owned commercial establishments and 4,700 Japanese residents are in San Francisco.
1913: The California State Legislature enacts the Heney-Webb Alien Land Act. This Act forbids property ownership by "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (at the time, immigrants from Asia were not permitted to become naturalized citizens). This restriction applies almost exclusively to Japanese immigrants and remains in effect until 1952.
1915: Panama Pacific Exposition Fair opens in San Francisco. The Japan exhibit is the pride of the Japanese American community.
The Hearst newspaper launches its "Yellow Peril" campaign with sensational headlines and editorial series fueling anti-Japanese hostility.
1920: The Japanese Exclusion League of California is formed at the Native Sons Hall in San Francisco, under the leadership of newspaper publisher V. S. McClatchy.
1922: Supreme Court rules in Takeo Ozawa v. U.S. that naturalization is limited to "free white persons and aliens of African nativity," legalizing exclusion of Asians from citizenship.
1924: Congress passes the Immigration Exclusion Act, cutting off further immigration from Japan until 1952 because they were "aliens ineligible for citizenship."
1940: The U.S. Census reports 285,116 Japanese Americans in the U.S., including 93,717 in California and 5,280 in San Francisco. There are more than 200 Japanese-owned businesses in San Francisco.
1941: In November, the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service Language School opens at the Presidio of San Francisco. The first class includes four Nisei instructors and 60 students, 58 of whom are Japanese American.
December 7: Japan bombs U.S. fleet and military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Congress declares war on Japan. Within hours, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests 736 Japanese resident aliens as security risks.
Following the declaration of war against Japan, the Western Defense Command is established, with headquarters in the Presidio of San Francisco, under Lt. General John L. DeWitt.
U.S. orchestrates and finances the mass abduction, forcible deportation and internment of thousands of people of Japanese, Italian and German ancestry from Latin American countries.
1942: February 13: General DeWitt recommends that Japanese Americans be removed from the West Coast due to "military necessity."
February 19: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which expels "all persons of Japanese ancestry, including aliens and non-aliens" from West Coast military zones.
The entire Japanese community of San Francisco, both citizens and foreign-born, is ordered to register and eventually report for processing to various sites throughout San Francisco, including Kinmon Gakuen (the Japanese language school on Bush Street) and the YMCA building (on Buchanan Street).
In March, the National Student Relocation Council is formed to help transfer Nikkei students to colleges outside the exclusion zone. The West Coast office is housed at the Japanese YWCA. By war's end, some 4,000 Nisei are relocated from the camps to 600 colleges and universities across the country.
April 28: The Tanforan "Assembly Center" is opened to detain Japanese Americans from the San Francisco Bay Area of which 7,816 are held there for six months. Japanese Americans are sent to one of 10 concentration camps located away from the West Coast. Residents of San Francisco were primarily placed in Topaz, near the town of Delta, in the Utah desert where they live in horse stalls surrounded by barbed wire chain-link fences and armed guards in watch towers.
May 30: Fred Korematsu, arrested in San Leandro for violation of the exclusion order, is held in San Francisco County Jail. With the help of Ernest Besig of the American Civil Liberties Union, he challenges the constitutionality of the exclusion order.
More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry are forced from their homes to internment camps.
California fires all Japanese Americans in state civil service positions based on ethnic affiliation.
1943: February 1: Formation of the famed Japanese American 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fights in Europe, and becomes the most decorated unit in American military history. Other Japanese American soldier linguists in the Pacific war become members of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS). Members of the MIS eventually serve in the U.S. Army attached to every unit in the Pacific Theater translating and decoding documents, interrogating Japanese prisoners, and interpreting commands that ultimately resulted in WWII's earlier closure.
Supreme Court rules detention orders are valid use of "war powers" in the Korematsu v. U.S. case.
1945: August 6 and 9: U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
September 2: Japan surrenders. General DeWitt issues Proclamation No. 24, on September 4, revoking the exclusion orders and military restrictions against persons of Japanese ancestry.
Japanese Americans, released from the concentration camps, slowly begin to return to the West Coast.
1948: Twenty-seven blocks of the Western Addition area, including much of Japantown, is selected as one of the first large-scale urban renewal projects in the nation. This involves the mass expulsion of the neighborhood through the use of eminent domain, including a large number of residences and small businesses. The SF Redevelopment Agency (SFRDA) begins acquiring properties in the late 1950's. This undertaking is conducted in two project areas: A-1 (south of Post Street and encompasses an area of 27 blocks including most of Japantown) and A-2 (north of Post Street). The A-2 project begins in 1966 and allows the Japanese American community to hire their own architects and planners to reshape the area between Post and Bush Streets - four blocks of the larger 43-block project. By 1960, about half of the core of Japantown is razed, displacing at least 1,500 residents and more than 60 small Japanese American businesses. At least 58 property parcels pass from Japanese ownership to the SFRDA.
U.S. Supreme Court invalidates California Alien Land Law, which denies gifts of land by immigrant Japanese to citizen children.
President Harry Truman signs "Evacuation Claims Act" paying less than 10 cents on the dollar for property lost because of the incarceration.
1951: U.S. Japan Peace Treaty signed at the Presidio of San Francisco.
1952: The Walter-McCarran Immigration and Nationality Act passes, enabling Asian immigrants to become naturalized citizens of the U.S. for the first time.
California Supreme Court declares racially restrictive Alien Land Laws unenforceable.
1967: The Cherry Blossom Festival is organized. The Grand Parade begins in 1968 with Mayor Joseph Alioto as the Grand Marshall.
1968: The Japanese Cultural and Trade Center is completed and is located between Laguna and Fillmore and Geary and Post. It displaces 60 businesses and 1,500 residents as part of the 27-block redevelopment phase. In the Western Addition, the A-2 phase destroys 11,000 units of low-cost housing and replaces only 7,132 units of affordable housing. Construction had started in 1965.
Third World Student Strike at San Francisco State University (SFSU) takes place.
1969: The Ethnic Studies Program is established at SFSU and the beginning of the Asian American movement begins. The evolution of non-profit community-based service organizations also begins.
1970: The National Council of the JACL adopts a resolution to seek redress and reparations for the internment of Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. Edison Uno, a SFSU professor, is called the "Father of Redress" because he plants the seeds of redress and teachers the first college class on internment.
1976: Buchanan Mall is constructed between Post and Sutter Streets.
1978: JACL National Council passes resolution to seek $25,000 for each individual interned. JACL National Redress Committee is formed to launch national redress campaign.
1979: February 19: The first Day of Remembrance is held to commemorate President's Roosevelt's authorization of Executive Order 9066 and the evacuation and internment of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in 1942.
1980: National Coalition for Redress and Reparations (NCRR) is established.
President Jimmy Carter signs bill to create the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) to determine whether any wrongs had been committed in the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans, and also of 1,000 Aleutian and Pacific Islanders. CWRIC is to recommend remedies.
1981: CWRIC hearings begin. San Francisco hearings are held at Golden Gate University.
1982: After extensive research and testimony, the Congressional CWRIC finds that Executive Order 9066 and the internment of Japanese Americans was "a grave injustice" arising from "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership."
1983: Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi individually file a writ of coram nobis to reopen their WWII cases. Federal court in San Francisco vacates Fred Korematsu's original conviction and rules that the government was not justified in issuing internment orders.
1984: California State Legislature proclaims February 19 to be recognized as "A Day of Remembrance" and to encourage Californians to reflect upon their shared responsibility to uphold the Constitution and the rights of all individuals at all times.
1987: "A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution" opens at the Smithsonian for a 16-year run. The exhibit explores a period of U.S. history when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of a citizen versus the power of the state. It is now available as an on-line exhibit at http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html.
1988: August 10: The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 is signed by President Ronald Reagan and extends a formal apology for the unjust incarceration of those 60,000 survivors that were impacted by Executive Order 9066. In 1990, some of the first redress checks in the amount of $20,000 were presented to 100-year old Chio Mizuno, Kiyoshi Yamashita and Mitsu Sato of San Francisco.
1990: San Francisco School Board unanimously adopts "Day of Remembrance" resolution introduced by board member Leland Yee.
1998: Assembly Bill 1915 is passed in the California State Legislature, creating the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, funding projects to educate Californians about the Japanese American experience immediately before, during and after WWII.
2001: California State Legislature passes Senate Bill 307 to initiate planning process to help preserve the last remaining Japantowns in California.
September 11: Terrorists attack the World Trade Center (New York) and Pentagon (Washington, D.C.). U.S. Government detains and deports hundreds of Arab, South Asian, and Muslim citizens and non-citizens without charge or due process. Hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians rise sharply all over the U.S. Japanese Americans rally in support of communities under attack.
2006: The 100th anniversary of Japantown in the Western Addition is celebrated with monthly events that provide an opportunity to celebrate the history, struggles, challenges and triumphs of the Japanese Americans in San Francisco and to educate the general public about Japanese culture and heritage.
PRE-1906 HISTORY
1841: Manjiro Nakahama among the earliest Japanese to arrive in Hawaii and United States (U.S.). Serves as interpreter for Commodore Perry in 1853.
1850: Hikozaemon, also known as Hikozo Hamada or Joseph Heco, is rescued at sea. He attends school in San Francisco and becomes the first Japanese naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1858.
1860: Kanrin Maru, the first Japanese vessel to land in San Francisco, brings the first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. His interpreter, Manjiro Nakahama, was the first recorded Japanese in the U.S. In 1841, Nakahama had been rescued at sea by a whaling ship and brought to Massachusetts.
1867: Tsurukichi Tanaka (1849-1925) arrived in San Francisco and worked as a houseboy for the president of a shoe company.
1869: The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony, found a settlement in Gold Hill.
1870: The first Japanese Consulate in the U.S. is established in San Francisco.
1873: Japanese Consulate reports the Japanese population in San Francisco at 68 males, eight females and four children, mostly servants at Caucasian homes. Pay for those with experience was about $15 a month.
1880's: The first group of Japanese immigrants arrives in San Francisco and they comprised of a few hundred impoverished male students. The first generation of Japanese American is called Issei. They settled on the edge of Chinatown (along Dupont, now Grant, between California and Bush Streets), the Western Addition (Octavia to Fillmore & O'Farrell to California), South Park (2nd & 3rd, Bryant and Brannan), and in the South of Market district (bounded by Market, Howard, Fifth and Seventh Streets). Most Japanese establishments were on the back alleys, such as Stevenson and Jessie.
1886: Aikawa Shiga publishes the Shinome Zashi, believed to be the first Japanese American newspaper on the mainland.
1890: The U.S. Census reports 2,039 Japanese residents in the U.S. and 1,147 in California, mostly student-laborers in San Francisco.
1893: San Francisco Board of Education passes regulation to segregate all Japanese children to a Chinese school. Japanese government protests and the regulation is withdrawn.
1894: The Japanese Tea Garden is built in Golden Gate Park as a public exhibition at the 1894 Midwinter Fair.
1900: The U.S. Census reports the Nikkei population in the U.S. at 24,326, with 10,151 living in California, and 1,781 in San Francisco.
The first anti-Japanese protest rally in California takes place in San Francisco, instigated by local labor groups and led by Mayor James D. Phelan, who later became State Senator. In response, the Japanese Deliberative Council of America is formed, which in 1909 becomes the Japanese Association of America.
1901: The Japanese Cemetery in Colma City was built with a generous grant from Emperor Meiji of Japan.
1903: The first Japanese baseball team on the U.S. Mainland was the Fuji Club.
1904: Convening in San Francisco, the National Convention of the American Federation of labor resolves to deny membership to Japanese, Chinese and Koreans.
Japan declares war on Russia. Russia badly defeated. American sentiment, initially with Japan, soon turn antagonistic.
1905: The San Francisco Chronicle publishes a series of articles on "The Japanese Invasion, the Problem of the Hour."
Delegates from 67 organizations meet in San Francisco to form the Asiatic Exclusion League. The California State Legislature urges Congress to limit Japanese immigration.
COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS HISTORY
1877: The Japanese Gospel Society (Fukuin kai) is founded by Methodist and Congregationalist student converts. Fukuin Kai is believed to be the first Japanese organization in the United States (U.S.) and the earliest Japanese Christian organization. It is now known as the Pine United Methodist Church.
1885: The first Japanese Presbyterian Church of San Francisco (Dai-ichi Nihonjin Choro Kyokai) is organized by members of the Golden Gate Gospel Society.
1886: The Japanese Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded by Dr. Ernest Sturge
1891: The Greater Japanese Association, the first such organization, is formed by Sutemi Chinda, the Japanese Consul from 1890 to 1894.
1892: Soko Shimbun (San Francisco News) is the first Nikkei daily newspaper. It is renamed Soko Shimpo (San Francisco Daily) and later Soko Jiji (San Francisco Times).
1894: Shin Sekai (New World), the first typeset daily, is published as the house organ of the Haight Street YMCA, and becomes the oldest, continuously published Japanese language newspaper.
1898: Two Buddhist priests found the Hokubei Bukkyo Dan (North America Buddhist Mission), which becomes the Buddhist Churches of America in 1944.
1899: The Nichibei Kinyusha (Japanese America Financial Company) is the first financial institution to be established by local Japanese. It becomes the Nichibei Ginko (Japanese American Bank) in 1903.
1905: The Japanese Congregational Church of San Francisco is founded.
1906: In May the California Flower Growers Association (Kashu Kaki Saibai Kumiai) is formed by Issei growers.
1911: The Kinmon Gakuen (Golden Gate School) opened.
1912: The Japanese YWCA is founded by members of Japanese Christian churches. At the time, the YWCA was a segregated institution.
1915: The Japanese Boys Association, which became Boy Scout Troop 12, was founded by Yoshiko Sano. Troop 12 is the oldest Boy Scout troops in the nation.
1923: Nisei delegates meet in San Francisco to form the American Loyalty League. Led by Fresno dentist Thomas Yatabe, it becomes an important precursor of the Japanese American Citizens League.
1929: Thomas Yatabe, Saburo Kido and Clarence Arai organize the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), with headquarters in San Francisco. The JACL is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the U.S.
Father Stoecke established Morning Star School, an elementary school that taught Japanese language.
1932: The Japanese YWCA, designed by Julia Morgan, opens at 1830 Sutter. It is funded by Issei women who cannot hold title because of the Alien Land Laws and who were not allowed to use other YWCA facilities.
1953: The Japanese American Merchants and Property Owners Association was the first organization to address concerns around redevelopment.
1951: Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California established.
1964: The Nihonmachi Community Development Corporation (NCDC) was formed by the United Committee for the Japantown Community (UCJC) and the NCDC was responsible for "allocating development sites to its members, undertaking the financing and development of shared facilities, [and] coordinating community interests with" the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRDA).
1968: Headmaster Sen'ei Ikenobo, a 45th generation master, established a San Francisco office of the Ikenobo Ikebana (flower arrangement) School.
The San Francisco Taiko Dojo is established by Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, the first organized taiko group in the United States. The taiko drum is considered sacred in Japan and was first used to drive away evil spirits from crops and later to give thanks for a plentiful harvest.
1969: The Ethnic Studies Program is established at San Francisco State University and the beginning of the Asian American movement, the evolution of non-profit community-based service organizations also began.
1969: The Japanese American National Library was established in response to a demand from the San Francisco State University Admissions Department.
1970: The Japanese Community Youth Council, the first community-based organization, is incorporated as a nonprofit organization serving the youth from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
The San Francisco Bonsai Society was founded by Kibei, second generation Japanese Americans who were educated in Japan.
1971: Kimochi, Inc. is founded to address the needs of the elderly Issei, who were not being served by the mainstream service organizations due to cultural and language barriers. Kimochi means "feelings" in Japanese.
1973: Citizens Against Nihonmachi Eviction (CANE) was formed to raise community awareness and protest the SFRDA evictions and to decry the loss of affordable housing and the destruction of neighborhood businesses to make tourist-oriented hotels and shops. Activists later redirected much of their energy, passion and ideals toward establishing community-based groups serving the elderly, children, youth, newcomers and former World War II internees.
The Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California is incorporated to provide cultural, educational, recreational and social programs.
1974: The Nihonmachi Street Fair was started and is a two-day event that celebrates the cultures of various Asian and Pacific Islander communities around the Bay Area.
Nobiru Kai, Japanese Newcomer Services, was founded to provide bilingual/bicultural community services to Japanese citizens who are new arrivals to the San Francisco Bay Area.
1975: Nihonmachi Terrace is a housing complex built for seniors and low-income families. It was an effort by the Japanese American Religious Federation.
Nihonmachi Little Friends is established by a group of parents, educators, and community activists who were committed to the idea of offering sensitive, bilingual and low-cost childcare.
1977: The Japanese American History Archives was created by the California First Bank (now Union Bank of California) and continued to grow with items donated by members of the community or procured by Seizo Oka, the manager of the Archives
1980: The National Japanese American Historical Society was founded as Go For Broke, Inc. to inform the public about the military history of the Nisei soldier.
The National Coalition for Redress and Reparations (NCRR) was established and a Bay Area chapter was formed.
1986: First phase of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California building is completed.
1990: Radio Mainichi is established as the first and only Japanese radio station in Northern California providing weekday broadcasts.
Updated 3-3-06
