2017 Volume 82 Issue 739 Pages 2207-2216
This study is focusing on the race structure and the space structure of old Japantown, the role of Japanese American business and Japanese American community in Walnut Grove, Northern California.
There are 2 Japantown and 25 old Japantown in Northern California. 9 old Japantown are concentrated on Sacramento Valley. The old Japantown in Sacramento County are developed at Sacramento, Florin, Walnut Grove and Isleton along Sacramento River. From 1860‘s, Chinese migrant workers, who hired on the reclamation of Sacramento River and the construction of Southern Pacific Railroad, moved to Walnut Grove. Afterwards, Japanese migrant workers moved to work at farm and farm products processing factory from 1890‘s.
The racial segregation existed across Sacramento River at Walnut Grove. The east side of Sacramento River was the Asian residence area where Chinatown and Japantown were located. And the west side of Sacramento River was the White residence area for Italian and German. However, many Chinese had moved to Locke, because Chinatown burned away by fire in 1915 and 1937. Many of Japanese who burned out from Chinatown in 1915 had moved and rebuilt Japantown, so the scale of Japantown was expanded to the Northern part next to Chinatown.
Japantown was divided into "Front Town" and "Back Town" across Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1940, Front Town was accumulated with commercial, business and public facilities. Back Town was accumulated with many detached houses and few public facilities. In 2014, the commercial and business facilities, owned by Japanese American, were closed and many buildings were vacant at Front Town. White and Mexican have been maintaining the vacant buildings and business in recent years. At Back Town, Mexican and Filipino were inflowing, instead of Nisei's aging and Sansei's outflowing, Christian church and Japanese language school were closed and only Buddhist Church were maintaining activity. Japantown, registered with "Walnut Grove Japanese American Historic District" in 1990, were preserved while maintaining the exterior of buildings and the name of tenants.
Japanese American business had targeted on Jananese migrant workers who were hired at farm and farm products processing factory owned by White. In 1940, many kinds of the commercial facilities and the business facilities were provided for the male single migrant workers. Especially, some of roomings and ryokans were juxtaposed with restaurant and cafe to combine board, also with bath and barber. In 2014, because those roomings and ryokans were closed, all buildings owned by Nisei and Sansei are left unoccupied. In buildings sold to other races such as White and Mexican, commercial facilities targeting tourists to the historic district are running.
As Japanese American community, Japanese Association and Kenjin Kai had played the important role for employment and living support, mutual aid and interaction between Japanese. In 1940, Christian church and Buddhist Church were the activity bases of Japanese American community, in addition to Japanese Associtation Offfice. Moreover, Japanese Association and Buddhist Church supported Kawashimo Gakuen to teach Japanese language for Nisei and Sansei. In 2014, the activity bases of Japanese American and Kenjin Kai were lost, Christian churches and Kawashimo Gakuen were closed, and only Buddhist Church have been continuing their activities. While receiving support from nearby Buddhist Churches and Japanese American Citizens League, Buddhist Church regularly hold events of Japanese culture and interactive meetings with Nisei. The role of Japanese American community in recent years is important for supporting the life of aging Nisei.
