J-TOWN San Jose’s Japantown

IMMIGRATION LAWS 1875 Page Law against entry of Asian laborers 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act specific to Chinese 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law 1917 Immigration Act of 1917, included a literacy test 1921 Quota Act, numerical limitations for the first time 1924 Immigration Act further reduced the total number of admissions 1925 the Border Patrol established 1929, immigration to the US limited to 150, Laws aimed at limiting immigration of Filipinos

CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT 1882

CHINATOWN SAN JOSE

San Jose’s second Chinatown mysteriously burnt to the ground in 1887

Named for its owner and benefactor, John Heinlen, Heinlenville came about after Heinlen, who liked the Chinese, offered up his own property for the new location. Ignoring the public outrage, it was here that Heinlen built a Chinatown entirely out of brick which he then rented to the Chinese at very low rates. HEINLENVILLE

John Heinlen, a local businessman, braved death threats to lease property to the displaced Chinese. This area near today’s Japantown at Taylor and Sixth became known as Heinlenville. Heinlenville was a center of Chinese- American business and cultural life through the early part of the 20th century. Despite their poverty, the people of Heinlenville donated their earnings from menial jobs to build their much revered Ng Shing Gung, a community center and house of worship.Ng Shing Gung JOHN HEINLEN

Immigrants from Japan When the first Japanese began to arrive in San Jose in the 1890’s, they settled east of Sixth Street between Jackson and Taylor Streets, near the Heinlenville Chinatown.

YearChineseJapanese , , , , ,0642, , , ,049 CHINESE AND JAPANESE IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY Lukes and Okihiro, 1985:19

PICTURE BRIDES

laws enacted by various Western states that prevented Japanese (and other Asian) immigrants from purchasing land. First enacted in the 1910s, the laws generally remained in effect until well after World War II. ALIEN LAND ACTS

IsseiNiseiSansei First generation immigrant Japanese American most of whom came to the US between 1885 and 1924 American- born children of Japanese immigrants American- born grandchildren of Japanese immigrants

YonseiGoseiShin-Issei American-born great grandchildren of Japanese immigrants American-born great-great grandchildren of Japanese immigrants New Issei, newcomers to the US after WWII

the 1908 agreement between Japan and the United States that halted Japanese labor migration to the United States. GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT

legislation that restricted overall immigration to the United States and banned further Japanese immigration. IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924:

IMMIGRATION STATION

CHINESE DINING ROOM

JAPANESE WOMEN AT ANGEL ISLAND

The hospital on Angel Island had a state-of-the- art laboratory Racial and ethnic segregation policy at the hospital and immigration station; separate entrances for whites and Asians; separate staircases; separate patient wards— Europeans kept in separate wards HOSPITAL

SARAH WINCHESTER HAD MANY JAPANESE EMPLOYEES

TOMMIE NISHIHARA AND GRANDDAUGHTER

MOON BRIDGE, IMPORTED FROM JAPAN, BELONGING TO SARAH WINCHESTER

ITO NISHIHARA WITH BABY DAUGHTER, FLANKED BY THE HANSON BOYS AT THE WINCHESTER RANCH

MRS. NISHIHARA AND HANSON BABY

1940 BEFORE THE WAR NISEI QUEEN

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

JAPANESE AMEICAN INTERNMENT After Executive Order 9066

REPORTING FOR REGISTRATION Obeying the law

MANZANAR Uchida Family, three generations

WRA RELOCATION CENTERS Manzanar California March ,046 Manzanar Tule Lake California May ,789 Tule Lake Poston Arizona May ,814 Poston Gila River Arizona July ,348 Gila River Granada Colorado August ,318 Granada Heart Mountain Wy August ,767 Heart Mountain Minidoka Idaho August ,397 Minidoka Topaz Utah September ,130 Topaz Rohwer Arkansas Sept ,475 Rohwer Jerome Arkansas Oct ,497 Jerome

DRAFT RESISTERS “no no boys”

US MILITARY Masaru Nakagaki

TULE LAKE Japanese Language School

RETURNING AFTER THE WAR Santa Clara Valley

NIHONMACHI JAPANTOWN

“JAPANTOWN” NIHONMACHI The term "Japantown" encompasses a wide range of communities, from large Nihonmachi in metropolitan areas that include numerous community institutions and businesses, to rural Japantowns with relatively small populations and more limited community facilities.

Why do you think were German-Americans and Italian Americans not encamped?

the first statewide project to document historic resources of pre-World War II Japantowns. PRESERVING CALIFORNIA’S JAPANTOWNS

The three Japantowns in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles are the last of the major Japanese communities to survive the demolition during urban renewal in the 1950’s and 1960’s and the forced evacuation and incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II. They provide a true sense of place for Japanese Americans today.