Japanese American Labor and Community in Tacoma
Japanese community beach gathering in Tacoma, ca 1925 or 1926. From the Densho Digital Repository.
Japanese people have lived in Tacoma since the town’s early development. The first Japanese immigrants to settle in Tacoma arrived in the late 1880s, around the same time that Tacoma became a trading port with Japan. These individuals held a variety of jobs, but most frequently were employed to work on the railroad or at the various sawmills in the area. Many of these men soon brought wives and other family members to join them in Tacoma.
The opportunities presented by the development of the railroad enticed not only Job Carr, but thousands of immigrants from all over the world to come to Tacoma with the promise of jobs. While Chinese immigrants made up a large portion of these workers, there were also hundreds of Japanese immigrants employed by Northern Pacific.
Northern Pacific Railroad cars loaded with logs at the St. Paul & Tacoma lumber yard in May, 1922. From the image archives of Tacoma Public Library.
Sawmills along the waterfront were another major employer of Japanese Americans. Lumber companies such as Wheeler-Osgood Lumber Company and the Point Defiance Sawmill employed Japanese immigrants to work in the mills. However, the largest number of Japanese immigrants worked for the St Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Those who were employed at the St Paul and Tacoma often worked and lived on the tide flats below downtown, but frequently interacted with the emerging commercial Japantown.
While Japanese immigrants found work with the railroad and sawmills, it was not easy labor. Due to the physical demands of the jobs, as well as pervasive racism, they were often put in physical danger on the job. Sawmills were segregated by race, so Japanese and Chinese immigrants were frequently assigned the most dangerous positions. In addition, workers were in very close quarters allowing for the easy spread of diseases, such as tuberculosis or typhoid fever.
View of the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co.'s sprawling grounds, as seen from the Puyallup Bridge in May, 1927. This was one of the area's largest employers. From the image archives of Tacoma Public Library.
The Japanese population in Tacoma faced racism both in their workplaces and the wider community. They also dealt with a fear of expulsion, such as what the Chinese population in the area were tragically subjected to through the Tacoma Method. As Japanese families were settling into Tacoma, there was a constant underlying fear that they would be violently forced out of town like the Chinese population in 1885.
Classroom at Tacoma's Central School, ca 1929. At this time, classrooms were segregated. Japanese students sat in separate rows from the white students. From the Densho Digital Repository.
Despite these hardships, the Japanese population in Tacoma continued to expand during the first half of the 20th century. The rapidly growing community downtown established many important cultural spaces, including the Japanese Language School and the Tacoma Buddhist Temple, which is still thriving today. These spaces allowed for Japanese Americans to retain their Japanese heritage and connect with others with shared identity.
Tacoma Hongwanji Buddhist Church, ca 1935. From the Densho Digital Repository.
Nihonmachi (Japantown) thrived until World War II broke out and Japanese Americans throughout the West Coast were wrongly incarcerated. In 1942, Japanese Americans were forced into prison camps after President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066; this included about 7,500 people from the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area. While the prewar culture of Tacoma's Japantown was never able to re-materialize due to the injustices of the war and the US government’s mistreatment of Japanese Americans, many still live and work in the area, continuing the legacy of their relatives who arrived 150 years ago.
Tacoma's Japanese Language School, Nihon Go Gakko at 1715 Tacoma Ave S, ca 1979. The building served as Tacoma's processing center during the WWII relocation of Japanese Americans. Although the structure was removed in the late 1990s, the University of Washington Tacoma commemorated it with a memorial sculpture and extensive oral history research. From the image archives of Tacoma Public Library.
Sources
For more information on the Japanese American population in Tacoma and Pacific Northwest, please visit these resources:
- “Tacoma Japantown” https://tacomajapantown.ds.lib.uw.edu/
- “Tacoma Japanese American History” https://tacomajapaneseamericanhistory.net/
- “Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest” https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/nikkei
- "Camp Harmony Exhibit" https://lib.uw.edu/specialcollections/collections/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/
About the Authors
Carina Bunch completed an internship with the Job Carr Cabin Museum during the summer of 2024. She is a senior at the University of Puget Sound, majoring in history and minoring in Japanese and theatre. Her internship included research on Japanese American communities in Tacoma and important women in Tacoma’s Old Town. After graduation, she hopes to continue studying contemporary history while pursuing her passion for travel.
Jacob Kreps was a student at the University of Puget Sound in 2022 when he worked with Job Carr Cabin Museum as a summer intern. He assisted with our educational program, community events, and administrative help. He also began researching the Japanese immigration experience in Tacoma.