Japanese History

Japanese History and Community

The year was 1868. To the east, war veteran Ulysses S. Grant waged a successful campaign for presidency while in the Washington territory, William Renton and a handful of men cut a small lumber mill from the wooded shores of Port Blakely on Bainbridge Island. Across the Pacific Ocean, a 15-year old boy became the first emperor of Japan's Meiji Restoration. Japanese society was in the midst of economic and cultural upheaval as a forced transition to industrialization wrenched its agrarian communities from their foundations. Thousands sailed east to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest seeking freedom, opportunity, and religious tolerance, and some found their way to the Port Blakely Mill.

The U.S. Census of 1889 reported 35 Japanese men living in Port Blakely. The mill continued to attract Japanese over the ensuing decades and the neighboring communities of Yama and Nagaya sprung up. At their peak in the early 1900's, these communities included more than 200 Japanese - the largest Japanese community in the Pacific Northwest at the time.

With the closing of Port Blakely Mill in the 1920s, the Yama and Nagaya communities disbursed to surrounding areas. Japanese communities and culture had become a permanent part of the Puget Sound region and, prior to World War II, Japanese American farmers supplied nearly seventy-five percent of western Washington's vegetables and the bulk of its berries and small fruits.

World War II brought the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans and remains one of the darkest chapters of United States history. In March 1942, Bainbridge Island became one of the first communities required to comply with Executive Order 9066. Two hundred and twenty Japanese and Japanese Americans from the island were uprooted and moved.

In spite of the U.S. government's discriminatory internment policy, many second generation Japanese Americans, known as Nisei, answered the U.S. military's call and joined the combat ranks. There was much debate within the Japanese community about whether Nisei should enlist. At the end of the War, the all-Nisei 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were among the most highly decorated in United States military history.

Many Island residents and institutions, including the Bainbridge Island Review, voiced concern and support for fellow community members who had been forcibly removed. A large number of those Japanese community members returned once the injustice had ended.

Today, Japanese culture and heritage continue to contribute to Bainbridge Island's economic and social well being. The Island's oldest, continuously operated farm, established in 1928, flourishes under the ownership and guidance of 79-year-old resident, Akio Suyematsu. Each year the Strawberry Festival, the Mochi Tsuki event, and other community events sponsored by the Japanese American community, honor Japanese culture and give the entire island reason to come together.

IslandWood now stewards the land that once sustained the Port Blakely Mill and the communities of Yama and Nagaya. The history and culture of the Japanese pioneers and those that came after them will play an integral role at the Center.

Sources:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article "Pride and pain mark isle's rich history"
Originally published Saturday, July 26, 1997.
http://www.seattlep-i.nwsource.com/neighbors/bainbridge/hist26.html

City of Bainbridge Island Web site.
http://www.bainbridgeisland.com/heritage

Center of the Study of the Pacific Northwest
University of Washington
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curraaw/main.html

Price, Jr., Andrew. Port Blakely: The Community Captain Renton Built. Seattle: Port Blakely Books, 1989.