Sacramento's Japantown

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Sacramento's Japantown was one of the largest in California until it was demolished to make way for the Capital Mall vista in the late 1950s. Sacramento's Japantown originated in the 1890's from Japanese laborers and farmers who worked in the surrounding areas coming into town to buy goods and services from other Japanese as they were often not welcomed in white owned establishments. In 1893 the first grocery store was built. This store, which also provided banking and postal services, was the focal point of the community. Over the years the community grew as more Japanese settled in the area ranging from 2nd and 5th Street to L and M Street. By 1910, Sacramento’s Japantown contained twelve general goods stores, thirty-six restaurants, fifteen billiard parlors, three newspaper publishers, a bank and a movie house. During the 1930's Sacramento's Japantown was a thriving community that would be shattered with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Many Japanese in Sacramento had to give up their homes and businesses and while interned people from other ethnic groups moved into the now empty Japantown. After the war the Japanese community faced anti-Japanese hostility upon returning to Sacramento and some had difficulty finding a place to stay. Eventually the community regained some of its former glory by the 1950's and it looked like Japantown was becoming a thriving center for the Japanese in Sacramento. During this time Japantown moved to the area between L and P Street and Third and Fourth. Unfortunately, in 1954 the City Council and the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency passed the Capitol Mall Redevelopment Plan which would use the power of eminent domain to acquire properties in the area that many considered a slum——the West End in which Japantown was located. Faced with another forced relocation many Japanese spoke out and tried to persuade the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency from going through with the plan. But to no avail. The historic Japantown was demolished between 1956 and 1960 and replaced with the office buildings and apartments that stand today in the Capitol Mall. With the destruction of Sacramento’s Japantown a part of the city’s history was forever lost, as no buildings remain save for the Nissei War Memorial that was constructed in 1956 just prior to the demolition.