San Francisco Schools
Many of the children of the Western Addition Japantown in San Francisco would attend the one of the two local schools, the Raphael Weill School and Pacific Heights Elementary. The Raphael Weill School, located at 1500 O’Farrell Street, was named after a local Jewish merchant and leader of the community who founded the White House Department Store. The school was probably the most diverse in San Francisco, as many children from different ethnic groups attended it. During the evacuation of Japanese Americans to the internment camps, Raphael Weill School was famously the location of some of the photographs that Dorothea Lange shot of Japanese children days before they were evacuated in April of 1942. Besides offering classes for Japanese children, the school also had an Americanization program to help the Issei get adapted to American society. Today the school is known as the Rosa Parks Elementary School.
In addition to going to elementary school, many Japanese children attended language schools so that they could learn their native language and culture. Kinmon Gakuen (Golden Gate School), founded in 1910, was one of the earliest Japanese language schools to be established. In 1911 the school officially opened and was merged with the Homei Elementary School. By 1926 the school moved to its new location at 2031 Bush Street, where it has been in operation ever since. Over the years, the school has been visited by members of the Japanese Imperial Family and continues to teach Japanese to all who are interested. Morning Star Middle School was a mixed-race Catholic school located near Japantown on Pine and Octavia Streets. The school was built in 1929-1930 and served students from different backgrounds for many years. While most schools at the time were segregated, those in San Francisco were mixed due to the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907. Currently the Morning Star school is part of Stuart Hall High School.