Japantown Center San Francisco

Japantown Center San Francisco

Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown Center, 1970s

During the internment Japantown was occupied by other minority groups who had come to the city looking for work and settled in the unoccupied neighborhood. Japantown was filled to overcrowding with people working to aid the war effort and when the Japanese returned to the area after the war the increased concentration of people living there led to a rapid decline. Because of the conditions the city redevelopment agency sold five acres of the neighborhood to a Japanese company from Hawaii seeking to develop the area. In 1960 plans were underway to construct the Japanese Cultural and Trade Center that forced over 50 businesses and 1500 residents to leave the neighborhood. Construction began in 1965 and was finished three years later with the completion of the Peace Pagoda that was designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi and was donated by San Francisco's sister city of Osaka.

In the first photo you can see the completed Japantown Center sometime during the 1970s. The photo is looking at the center from across Geary Street. On the upper right of the image is the Japanese Consulate and Miyako Hotel.

In the second photo looking at at the Center from across Post Stree. In the picture you can see on the left a replica of a yagura or watchtower that would be used during cultural events that has been taken down.

San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

1970s

San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library