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Sharing Our DiscoveriesSince completing historic resource surveys in more than forty historic Japantowns, we have shared our rich findings with organizations and agencies across California, and responded to requests for help with related efforts to preserve Nikkei history. Japantown Heritage Roundtable
Preserving Our API CommunitiesPreserving Asian Pacific Islander America: Mobilizing Our Communities is the theme for the first-ever Asian Pacific Islander National Historic Preservation Forum to be held from Thursday, June 24 to Saturday, June 26, 2010 in San Francisco. The goal of this ambitious forum is to convene Asian Pacific Islander Americans and stewards of cultural sites associated with these communities, along with representatives of preservation, advocacy, and economic empowerment organizations, to share strategies, to foster networking and to exchange best practices. Click here for more information. Preserving California’s Japantowns
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 California’s Japantowns in the NewsSelections from press coverage that documents Preserving California’s Japantowns and local preservation efforts in many of the communities we surveyed throughout the state. Artist's murals help bring Lodi's Japantown back to life Volunteers sought to conduct research for local Japantown preservation project Development Plan for Nikkei Nursery Site Pleases Preservationists History Forgotten, Isleton’s Japantown Obata Studio Is Newest City Landmark Japanese culture's roots run deep in Bay Area Rediscovering Oakland's Japantown Untold Pre-WWII Stories Surface: Communities Torn Apart by Forced Internment in Camps by Momo Chang, Oakland Tribune, Feburary 16, 2008 Oakland Family Suffered 1940s "War Hysteria" by Momo Chang, Oakland Tribune, February 16, 2008 Preserving California’s Japantowns by Donna Graves and Jill Shiraki, Nichi Bei Times, New Year’s Edition 2008 Remembering Sawtelle by Jill Shiraki, Nichi Bei Times, New Year’s Edition 2008 Discovering Pre-WWII Japantowns in the East Bay by Donna Graves, Nichi Bei Times, New Year’s Edition 2008 Kawashimo: A Rural Japantown in the Sacramento Delta by Barbara Takei, Nichi Bei Times, New Year’s Edition 2008 Piecing Together the Past: Preservation of Lodi’s Historic Japantown Gains Interest by Lisa Masai, Nichi Bei Times, New Year’s Edition 2008 Gilroy Hot Springs by Matt C. Bischoff, Historian III, Monterey District Newsletter, January 2008 Drive to Save Redman-Hirahara House, Nikkei West, December 25, 2007 LPC to Discus Japantown, Wood Smoke Ordinance by Riya Bhattacharjee, Berkeley Daily Planet, October 2, 2007 Now You See It, Now You Don't, photos by Richard Brenneman, December 18, 2007 Berkeley Nikkei Landmark Torn Asunder By James Woodard, Hokubei Mainichi, December 18, 2007. Effort to Save Historic Japanese Florist Can’t Prevent Demolition by Riya Bhattacharjee, Berkeley Daily Planet, December 14, 2007 Bittersweet Centennial for Y-S Institution by Nancy Pasternack, Appeal Democrat, December 13, 2007. Terry Manji remembers when Marysville’s Japantown was the center of a thriving, tight-knit community of farmers and farmworkers. Developers, Preservationists Work Together on Prewar Richmond Site by Tyche Hendricks, San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, November 24, 2007 Dreams flow for Downtown Lodi by Ross Farrow, Lodi News, November 14, 2007 Part of Watsonville Japantown History is Lost by Mas Hashimoto, Nikkei West, November 10, 2007 Agency Seeks Proposals to Replace Greenhouses with Homes by Geneviéve Duboscq, Berkeley Daily Planet, November 6, 2007 Project Offers a Glimpse into Life of Berkeley’s Lost Japantown by Riya Bhattacharjee Berkeley Daily Planet, October 16, 2007 Church Reflects Japanese History by Katherine Yamada, Glendale News Press, October 26, 2007 Recalling the Pre-War Community by Katherine Yamada, Glendale News Press, October 12, 2007 OC Nikkei Historic Sites Threatened by Alex Isao Herbach, Rafu Shimpo, September 19, 2007 Vacaville Buddhist Church Named California Point of Historical Interest, Hokubei Mainichi, September 19, 2007 Book Documents "Japantowns of Placer County," Hokubei Mainichi, September 19, 2007 Rediscovering Berkeley, Oakland Japanese American Communities by Alec-Yoshio MacDonald, Nichi Bei Times, August 2-8, 2007 Discovering Oakland and Berkeley Japantown by James Woodard, Hokubei Mainich, August 15, 2007 Preserving Lodi’s Japanese Culture: Group Tours Japanese in Eastside by Ross Farrow, Lodi News-Sentinel, June 11, 2007. Preserving California’s Japantowns by Donna Graves, California Preservation Foundation News, Fall 2007 California: Preserving California’s Japantowns, Forum News, National Trust Forum, a program of the Center for Preservation Leadership, National Trust for Historic Preservation, May/June 2007, pg 4 Preserving California’s Japantowns, Western Preservation News, National Trust for Historic Preservation, April/May 2007, pg 7 Japanese History Lives in Buildings by Patricia Jiayi Ho, Pasadena Star News, January 1, 2007 Through the Windshield by Naomi Hirahara, January 2007 Beyond "The Big Three" Japantowns by Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, Pacific Citizen, Oct 20-Nov 2, 2006. "On any given day patrons of the Sun Café in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District ..." Revisiting Old Japantowns: Coalition Seeks to Document History by Patricia Jiayi Ho, San Gabriel Tribune, October 21, 2006 Communities Rediscovered: An Overview of California’s Historic Japantowns, Special Edition: Centennial of San Francisco Japantown, Nichi Bei Times, September 30, 2006 Project is Rediscovering California’s Historic Japantowns, Special Edition: Centennial of San Francisco Japantown, Nichi Bei Times, September 30, 2006 Effort Begins to Document Pasadena’s Japanese Legacy by Paricia Jiayi Ho, Pasadena Star News, September 18, 2006. |
Join us for the Japantown Heritage Roundtable to be held on Thursday, June 24, 2010 from 2 to 5 pm, and learn about a wide range of local efforts to preserve and reclaim Japanese American heritage sites and to document and educate the public on Japanese American community history. Share ideas on how to build local support and connect our stories to reach a broader audience. For more info, 
City of Berkeley. In January 2008, Berkeley City Council awarded a special proclamation to Berkeley’s historic Nikkei churches and to Preserving California’s Japantowns "for Japanese American’s cultural contributions to American history, to historic Japanese American churches and temples for their role in supporting the Japanese American community, and to the Preserving California’s Japantowns project for helping to document and preserve this history by identifying historically significant structures in California’s Japanese American History." 
During 2006-2007, Preserving California’s Japantowns worked with local community advocates and preservationists to uncover the hidden histories of former Japantowns in the Los Angeles and Sacramento/Delta regions. Staff conducted trainings in Little Tokyo and Lodi that drew over fifty enthusiastic volunteers who formed teams and surveyed the communities of Glendale, Pasadena, Terminal Island, San Pedro, Gardena, Long Beach, Venice, and Sawtelle in Southern California, and Sacramento, Florin, Walnut Grove, Isleton, Lodi, Stockton, Cortez, French Camp and Livingston in Northern California. "Report-back" meetings after the surveys were completed allowed volunteer teams to share their findings and cultivate connections to build the foundation for long-term advocacy and stewardship of Japanese American heritage in their communities. For personal reflections on the Pasadena volunteer survey, 
Preserving California’s Japantowns is called upon to share our research and support local preservation efforts across the state. State Parks Historian, Matt Bischoff, invited PCJ staff to tour the historic Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs and discuss strategies for developing a public/private partnership to rehabilitate and reopen this historic property. Among the requests for support from local advocates in Southern California concerned about threatened demolition to the Wintersburg Presbyterian Church in Huntington Beach, an historic Nikkei florist in Berkeley, and the American River Conservancy’s effort to create a state park at the site of the Wakamatsu Colony in El Dorado County.
This one-day symposium held June 9, 2006, brought together experts and practitioners in
the field of historic and cultural preservation to discuss the
preservation of the three remaining Japantowns, community
development, cultural and historical documentation, and more.
The discussions and outcomes of the symposium sessions will help shape future directives and priorities for cultural and historic preservation efforts of California's Japantowns. 
