Kokaido

By Shannon Advincula, Eastside Heritage Center Intern

The Japanese characters written on the back of these wooden slatted folding chairs indicate that they had been used at the “Bellevue Japanese People’s Clubhouse (ベルビュウ日[本]人会).” Kokaido, the Bellevue Japanese Community Clubhouse (or Community Hall), had been established at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street in 1932, and served as a hub for the Japanese American community on the Eastside.[1]

2008.014.001

Kokaido Chairs, donated to the Eastside Heritage Center by Sumie Akizuki.

Kokaido hosted a plethora of community activities, such as business meetings, Buddhist and Christian church services, flower arranging classes, movies, Japanese language classes, shibais (plays), various sports, and picnics. An article published in the Japanese-American Courier in 1933 describes how the Japanese American community in Bellevue used the space almost daily: “On Saturdays it housed the Japanese Language School. On Sundays it housed church groups. And the rest of the days of the week are filled with activities such as judo, basketball and meetings of all organizations. Occasionally parties and movies are held."[2]

Image: L 89.029.002.

Photograph of the dedication of Kokaido, the Bellevue Japanese Community Clubhouse. Community members stand in front of the clubhouse building which had stood at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street.

Prior to World War II, the Japanese American population in Bellevue numbered over 60 families and over 300 people, comprising 15% of the general population and 90% of the agricultural workforce.[3] The Bellevue Japanese American community pooled together donations to purchase two acres in what is now downtown Bellevue and built Kokaido in 1930.[4] The dedication gathering in 1932 was attended by an estimated 500 people, including Bellevue's leading citizens. Later, in 1937, a second building was added, providing more room for community space and a worship center.

J 89.04.03

Women's basketball team, c. 1930’s. Photograph taken at the Japanese Community Clubhouse in Bellevue.

At the time of the clubhouse’s construction, Tom Matsuoka and the Seinenkai, a club of Japanese American youths comprised of Bellevue Nisei (second-generation Americans of Japanese ancestry born in the U.S.), advocated for the building to be built 60 feet high in order to accommodate indoor basketball activities.[5] Both men and women participated in indoor and outdoor sports and recreational activities that centered around Kokaido, forming Japanese American Bellevue teams and participating in regional tournaments for various sports including basketball, baseball, and the Japanese martial arts of  judo and kendo.

By January 1932, the Bellevue Dojo which hosted judo activities had about thirty-five members, which was about half of the total membership of the Bellevue Seinenkai. The judo club even organized its own events, including taffy pulls, roller skating and Halloween parties, Japanese movie nights, picnics, and demonstrations at the local high school and Bellevue’s annual strawberry festival.[6] The venue for many of these activities and tournaments was the Japanese Community Hall in Bellevue.

J 89.04.01

Photograph of the championship Bellevue baseball team at an annual three day tournament for the Puget Sound Area Japanese teams, held in Seattle c. 1930’s. Tokio Hirotaka was the team coach, and is standing on the right in the back row.

But the bustling daily life of Japanese Americans would ultimately be suddenly disrupted and irrevocably altered. On the evening of December 7, 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI started arresting Japanese American community leaders in Bellevue: the schoolmaster of the Japanese language school, the head of the Japanese businessmen’s association, and Tom Matsuoka, who was president of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association. The Seattle Times wrote in a 1997 investigative article that, “[Their] arrest was one of many mistakes the FBI made in those sweeps… It was clear that the three were targeted mainly to decapitate, as it were, the Nikkei community, not because of any actual threat they might pose.”[7]

443 Eastside men, women and children, including 300 of them from Bellevue, were forced into incarceration camps until the end of the war. They were forced to vacate their personal properties, and Kokaido was left abandoned without its community. After the war, many Japanese American families did not return to Bellevue, and the approximately 20 families of the original 70 that did had a difficult time rebuilding their land, businesses, and community.[8]

In 1950, the clubhouse building was sold by the Bellevue Nisei Club, Inc. to the Board of Missions of the Augustana Lutheran Church for $11,000. Pastor Olson of the Lutheran congregation recorded that, “the Japanese-American group had others who wanted to purchase the property, but declined all the offers because they were from businessmen who wanted it for commercial purposes. They were happy to know this sacred property would be used for a church.” Through the purchase agreement, a Japanese American community member named H. Kizu was also provided living quarters at the church and employed. Ultimately, the building was sold again in 1964, and eventually demolished.[9]

Asaichi Tsushima, in his memoir Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue, wrote of the closure of Kokaido, saying, “One of the changes at the end of WWII that saddened and disappointed me was the sale of the Japanese Community Clubhouse and property where so much of our lives had been centered.”[10]

J 89.07.01

Photo of "Dedication: A Play,” possibly from the Kokiado. Copied from Asaichi Tsushima, "Pre World War II HIstory of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue," 1939.

The economic, social, and cultural life of the Japanese American community in Bellevue was sustained and enriched in part by everyday community and recreational activities such as those hosted by Kokaido. These chairs and photographs are a reminder of the large and vibrant Japanese community of farmers, businessmen, and families that helped to establish and shape Bellevue; a community which almost disappeared and was never the same after WWII incarceration.

Footnotes:

[1] Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue (1952).

[2] Japanese-American Courier, 1 Jan 1933.

[3] Publication of the Seattle Times: A Hidden Past. c. 2000

[4] Bomgren, Marilyn, “The Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse: My Story of Life in the Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse,” 2008.

[5] Matsuoka, Tom. “Tom Matsuoka Interview.” Courtesy of Densho, 1998. https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-47-16/?tableft=segments

[6] Svinth, Joseph R., Letter to the Marymoor Museum, 1998.

[7] Keiko Morris, Seattle Times Eastside bureau 8/20/97

[8] The Seattle Times, “A Hidden Past: An Exploration of Eastside History”. 12/1997 - 1/2000.

[9] Bomgren, “The Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse,” 2008.

[10] Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue (1952).

Japanese Farmers Post WWII

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

After four difficult years at Pinedale, Tule Lake, and Minidoka incarceration camps some Japanese farmers began returning to their pre-WWII farms in Bellevue. Approximately 20 families of the original 70 chose to return.  Those who had leased their farms prior to the war often did not come back. Those having land ownership, often did. However, life was not easy and they had a difficult time recovering their land, jobs, lives, and a sense of Japanese community which had been so strong prior to the War. Their courage, skills as farmers, and contributions to their community have been recognized in multiple ways.  Bellevue is a member of the Sister Cities project, Yao Japan being Bellevue’s sister city.  

The Suguro family had farmed in Midlakes near Lake Bellevue. Takayoshi and Michi Suguro’s daughter, Sumie, remembers how difficult “it was to come back to a farm in shambles and to return to an unlivable house. The people who lived in our home even had chickens running through the house and our roof was leaking. The Takeshitas, our neighbors, were so kind in having us stay with them until we could clean our house.” Sumie, like other returning Japanese children, had to adjust to attending an almost all-white school after spending four years with only Japanese people. It was a lonely time for her being the only Japanese girl in the class. While going through high school she worked as a live-in nanny to help her family and graduated in 1947. She is proud to say that her father was the last Japanese immigrant (Issei) to farm in Bellevue. He retired in 1953, when the family sold their property to Safeway. Their neighbors, the Takeshita family, had bought their property in 1919 so were able to return to their home and farm; both suffered from neglect. Times had changed making it difficult for Japanese farmers to realize a profit. As land values went up they began to sell their lands to developers. In 1953, the Takeshita family sold their land to the Great Northern Railroad.

Ron Wurzer/Seattle Times: John Matsuoka stands amid his cornfield in Bellevue, where he has farmed for nearly 50 years. (8/20/1997)

Among those to return were John Matsuoka. However, his brother, Tom (Takeo) Matsuoka, a prominent leader in the pre-WWII Bellevue Japanese community, did not. Instead, he continued to farm in Montana where he had been sent during the war. John, who grew up farming in Kent had been sent to Minidoka. In the 1950s he came to Bellevue where he and his wife lived for over 60 years. At the age of 52, he went to work for the Bellevue Post Office from which he retired after 20 years of service. He also leased 3.5 acres of farmland from the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department at 156th Avenue SE and SE 16th Street. He grew potatoes, brussels sprouts, lettuce and corn. He became famous for his sweet Silver Corn which he sold on Sundays. The Seattle Times and Journal American dubbed him the “Corn Man of Bellevue”. He loved his old tractor and farming. In 1997, at age 82, farming had become a hobby for John; one of the last of a generation of Japanese-American farmers in Bellevue. 

Asaichi Tsushima, a pre-WWII Bellevue Issei landowner and community leader, returned to Bellevue. In 1929, he had been the first teacher at the Japanese language school. In 1952, he wrote an extensive documentary, “Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue”. Much of the information is written from memory because many of his notes were lost during incarceration. The document is a treasure; a fine contribution to the legacy of the Japanese pioneers in Bellevue.

Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times: Joan Seko, 80, recalls the tireless work of creating and maintaining her family’s traditional Japanese garden on Bellevue’s Phantom Lake (9/5/2017)

Reminders of the Japanese farmers and their talent was apparent in the beauty of Seko Garden. Joan Seko and her late husband (owners of the Bush Garden restaurant in Seattle) developed a traditional Japanese garden that sloped to the shores of Phantom Lake. By 2017 at age 80 Joan could no longer maintain the grounds. She was hoping to find a way to preserve the garden once she moved off the property.

Duke’s Bellevue Bar & Grill, Barrier Motors, and the Safeway Distribution Center are located on lands formerly owned and farmed by Japanese farmers. Alice Ito’s family was one of them. In 1999, she volunteered with the Eastside Japanese American History Project that designed a traveling exhibit of photographs and text to be sent to libraries, schools, shopping malls, and museums around Washington State. 

Teresa Tamura/Seattle Times: Alice Ito interviewed Japanese Americans, including her father who is pictured on the computer screen, as a part of an Eastside history project that spans 1898 through the 1950s (4/15/1999)

Rick Schweinhart/Journal: A display about the history of the Eastside Japanese Americans is open at Bellevue City Hall. The exhibit documents the thriving Japanese American community before World War II (4/21/1999)

Michal Friesen, third grade teacher at Woodridge Elementary in Bellevue, teaches her students about Japanese American history (4/2022). She and her fellow teachers notify families before they begin teaching the unit. They stick to the facts, use age-appropriate clips of interviews and picture books. She feels that “You cannot tell the history of Bellevue without talking about the Japanese immigrants and the community that helped form it.”

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives: obituaries, newspaper articles, Sumie Akizuki, Rose Yabuki Matshushita

Publication, The Seattle Times, “A Hidden Past: An Exploration of Eastside History”. 12/1997 - 1/2000

Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue,  1992

Japanese Farmers in Bellevue (1898 - 1942)

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Early Japanese pioneers in Bellevue often lived in abandoned Indian dwellings. They mostly worked on the railroads, in the sawmills and clearing lands for agriculture. They cleared Clyde Hill, Wilburton Hill, Hunts Point and Yarrow Point to name a few. Cutting the trees and dynamiting the huge stumps was a dangerous and a slow process. The area was covered with dense forests of old growth trees sometimes five feet in diameter. It could take a week to process one tree.

Two early Japanese pioneers to Bellevue were Mr. Jusaburo Fujii and Mr. Kiichi Setsuda who arrived in 1898. The latter worked as a houseboy at Mr. Hunt’s place on Hunt’s Point where he grew potatoes. The former worked at local sawmills and as a cook for Mr. Dagwood who owned an Alaskan cannery. When not working at the cannery, Mr. Fujii worked as the ‘field boss’ for the gardens where Mr. Dagwood grew strawberries. As ‘field boss’ Mr. Fujii hired Japanese workers. Thus began the colorful story of the strawberry. The success of this plant as a highly desirable and productive crop in Bellevue was largely due to the hard work, experiments and skilled agricultural practices of Japanese farmers. At first they leased land for the required minimum of five years; the average life of a strawberry field. With this relatively stable commitment, they began to bring their wives and other family members to the area from Japan. Having made enough money, some were able to buy lands from the railroads.

J98.10.01.a-d - Strawberry pickers on the Takeshita farm in Bellevue, 1933

In 1904, the Wilburton trestle was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad bringing transportation and land opportunities to the Bellevue Midlakes area. Several Issei (Japanese-born) families bought land to farm. They set up successful farms growing pole beans, peas, tomatoes, strawberries, cabbages, cucumbers, celery and lettuce. In 1919, with the help of a Japanese-American attorney, the Takeshita family bought 13 acres just east of the railroad tracks and north of Lake Bellevue. Several other families bought adjacent property which they turned into productive agricultural lands located primarily in the Midlakes area. Wilburton and downtown Bellevue became Japanese farmlands as well. Between 1905 to 1938, there were 32 Issei who owned land: some of whom were Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka, Asaichi Tsushima, Itaro Ito and Takayushi Suguro.

Strawberry production was very successful and the fruit so popular that in 1925 a group, including Japanese farmers, got together to initiate the first Bellevue Strawberry Festival, complete with a Queen. The highlight of the festival was the scrumptious strawberry shortcakes with sun-ripened red strawberries topped with thick cream from local dairies. The majority of the strawberries were grown and provided by Bellevue Japanese farmers. The annual festival continued until 1942.

1994BHS.024.001 - 1939 view of Japanese farms near Midlakes

Despite the enactment of the Washington State Alien Land Law (March 2, 1921) that denied Japanese the right to purchase land, Issei (born in Japan) who had already purchased land could retain it and Nissei (Japanese citizens born in the United States) could purchase land. Thus the Japanese community and farmers continued to grow and prosper. With the leadership of members of the Bellevue Japanese Community Association, The community Clubhouse (Kokaido) was built in 1930 at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street. It provided a space for language classes, social gatherings, services and active Japanese sports.

By 1931, Japanese-American farmers on the Eastside were shipping produce throughout the northwest via the Northern Pacific Railroad. Peas sold for approximately one cent per pound and strawberries for about one dollar a crate. As produce continued to flow in and out of Bellevue, the Bellevue Growers Association (organized in 1930) recognized the need for a central distribution site. In 1933 they helped build a shipping/packing shed in Midlakes alongside the railroad tracks at 117th NE & NE 10th. Three full-time, year-round employees were hired: a business manager, bookkeeper and floor manager assisted by 20 seasonal workers. Tom Matsuoka, who was very active in the Bellevue Growers Association, became the business manager. His marriage to Kazue Tatsunosuke was the first Bellevue marriage of a Nisei; Kazue being born in the United States.

Prior to World War II, there were about 300 Japanese Americans living in Bellevue comprising 15% of the general population and 90% of the agricultural workforce. It was around this time (December 7, 1941) that Tom Matsuoka remembers the sunny afternoon when he was preparing plants for the winter. Suddenly his daughter, Rae and friends, came running saying, “ There’s a war started. ---- The Japanese planes have bombed Pearl Harbor!” Tom was thoughtfully silent. Then he went back to tending his plants. Shortly thereafter several prominent Japanese community leaders, including Tom, were taken away to incarceration camps; Tom to Montana. Later he joined his family at Tule Lake, California.

J 89.02.02 - Tom Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed. 1933

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 ordering all people of Japanese decent to incarceration camps. In May 1942, all Japanese people (Issei and Nisei) in Bellevue were taken from their homes and sent to the Pinedale Assembly site near Fresno, California. The fields with strawberries ready to be harvested were empty of Japanese pickers and the Strawberry Festival was cancelled.

Sumie Akizuki, Nisei daughter of Issei Bellevue residents Takayoshi and Michi Suguro, remembers those tough times as she writes:

“We took the train at a station in Kirkland, and what an irony it was that we would go right pass our farm which was located right next to the railroad tracks. We could see the neat rows of the strawberry fields and our house in the distance. As the train went by, my parents saw their farm for the last time, focusing their eyes on the farm until it disappeared into the horizon. I’m sure it was heartbreaking to lose all they had worked so hard for. Going to camp was the first time I had been on a train. When I was growing up, I wished that someday, I could ride a train on the Wilburton Railroad Trestle. I would look up in awe at the trestle, which impressed me so much during my childhood. ——-. It is an irony that my dream came true when I rode on the trestle, on a coal driven locomotive, that took me to the Pinedale, California assembly center. What seemed like an adventure was not at all like I thought it would be, since it was a time of sadness and uncertainly.”

— Sumie Akizuki

Fifty years later, she rode the dinner train across the trestle with family and friends.

In 1993 four Japanese cherry trees were planted in the Bellevue Downtown park to honor the Japanese immigrants and their contributions to the growth of Bellevue. A plaque reads: “To honor the Bellevue citizens of Japanese ancestry who had so enriched our community”.

Sources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Sumie Akizuki letter

Journal American newspaper article, “The Clearing of Bellevue”, May 10, 1992.

Asaichi Tsushima, document “Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue, 1952,

Rose Yabuki Matshushita, 1997 - Excerpt from presentation on Executive Order 9066 at Marymoor Museum

North American Post, article “ part 3 of an 8-part series: Bellevue’s Nikkei Roots”. 12/12/1997.

Publication of the Seattle Times: A Hidden Past. c. 2000

photo: 1936 showing 7 Japanese farms along 117th NE & NE 11th, photo courtesy of Mitsuko (Takeshita) Hashiguchi

Book: Bellevue Timeline by Alan J. Stein & The HistoryLink Staff, c.2004

The Japanese Farms of Early Bellevue

By EHC Youth Volunteer, Grant

Japanese farmers in King County, especially Bellevue, were essential to providing produce to the nearby populations. Most vegetables in the region were grown by Japanese farmers, and certain crops such as strawberries were a specialty of the farmers. However, their farmlands would later be taken from them and become the foundation of modern Bellevue.

Early Japanese immigrants first arrived in Bellevue in 1898, finding work on railroads, sawmills, and canneries, barely making a living while enduring discrimination in immigration, employment, and housing. Many turned to farming, converting land covered with marshes and tree stumps into productive cropland.

Japanese farmers on the Numato Farm in Yarrow Point, Bellevue. 1925

From the Eastside Heritage Center

Through hardships they raised families, ran their own businesses, and developed a lively community life. Japanese Americans worked hard and became a vital part of the local economy, supplying 75% of Bellevue and King County’s vegetables and half the milk supply. The Japanese cleared and settled hundreds of acres of land near the center of what is now downtown Bellevue. Where shopping malls and office buildings stand today, immigrants grew strawberries and vegetables and worked at a local sawmill. Japanese Americans even had a community center located just north of present-day Bellevue Square.

By the 1920s, Bellevue had become famous for its delicious strawberries, a chief crop of many Japanese families. This led to the first annual Bellevue Strawberry Festival being held behind the Main Street school in mid-June 1925. The festival attracted 3,000 visitors, an impressive number for the small community of Bellevue. In 1935, more than 15,000 people attended the festival -- nearly five times the number of people that lived in the small town.

Truck decorated for the 1930 Strawberry Festival in Bellevue.

From Eastside Heritage Center

Most of Bellevue's strawberries at that time were grown by Japanese farmers, who together managed 472 acres of land. The three-day event continued to be held annually until 1942, the year that 60 local Japanese families were forced to go to incarceration camps.

In December of 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, generating a fear of national security across the United States. As a response to these fears, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to mass incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.

Japanese families, knowing that they would lose their homes and belongings, rushed to sell their businesses, properties, and vehicles for next to nothing. On May 20, 1942, Bellevue’s 60 Japanese families, 300 people, were forced to board a train in Kirkland, where they would end up in an incarceration camp located at Tule Lake in Northern California. This camp was the largest of 10 inland incarceration camps.

Japanese farmers occupied many of the 515 vendor stalls at Pike Place Market in 1939. However, during the spring of 1942, crops left by Japanese farmers in Bellevue and elsewhere in the region were not harvested, and white farmers could not fill the gap. The number of stalls at Pike Place Market fell to 196. The Strawberry Festival, which made Bellevue a tourist destination, did not take place that year.

Over in Bellevue, Eastside businessmen, including Miller Freeman, started suburban and urban development, which would transform the city into what we know today. The cleared farmland left by the Japanese farmers became prime real estate for upscale shopping centers and residential areas, that could be made accessible with new highways, including the I-90 bridge which was completed in 1940.

Later, when 11 of the 60 Japanese American farmer families returned to Bellevue in 1945, nothing was the same. Their properties were damaged, they lost their stored possessions, and they experienced financial struggles. This caused many Japanese families to have to move on to other professions as they couldn’t start farming again.

Sources:

https://seattleglobalist.com/2017/02/19/anti-japanese-movement-led-development-bellevue/62732

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/strawberry-days-uprooting-more-than-lives/

https://www.historylink.org/file/4144

https://www.historylink.org/file/298

https://www.historylink.org/File/231

Green Tea Canisters

The Yabuki brothers, Kameji and Terumatsu, each immigrated to Bellevue in the early 1900s. They owned and operated greenhouses - growing cucumbers, tomatoes, geraniums, chrysanthemums, lilies, and more. Both brothers were extremely active in the Japanese community of Bellevue. Following their incarceration during WWII, Kameji relocated to Portland, Oregon while Terumatsu returned to Bellevue.

Eastside Heritage Center was recently gifted with items belonging to the Yabuki family. Among these items there were a variety of tea canisters sourced from Japan.

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The earliest records of tea in Japan date back to the 800s CE. Camellia sinensis seeds were brought from China by Buddhist monks and cultivation began.

Sencha (煎茶"boiled tea") is the most popular form of green tea in Japan, making up 80% of the tea produced there. Sencha is a loose leaf tea, as opposed to the powdered Matcha used in traditional tea ceremonies. It is produced by steaming the leaves briefly to prevent oxidation, then rolling, shaping, and drying the leaves.

Green tea would not have been readily available on the Eastside for much of the early 20th century. Food was grown locally or sourced through Seattle; requiring the use of ferries to cross Lake Washington. With the construction of the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge in 1940, access to the Port of Seattle was much easier. Both of these canisters were sourced from the North Coast Importing Company of Seattle.

2020.002.001 - Tin can with paper label. "Specially Selected Japan Green Tea, New Crop, Packed for North Coast Importing Co., Seattle, Wash. Made in Japan"

Founded by Tadashi Yamaguchi in 1919, the North Coast Importing Company was located in what is today known as the International District of Seattle. By the early 1950s, his sons Kay and Minoru were operating the import, export, and grocery wholesaler at 515-517 Maynard Avenue, the Freedman Building.

“FREEDMAN BUILDING (Adams Hotel) 513-517 Maynard Avenue South. built 1910. Distinguished by one of the most elaborate facades in the district, the Freedman is a four-story mid-block hotel with 80 single rooms and two storefronts bays at the street level.”

— National Register of Historic Places

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2020.002.002 - Tin can with paper label. "Japan Green Tea, Hatsutsumi Brand, Packed for North Coast Importing Co., Seattle, Wash. Net Weight 1/2 lb, Products of Occupied Japan."

These tea canisters were likely sourced from the Yamaguchi’s company in the early 1950s. We know this by carefully examining their labels. At the bottom of this paper label it reads “Products of Occupied Japan”. The occupation of Japan by Allied forces lasted from 1945–1952.

Following WWII, Allied forces lead by the United States occupied the nation of Japan. General MacArthur oversaw this occupation and instated a series of changes to their government. The country’s constitution was overhauled, the powers of the Emperor were further limited, and sweeping social and economic reforms were implemented.

The occupation ended in 1952 after the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Under this treaty, the sovereignty of Japan (with exception of the Ryukyu Islands) was restored.

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Commonplace items have the capacity to hold a great deal of historical information. The tea canisters featured here share the stories of local Japanese-American consumers and business owners, the importance of cultural food practices, and the implications of global politics. They may be small, humble things, but household goods are vitally important to the future understanding of our shared history.

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Donated in memory of Alan Hideo and Chiye Yabuki

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Resources

Tsushima, Asaichi. Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue. 1952.

Sakamoto, H. (2019, January 19). Snapshots in Time: Left to right: Kay Yamaguchi to Min Yamaguchi. North Coast Importing Co. was located on Maynard, next to Hong Kong Restaurant Left to right: Kay Yamaguchi and Min Yamaguchi. Photo by Dean Wong, 1982. International Examiner. https://iexaminer.org/snapshots-in-time-left-to-right-kay-yamaguchi-to-min-yamaguchi-north-coast-importing-co-was-located-on-maynard-next-to-hong-kong-restaurantleft-to-right-kay-yamaguchi-and-min-yamaguchi-photo-by/.

Google. (n.d.). Federal Register. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/hZkUNre_m6UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA5430&dq=North%2BCoast%2BImporting%2BCo.%2BMaynard%2Bst.

Densho. (n.d.). https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-201/ddr-densho-201-464-mezzanine-05410bbe7e.pdf.

NVC Foundation Japanese American Memorial Wall. Internee Tadashi "Tad" Yamaguchi. (n.d.). http://nvcfmemorialwall.org/profile/view/683.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, June 3). Occupation of Japan. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan.

The Importance of Green Tea in Japanese Culture. Umami Insider. (2018, February 9). https://www.umami-insider.com/importance-of-green-tea-in-japanese-culture/.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, June 11). Green tea. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea.

Tea. in Japan. (n.d.). https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2041.html.

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/86003153_text.

Asaichi Tsushima's Book

At the McDowell House, we keep an ever-growing collection of reference books for use by our volunteers, staff, and outside researchers. In the midst of these tomes, you may come across an unassuming paperback book; a pale gray cover with bold black text that reads:

“Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue by Asaichi Tsushima 1952”

Inside is a treasure trove of knowledge gathered from the Japanese community prior to WWII. Mr. Asaichi Tsushima worked to preserve the memories of Bellevue’s earliest Japanese pioneers for the future. He dedicated the book to the Nisei of Bellevue and sought to show them an honest glimpse into the joys and heartaches of their parents’ generation.

“The Japanese immigrants, your parents, courageously and tenaciously struggled and persevered against horrendous odds, clearing the acres and acres of virgin forest land for agricultural and residential use, and I believe the Isseis made significant contributions to the community’s rapid growth. ”

— Asaichi Tsushima

There are hand-drawn maps of the farms worked by the Japanese community, photos of the Clubhouse dedication, and chapters covering things like the Life of the Farmers and Education and Religion. Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Tsushima lists, by name and home prefecture, all the early Japanese pioneers. He includes as much biographical information he had for each one up to WWII and after incarceration. This has been a tremendous resource for EHC and other local community organizations researching the families and community that built Bellevue.

The book was translated in 1991 by Harriet (Yamagishi) Mihara, Alan Hideo and Chiye (Ito) Yabuki, and Rose (Yabuki) Matsushita. EHC is lucky to have multiple copies of this little book in our collection and we keep one available for research purposes.

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Asaichi Tsushima arrived in Bellevue in 1908 at the age of twenty from Okayama-ken, Japan. He worked on a farm as a laborer in the strawberry fields until the manager, Mr. Hirayama moved to Seattle in 1910. From there, he worked in an apple orchard and as a gardener for white neighbors while living in a tent on Clyde Hill.

Through an arranged marriage, his wife Nami Tsushima came from Japan to join him in 1912. Nami worked as a domestic worker for some of the wealthy families on Hunts Point.

Asaichi leased a small tract on Hunts Point in 1917. The family grew vegetables and sold them to other families nearby. Around the same time, the Tsushimas farmed property at Fairweather Bay with the Mizokawa and Muromoto families.

The Japanese community was growing rapidly at that time and so was the need for education for their children, the Nisei. A language school was established in 1921, but was forced to close. Anti-Japanese propaganda made claims that these Nisei children were being forced to swear loyalty to Japan and it’s emperor. Those suspicions have since proved to be false, but they were effective in stoking racist fears in Bellevue.

A second language school opened in 1925 and held classes in a Downey Hill Issei home until the community organized for a school building in Medina in 1929. Mr. Tsushima was the first teacher. In 1930, the Japanese Community Clubhouse was built and the two schools consolidated there. Language lessons were initially only offered on Saturdays, but later they would be offered every day for an hour after school.

In the early morning hours of December 8, 1941, three Bellevue Japanese community leaders were taken from their homes by the FBI. Asaichi Tsushima was one of them. Due to his popularity as a public speaker and his close ties to the language school, Mr. Tsushima was considered a security threat following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He would spend the majority of the war years at a prison camp in New Mexico.

In 1942, Nami Tsushima and their daughter Michi were evacuated to Pinedale and Tule Lake, then to Minidoka. The Tsushima family returned to Bellevue in 1946. Mr. Tsushima worked on his book by taking down the remembrances of the Issei generation. He finished the book in 1952 and there was a limited publishing. He made special note to request the book never be sold.

Asaichi Tsushima returned to his birthplace in Japan and lived there until his death in 1969.

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Resources

Tsushima, Asaichi. Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue. 1952.

Neiwert, David A. Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Singer 66 Sewing Machine

The Singer Corporation was created in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer and Edward C. Clark. It was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865 and later the Singer Company in 1963. In 1900, the “Singer 66” model was introduced. At the time Singer produced 40 different sewing machine models.

The 66 models were heavy-duty and versatile domestic sewing machines, able to sew fine silk or heavy canvas. The machines weighed around 30 lbs, so they were usually sold in treadle tables or cabinets.

2019.002.004 Singer 66-4 Sewing Machine

Singer 66 machines were decorated with painted motifs. UK models had multiple artistic changes over the years, including the “Lotus” and “Sphinx” designs. American models featured a “Red Eye” design.

For more than 30 years, the 66 model was the star of the Singer Company. World War II and the introduction of the Singer 201 brought about the beginning of the end for this versatile machine.

2019.002.005 Singer Sewing Machine Manual

August 1924, Form 18041-Japanese

2019.002.005 Singer Sewing Machine Manual

Eastside Heritage Center is fortunate to have a Singer Machine 66-4 in our collection. This machine was owned by a Japanese family in Bellevue and the owner retained all the original parts and manual. The Japanese-language manual for this 1924 Singer 66 is a rare treasure. Inside there are beautiful illustrations of the machine and it’s various uses. At 96 years old, this little booklet is in incredible shape.

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Special thanks to the Mizokawa Family for this donation.

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Resources:

Okimoto family history, written 8/9/1994. Donated by Mary Ann Mizokawa.

“Singer Corporation.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Corporation.

“Singer Sewing Machine Company History.” Singer Sewing Machines Ltd, www.singermachines.co.uk/faq/singer-sewing-machine-company-history.html.

“Singer Class 66 Sewing Machines.” International Sewing Machine Collectors Society, ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer-class-66-sewing-machine.html.

“Singer 66 and 66K Sewing Machines.” Singer Sewing Machine Model 66 and 66K, www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/66.

Askaroff, Alex. “Singer 66 & Singer 99.” SINGER 66, SINGER 99, SINGER RED EYE, SEWALOT, sewalot.com/singer%2066.htm.

The Story of Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa were both Japanese citizens married in Japan. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture their first son was born there and remained in Japan all his life even though his parents would travel through Seattle to settle on the Eastside. Shichiro first made his way to the United States and arrived alone in 1906 while Shin remained in Japan with their child until they could afford for her to follow her husband later. They would live separate for at least two years as the events of their lives kept them from being reunited.

Although being lucky enough to have studied at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo like most Japanese immigrants to our region Shichiro found work on farms. His first job on the Eastside was at a Snoqualmie dairy farm where he was injured by a bull soon after arrival. His second son, Joe, recounted the story of his father’s injury during an oral history interview with Densho. It seems Shichiro was knocked down by the bull while working with the farm’s cattle and his chest stepped on, crushing several ribs and badly injuring Shichiro. He avoided being trampled and managed to escape by grabbing the bull by the ring in its nose and pulling it off himself.

Sources in the Eastside Heritage Center archive say Shichiro contracted tuberculosis at this time, probably from the nature of this injury which would have weakened his lungs. Seeking better medical attention, he decided to return to Japan. Unfortunately, at the same time Shin was already traveling to Seattle to be reunited with her husband. When she arrived and could not find him, she sought work and strove to learn English. Finding employment as a housemaid in Yarrow Point, Shin also enrolled in night school. Working very hard she learned to read and write in English and prepared for when her husband Shichiro would eventually return.

Shin and Shichiro were reunited in Seattle in 1908 while their first son once again remained in Japan. After about two years apart they could finally begin to build a life here in America. Settling near where Shin already worked in Yarrow Point their second son, Joe, was born in 1913. The Matsuzawa family are a part of the first (Issei) and second (Nisei) generation of Japanese-Americans who helped to clear the land on the Eastside and farmed there until World War II led to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese descent, including the Matsuzawas.

This photo shows Schichiro & Shin Matsuzawa and was taken in 1908 when the couple was reunited in Seattle.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-23-1/

https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-23-transcript-a0c507f300.htm

Eastside Stories: The Matsuoka Family

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

In the early 1900s many families left Japan and traveled across the Pacific to the United States. These immigrants settled in areas like the Eastside and became integral parts of building the cities and towns we know today. One of them was the Matsuoka Family. Leaving Kumamoto-ken, a province on one of Japan’s most southern islands, Mr. and Mrs. Matsuoka brought their two sons, Takeo (Tom) and Yoshio (John) to Washington state in 1919 after briefly living in Hawaii.

Increased immigration around the time of the Matsuoka Family’s arrival had led to the passing of the Washington State Alien Land Law , which prevented immigrants from buying land in 1921. For this reason, the Matsuoka family leased land in Kent during the 1920s and 30s, first clearing away the large stumps that had been left by the timber companies in order to farm. This extremely difficult work was remembered vividly by both Takeo and Yoshio later in their lives. To remove the stumps that littered the area and develop it into farmland, they used only horses and dynamite. They dug holes under the stumps and dynamited them to hasten their removal. Historian Asaichi Tsushima estimates that many of the stumps Japanese-Americans pulled up were 4 and 5 feet in diameter, often taking almost a whole month to remove entirely.

Once this tremendous work was complete, the Matsuoka family tended 20 acres of vegetables, sustaining themselves through the depression with farming. Yoshio recalled in a 1997 interview that the depression didn’t hit farmers as hard as others because farmers were always struggling to make ends meet. Farming led the Japanese-Americans of the Eastside to work together with their neighbors and create the Strawberry Festival in 1925 which attracted over 3,000 people across the lake. The Matsuoka family were among the many farmers who donated large quantities of strawberries and other produce to this event.

Tom Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed, a farmer run organization which Tom helped create in the 1930s.

In 1927, Takeo was also a crucial organizer of the Seinenkai (Youth Club) for the young men who were growing up in Bellevue so that they would have a place to gather. He was also among the group that built the Kokaido (Club House), completed in 1930 where men came together as a community for recreation and to celebrate their cultural heritage. Buddhist worship was held at the Kokaido so that citizens of Bellevue no longer had to travel to Seattle to practice their religion.

After their father was crushed by a horse in 1932 and died of related injuries in 1937, Takeo and Yoshio found employment where they could. Both sons continued to farm throughout their lives. Yoshio worked on a farm leased by an Issei (first generation Japanese-American) in Auburn, WA. Takeo farmed land owned by his brother-in-law Tokio Hirotaka at 124th street in the Midlakes area where the Safeway warehouse complex is now located.

Bellevue Grade School - Fifth Grade 1940 - 1941, just before World War II and the Matsuoka Family incarceration. Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka's son, Ty, is among the students in the second row from the top.

When the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, Japanese-Americans were incarcerated across the nation. The Matsuoka family was taken along with all Issei and Nissei (second generation Japanese-American) citizens of King County to the Pinedale Assembly Center near Fresno, California. Overall 110,000 Japanese-Americans were taken to concentration camps across America’s Western States. Individuals were allowed only one suitcase, leaving behind their personal belongings and the farms they had worked so hard to make arable. Many lived until the end of the war with very little in prison camps. The Matsuoka family was once again saved some of this hardship by their excellent agricultural skills.

In 1942, Takeo went to the Chinook area and voluntarily worked in the beet fields in order to leave incarceration. Takeo and his wife chose to stay in Montana, returning once in 1946 and leaving again for the East. His son Ty did move back much later, in 1985.

Likewise, in 1943, Yoshio requested a transfer and was moved to Hunt, Idaho where he was required to get permission to work on a sugar beet farm. In 1944, Yoshio moved with his wife and daughter to Michigan for a work opportunity. They eventually returned to Washington towards the end of the 1940s for the birth of their second daughter.

In 1950, Yoshio leased the land which he occupied until he retired, becoming known for his ability to grow the best sweet corn on the Eastside. By 1997, Yoshio (John) Matsuoka was the last Japanese-American Farmer left in Bellevue, still working his farm and growing food. It is thanks to families like the Matsuokas that the Eastside was settled. They created the farmland which made our area a resource for Seattle and led to its future development. Theirs is just one story of many that the Eastside Heritage Center strives to preserve and share.

4 teenagers, with one adult, from Bellevue on their way to a Seattle baseball game at Columbia Playfield on the 4th of July in 1932. From left to right: Guy Matsuoka, Betty Sakaguchi, Mitsi (Shiraishi) Kawaguchi, Mrs. Kazue Matsuoka, Yuri Yamaguchi

The Matsuoka Cabin was moved to Larsen Lake in 1989. At the time it belonged to the Masunage Family. This photo shows the Masunaga Family along with this historical cabin. From left to right: Yeizo Masunaga, Yeizo's wife, and Mrs. Taki Masunaga.

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Our Mission To steward Eastside history by actively collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifacts, and by promoting public involvement in and appreciation of this heritage through educational programming and community outreach.

Our Vision To be the leading organization that enhances community identity through the preservation and stewardship of the Eastside’s history.

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