History by Devika Gandhay

Interview by Anne Lin

Japan and Washington have always had a very amicable trading relationship mainly due to their closer proximity compared to other big trading ports in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. This influenced the increase in the population of Japanese In Washington, which by “1900 the number was 3900,” (“Consulate”, n.d.) a huge difference from the earlier century. The main catalyst for Japanese immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act which made the United States in dire need of cheap labor. In the 1900’s, the Japanese began to move to Seattle and were students, farmers, and shop owners. They had jobs in most of the big industries in Seattle which included fishing, sawmills and the construction of railways. (Takami, 1998) After the Gentlemen’s Agreement, which was instituted in 1908, Japan started to “suspend” passports for those who were emigrating to the United States. The population still continued to grow, until the enactment of the Immigrant Act of 1924. Even then, Japanese family members were still allowed to emigrate to the United States so numbers grew but not as steadily. Then, during World War II and the internment of Japanese on the west coast, the population fell suddenly and very sharply, “[the people of] Japanese descent number only about 60-70% of the prewar Japanese population returned to Washington after their wartime evacuation.” (“Consulate”, n.d.) The internment was a devastating event that shattered the trust of Japanese Americans in the American government. 

The Japanese faced forced segregation and racism even in the early days of their settlement in Seattle. They were banned from owning or renting property in West Seattle and Magnolia. They created a Japantown in the International District despite all of this. (Nakaoka, 2016) The second generation of Japanese immigrants, the Niseis started to create a community for themselves and began to get involved in different businesses in and around Seattle. After the internment, these businesses are what helped the Japanese get back on their feet and recover. 

THE INTERVIEW

During our initial visit to the Panama Hotel, we met a Japanese lady who works there and seemed to be really willing to share stories. Having this in mind, we were hoping to interview her on her experience as a Japanese American for our project on Asian Americans in the International District. We went to the International District in a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, it turned out that this nice lady were not at the tea house at that time. Disappointed, we decided to hunt for another japanese-owned store and see if the people at the store would be willing to be interviewed. The Japanese section in the International District is pretty small compared to the Chinatown area, so it was hard to find japanese-owned stores that meet our expectations: family-owned instead of franchised. Thus, we decided to look for the other two Asian American stores first and look for possible interviewees on our way.

As dinner time got close, even though we finally found a japanese family-owned restaurant, the owner refused to be interviewed as she was busy handling with all the reservations. It was when we almost gave up on finding the proper interviewee that we ran into this small izakaya, a japanese style pub. The storefront is not notable; yet, the store itself is definitely not small. It has a normal dining area and a bar area as well. We ordered some food for dinner and waited for the appropriate timing to ask interview questions. At first, two young japanese women served us and took our order. We were a bit skeptical that the izakaya is owned by young people since the store seemed to have a long history. Hence, we asked them some brief questions regarding their family history and their connection with the izakaya. It came to light that these two japanese women just work as servers at the izakaya. Both of them got married to a Seattleite and settled here after their marriage. After knowing our intention, they kindly introduced us to the store owner, an old japanese lady. She generously agreed to be interviews but chose to stay anonymous in the news report.

The old lady came to the US in 1964 with her husband who she encountered even before that time. Six months prior to her immigration, her two sisters had moved to Seattle and settled down in the city. Her parents also immigrated here with her in 1964. Back in the days when she first came to Seattle, she worked in an advertising and pictures company. After giving birth to three sons, her husband and she opened this izakaya and started their own business in the International District. However, shortly after the opening this store, her husband passed away, approximately 26 years ago. Ever since then, she ran this store on her own and took care of her three sons. According to the old lady, her oldest son graduated from MIT with a master’s degree; her middle son went to the Foster School of Business here at the University of Washington, and her youngest son studied at Cornell University and became a lawyer. It is extremely impressive that this small izakaya provided their living and raised the three sons up to the current phases they are in.

In our previous visit to the Panama Hotel, we saw the possessions of the Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps during WWII. Given this piece of history, it is reasonable to speculate that the old lady’s family decided to immigrate to the US in 1964 when there was no longer any tension between the US and Japan. After WWII, there was a boom period of Asian immigrants, and this was relatively more notable for Japanese Americans. This boom period can be loosely related to the novel, Exit West, which discusses the plight of migrant refugees who have been fleeing their homes. Although there were no obvious in Japan in relation to living situations, many people were immigrating to the United States in order to find better opportunities. They felt like Nadia and Saeed, that they would be able to live a better life away from even though the circumstances were drastically different. This immigration boom can also be related to the novel, Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, because the novel about the protest of industrial globalization, which many Japanese were actually immigrating to America for. They felt that they would be able to find jobs in America that would be better than one that they would find at home.

History by Devika Gandhay

Interview by Aiden Lin

The Chinese first came to the Pacific Northwest with the discovery of gold in rivers in the 1850’s. (“Timeline”, n.d.) There had been a famine in a large province of China called Guangdung, so many families began transplanting to California for the Gold Rush. Soon after, they began to work as cheap labor for the construction of the railroads, and as domestic service for the white families that dominated the area. (Takami, 1999) The workers settled in Seattle and Tacoma and “a gang of Chinese workers dug the first canal connecting Lake Union with Lake Washington,” which is a strong indicator of how important the Chinese were to the infrastructure of Seattle. (Takami, 1999) Similar to other Asian immigrants, the Chinese were prohibited from settling in certain areas of Seattle and Tacoma and were segregated. In the beginning, “the original Chinese quarter was located in Pioneer Square near 2nd Avenue and Washington Street. In the 1910s, Chinatown moved east to its current location in the International District,” all due to the discrimination that they faced. They were already prohibited from marrying whites and owning land so after the Chinese Exclusion Act was put into place in 1882, the Chinese population dwindled even more. The Chinese population in Tacoma virtually disappeared and never returned to its former numbers. It was not until after World War II when the Japanese population had decreased substantially that the ethnic specific laws against Chinese were lifted. They were allowed to join many fields of work that they had previously not been allowed to work within. One example of this is “In 1962, Chinese American Wing Luke (1925-1965) was elected to the Seattle City Council, becoming the first Chinese American on the U.S. mainland to hold such a post.” (Takami, 1999) This signalled the turning tide for Chinese and Chinese Americans. While they had created a small home for themselves in Chinatown they could expand and live in other places instead of being segregated to just the International District. 

THE INTERVIEW

Last Friday, I went to Chinatown with Anne and Runjing to interview Asian-American storeowners, and I was in charge of the Chinese American interview.

We had decided three destinations during our first field trip to Chinatown. To represent Chinese American businesses, I chose an old herbal medicine shop. Anne chose the Panama Hotel to represent Japanese American history in that district, and Runjing found a nail shop for Vietnamese immigrants. However, all three stores happened to be closed the day we went for our interviews. Hence, we just tried our best to find replacements. At first, Uwajimaya was our choice since that Japanese market clustered different Asian shops, but every shop was too busy to take an interview. Wandering on the street, we looked for other options, and we found one pastry shop one block away from Uwajimaya. The white wall without any decorations, the old-fashioned neon lamp hanging on the glass, and some posters about latest Chinese movies gave us our first impression of the history of this store.

I interviewed the owner of “饼屋” (which roughly translates to “pancake house” in English) but that does not appear on Google Maps.

The owner had come to Seattle from Hong Kong 40 years ago and he said that he “has been running the store for nearly 30 years.” (personal interview)

Though Asian-Americans play a big role in Seattle, and they live with other races and ethnicities peacefully, Seattle has not always been that friendly to immigrants, especially to those who came from China. During the 1880s, “local white workers believed that Chinese workers were taking their jobs because of an economic recession.” (History of Chinese Americans in Seattle, Wiki) “A series of riots occurred in 1886, resulting in over 200 Chinese being expelled from Seattle.” (Seattle Riot of 1886, Wiki)

Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, people from China were not allowed to immigrate to America. Although the Magnuson Act that was put into law in 1943 allowed “100 Chinese laborers to enter America per year.” (History of Chinese Americans in Seattle, Wiki), it was still difficult for the Chinese to immigrate to America given the large population that wanted to come to America but couldn’t due to limited spots. When the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed, people in Asian countries including China, started to immigrate to America in huge numbers. Though Hong Kong was not considered as part of China that time, immigration to US was almost impossible for them until 1965. Since the, people from Hong Kong filled the Chinatown neighborhoods in a number of American cities though the population didn’t grow rapidly until the end of 1970s. At this point, statements like “Hong Kong will belong to China in the future” were being thrown around. “At the beginning of 1980s, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was published, and claimed that Hong Kong would start to be a part of China.” (中英聯合聲明, Wiki) It was exciting for Chinese, since Hong Kong was well developed as they were under the English government. This meant that Hong Kong would be a perfect “facade house” for China. However, it was not fair to Hong Kong, because “the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976”(文化大革命, Wiki) allowed Hong Kong to develop greatly, unlike China. The market and economy in China had been awful in at the beginning of 1980, even worse than in the 1920s and the 1930s. Though China was benefited a lot from depending on the developed Hong Kong, “economic depression appeared in Hong Kong along with confidence crisis.” (1970年代香港, Wiki) Many Hongkongers wanted to leave home when Hongkong was being return to the Chinese government, and that shop manager was one of them.

The reason he chose Seattle was because Seattle has the exact damp weather like Hong Kong does. Though it often rains here, Seattle has more moisture and is not as dry as other popular immigrant cities like San Francisco.

Family association is a huge part of Chinese culture. The Chinese value their family history and even trace back to hundreds of years ago. Therefore, the first generation of Chinese immigrants carried this idea to the US and established their own Chinese culture in this foreign environment. In Seattle, there has also been a Chinese Union called Gee How Oak Tin which serves as a Chinese Club that allowed Chinese Americans to support each other. The association holds all kinds of celebrations and activities like the Seattle Spring Festival Gala and the Celebration of the birth of the first emperor in China.

The attitude of the interviewee toward immigration is similar to the main characters in Exit West. The shopkeeper said: “Sometimes I would miss home, but Seattle is pretty nice.” In general, he’s perspective of immigration is positive. The main characters in Exit West were the same; they keep immigrating to different cities and never going back, even though they are facing dangers and uncertainties. Some friends of the shopkeeper just stayed in Hong Kong, like Saeed’s father did. “”You mother is here.” said Saeed’s father. When Saeed said, “Mother is gone”, His father respond, “Not for me.” “(Hamid, 95) They could not bear to let go of the things and people that they care about.

From this interview, I realized that the background history of booming immigrants from China was much more complicated than I thought. “The Foreign Birthplace bar chart showed that half of the foreigner in Seattle come from Asia.” (Hatfield, et al 146) The change of the society forced them abroad. They were homesick here, having been repelled by local people in the early years. They struggled for their living and gathered together to comfort each other and to continue their home culture. Today, new immigrants are welcomed by a more friendly environment as the first generations made their way through the struggles and were treated like slaves. At the same time, because of the higher education available to new immigrants, Chinese Americans can blend into society better, and develop their own stories in Seattle.