On December 30, 2008, officers of the Seattle Japanese Language School (SJLS) and the Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington (NHAW) officially agree to merge their organizations at a signing ceremony in their shared facility at 1414 S Weller Street in Seattle, formalizing the establishment of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW). Decades in the making, the dream of a Nikkei cultural and community center in Seattle brought in many of the most talented and determined local Japanese American leaders, and its creation secured a history of mutual support dating back over a century.
Challenges for a Community Dream
In a fanciful but visionary 1970 article for the Pacific Citizen, columnist Joe Hamanaka (1921-2011) fantasized about a dramatic revitalization of Seattle’s old Nihonmachi neighborhood, anchored by the dedication of a "$250,000 Japanese cultural and community center complex" at the old Japanese language school site, attended by the mayor, Japanese consul, and the delightfully named "Daikon Ochazuke," a fictional 99-year-old claimed to be the oldest living local Issei, or "first-generation" Japanese immigrant.
More concrete efforts to establish a community center in the early 1970s were stymied by political conflicts. One group of activists, working through the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, was led by Chuck Kato (1932-2008), along with Henry Miyatake (1929-2014), Ken Nakano (1931-2009), and others; the three are better known as key figures in the successful movement for redress for the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Longtime Seattle Japanese Language School president Genji Mihara (1890-1982) worked to raise funds on a 1974 trip to Japan, while officials with the Seattle Betsuin Temple aimed to build a community center on the former Collins Playfield on S Main Street, which they acquired from the city in 1975.
However, conflicts arose between JACL and the Buddhist church, complicating efforts to secure funding. Local writer Mayumi Tsutakawa (b. 1949) described the "community center site controversy" as "a healthy can of worms," in a 1976 article for the International Examiner on Seattle Betsuin’s plans for what would become Wisteria Park. It did not help that proposals for a separate, broader Asian cultural center, offered $385,000 in city funding, had led to an even deeper conflict between factions in the International District tied to leaders Bob Santos (1934-2016) and Ruby Chow (1920-2008).
In a 1994 Northwest Nikkei article, author Ken Mochizuki (b. 1954) reviewed the history of efforts to build a community center, quoting the 1970 Pacific Citizen column as well as Hamanaka’s current preference for a site east of Lake Washington. Others continued to support the SJLS location, including Shea Aoki (1914-2020) and Kato, who had commissioned architectural plans for the site in an unsuccessful effort a few years earlier. Kip Tokuda (1946-2013), then president of Seattle Chapter JACL, also preferred a location in a historically Japanese American neighborhood, suggesting the Nippon Kan Theater. Working with Scott Oki (b. 1948), Tokuda assembled a coalition of Japanese American organizations interested in working toward a center, with the help of Karen Yoshitomi (b. 1962), later to become the JCCCW’s executive director, and Dee Goto (b. 1939), who had been working towards a center for years.
"If You Guys Mess Up ..."
Tokuda was subsequently elected to four terms in the state legislature, beginning in 1994, but after he left office, he rededicated himself to the effort. The Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington was founded in 2003, cochaired by Municipal Court Judge Ron Mamiya (1949-2019) and Tokuda and journalist Lori Matsukawa (b. 1956), who would later serve as President and as Vice-Presidents, respectively, along with Goto as treasurer and Arlene Oki as secretary. On May 18, a town hall meeting was held at the Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. Potential sites for the center, including SJLS, Collins Playfield, Kubota Gardens, and the old Uwajimaya location at South King Street, were discussed at a follow-up meeting at Kawabe Memorial House on November 15. A website using the JCCCW name began operating that year, designed by Matsukawa’s son, Alex Blackstock (b. 1987), a high-schooler.
The NHAW board unanimously selected SJLS over finalists that included the Publix Hotel on July 20, 2004, and arrangements were made to rent the space for $1 annually – although, according to a 2022 profile, Matsukawa said that "the old guards" told her, "If you guys mess up, we will take it back" ("Lori Matsukawa: Recipient ..."). On October 9, approximately 200 people attended an open house at the language school, and on May 15, 2005, a work party was held to open the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington’s new office on the site. Fundraising and planning continued over the next few years, often speaking of the center in the future tense, along with public programming at the school, including presentations of work from Goto’s popular Omoide (memories) project, providing workshops to help community members write about their lives.
As in the 1970s, the early 2000s also saw a wave of major revitalization projects involving Asian American cultural organizations in the area, Assunta Ng, founder and publisher of Northwest Asian Weekly, said in 2022 that she had worried, incorrectly, that the center would conflict with the Wing Luke Museum’s planned expansion. According to community leader Bill Tashima, Tokuda helped secure funding for both. Along with Tokuda's tireless lobbying, Matsukawa provided energy and charisma: "Raising visibility" was how she explained her role to Ng.
While the creation of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington took decades, the history of the language school extends back over a century. Previously known as "Kokugo Gakko," it is believed to be the oldest Japanese language school in the Continental U.S. still in existence, founded in 1902 as Nihonjinkai Fuzoku Shogako at 2nd Avenue S and S Main Street. The current buildings were constructed in three stages between 1913 and 1929, and countless area Nikkei passed through the school's classes, including Tama Tokuda (1920-2013), Kip’s mother.
For a decade and a half after World War II, Mihara transformed it into a hostel for displaced families struggling to find housing, and it was known as the Hunt Hotel, after Hunt, Idaho, the location of the Minidoka concentration camp where most Seattle Nikkei had been held. In 2016, the JCCCW presented this history in a permanent exhibit, Unsettled/Resettled, curated by Elisa Law (b. 1985) after years of work begun under former volunteer and staffer Bif Brigman, with artwork by Aki Sogabe (b. 1945). Currently, the JCCCW houses historical exhibits, a beloved resale shop, a dojo, a tea ceremony room, a garden, and space for community events and activities, while continuing to offer its popular language classes.
