Salt Lake City’s Japantown: Can It Be More Than a Historic Footnote? A Plan for Revitalization I am who I am because of you A place of remembrance and respect A place that thrives over time A place of inclusion — “Japantown Design Strategy & Guidelines” “We had a Japantown?” Valerie Nagasawa, principal at GSBS Architects, recalls the reaction some of her peers had when learning about Salt Lake City’s historic Japantown for the first time. Japantown was not a part of her youth; she was raised in Las Vegas and moved to Utah to attend the University of Utah. After meeting and later marrying Ralph Nagasawa, AIA, however, she came to understand Japantown’s deep significance in the life and history of his family and the broader Japanese American community in Salt Lake City. Her husband’s family owned one of the most well-known businesses in Japantown, the Sunrise Fish Market. That business and many others are no longer around, and memories of Japantown have faded into obscurity for many in Salt Lake City and Utah at large. Japantown’s Rise Japantown today occupies a single street at 100 South, named Japantown Street in 2007. At its peak, however, Japantown occupied nearly 10 city blocks and gave home to over 8,000 people. The majority of Japanese immigrants arrived following the Chinese Exclusionary Act, passed in 1882. Serving as railroad workers, miners and agricultural workers, Japantown quickly grew in Salt Lake City’s West Side, alongside Plum Alley, Greektown, and other rich ethnic communities. In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing Japanese Americans to relocate to internment camps, including the Topaz War Relocation Center near Delta, Utah. When the center closed in 1945, the population of Japantown tripled as formerly interned Japanese Americans moved in. This resulted in Salt Lake City’s Japantown becoming one of the largest in the United States. From 1907 to 1969, Japantown sprawled from State Street and 700 West to South Temple and 300 South, encompassing Japanese American homes, restaurants, stores, dance studios, a Japanese language school, two Japanese-language newspapers and more. Dawn Noodles, Utah Nippo and Aloha Cafe, the bilingual nature of Japantown, and the significance of having a shared cultural space still live in the memories of Japanese Americans who enjoyed a thriving Japantown. A Historic Demolition In 1969, over 90 Japanese businesses were forced to give up their livelihood Historic photos courtesy of the Mitsugi M. Masai Memorial Japanese American Archive, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah 16 REFLEXION
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