The Lost Frontier

The Lost Frontier. World War II uprooted Japanese-Alaskans. Stedman Street was a congenial place for Japanese immigrants and their families up to the 1940s. Japanese-born miners, fishermen, laborers and entrepreneurs settled across the creek from downtown and founded families. Japanese-Americans from the United States also put down roots in Ketchikan, where about 80 people of Japanese heritage made their homes in 1940. They took out loans and started businesses. They established a community hall and school on Stedman Street and sent their little ones there to practice Japanese language and culture. From 1920 to 1940, many Japanese-owned businesses were founded: restaurants; a bakery; grocery stores; a laundry; a hotel: a clothing store; rooming houses; a billiard parlor; a tavern; and other enterprises., Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, and effects of that surprise attack hit Japanese on the West Coast within days. Male issei , immigrants born in Japan , were rounded up from California to Alaska and interned as potential spies. In Ketchikan, 15 issei were “apprehended” and held at nearby Annette Island. They were soon transferred to an internment camp in New Mexico. Wives and children carried on business and families as best they could in a time of nationwide suspicion., Most local people sympathized with their Japanese-American neighbors, but others caught war hysteria. A cabin burned on Deer Mountain above Ketchikan the night of Dec. 7, 1941; the next day's false gossip said a prominent issei businessman (a 37-year local resident) set the blaze to signal Japanese attackers., The other shoe fell in April 1942. Authorities on the West Coast carried out a presidential order and corralled families of male Japanese immigrants. Internees had a week to fill two suitcases per person. There was hardly time for issei wives and mothers to tend to their nisei (second-generation Japanese-American) children and their property. One family hurriedly sold the stock in their grocery store at half price. One issei woman stored her household goods and ironically bought $500 in U.S. war bonds before shipping out. The 59 Ketchikan “evacuees” , the greatest number from any Alaska city , were held in Idaho two and a half years., A few internees had friends who looked after their homes and businesses. But most had little or nothing to salvage at war's end. Of the many Japanese-American families who called Ketchikan home in 1940, only four returned to stay after V-J (Victory Over Japan) Day., Nation and Family , World War II pointed up the ambiguous position of Japanese in the Territory of Alaska. For some, wartime was a painful conflict of loyalties. Take Pat Hagiwara., Born in America to a first-generation Japanese immigrant couple who owned a bakery on Stedman Street, he joined the Alaska National Guard 297th Infantry in 1941, just months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He trained at Chilkoot Barracks in Haines and returned to Ketchikan to participate in drills for defense of the First City. He played basketball with the local 297th Infantry team., But when internment came, his parents were rounded up. His unit was assigned to supervise the loading of a merchant ship that took his mother and dozens of others down the coast. For the rest of the war, Pat Hagiwara served the country whose government detained his family., A family business that withstood time and world war , Members of the Ohashi family stand in front of their billiard hall and rooming house in the 1920s. The Ohashis founded their business on Stedman Street in 1908 , pioneers among the Japanese immigrants who settled in as Ketchikan progressed from a mining town to a seafood processing and transportation hub. Friends of the Ohashi family protected the shop during the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II. The Ohashi family re-gathered after the war, re-opened their business and operated a confectionery at the address late into the century., Japanese-Alaskan business thrived on Stedman , Immigrants worked hard and succeeded on Stedman Street in the 1920s-40s. , Home Bakery , Frank and Shima Hagiwara . Jim's Café , Jimmy Tanaino . Togo's Laundry , Zenji Togo . Owl Café , Fumi Shirahige . Ohashi's , George and Shika Ohashi . Ketchikan Chop House , Serii family . Y.A. Laundry and Pool Room , Suzuki family . Tatsuda's Grocery , Jimmy Tatsuda (a family-owned store still in operation in the 1990s) . Kimura Grocery and Rooms , Kimura family . New York Café , George and Yayoko Shimizu . Tatsuda's Men's Store , Charlie Tatsuda, Alaska: A second home , This Stedman Street sheet from the 1920 U.S. census shows that Japanese and Filipino residents dominated along the blocks south of the creek. The line amplified for this sign shows the subject's place of birth and native tongue along with the parents' places of birth and language. Japanese immigration was building toward the unexpected crisis of world war two., Captions , (Top) Pre-war portrait of a Ketchikan family , The Ohashis in 1924. City of Ketchikan Museum Department , (Middle) American first , Pat Hagiwara (front left) of the National Guard 297th Infantry Tongass Historical Society , (Bottom) New address for the New York , Yayoko Shimizu (second from right) stands with family and friends in front of her New York Café and Hotel at 207 Stedman St. This 1920s photo shows the second New York Café: George and Yayoko Shimizu opened the first on Dock Street around 1900, then built a new hotel on Stedman in 1924. The family operated the New York for decades; it was purchased and renovated in classic style in the 1980s. Courtesy of New York Hotel and Café