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Japanese Americans in Colorado

Daryl J. Maeda

My comments will be in [ ].

Japanese Americans have a long and complex history in Colorado, and their story features struggles and perseverance, discrimination and tolerance. Exploring this history from the 1880s to the present enables us to learn about race and racism, civil liberties, and the responsibilities of individuals in a diverse and demo­cratic society. Colorado is notable among U.S. states to the degree that 1) it boasted thriving Japanese American communities before World War II; 2) during the war it was the site of an concentration camp; 3) it served as a major resettlement center for exiles from the West Coast; 4) it housed a major military Japanese-language school; and 5) it was home to an independent and prin­cipled ethnic press during the war.

[Note that the above paragraph uses the term 'concentration camp.' Other terms used are internment camp and relocation center, among others.]

The earliest Japanese to arrive in Colorado prob­ably did so between 1886 and 1888 and were mainly visitors and students. They were followed shortly, how­ever, by the first large wave of Japanese immigrants moving eastward from the Pacific Coast. The largest number of Japanese came to Colorado between 1903 and 1908 and worked as common laborers, railroad workers, miners, farmhands, factory workers, and domestics. The influx boosted the Japanese population of the state from 48 in 1900 to 2,300 in 1910.

Many Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) initially worked in Colorado on the railroad and in the coal mines. These early settlers entered an environ­ment already structured by anti-Asian sentiments, evidenced when a mob ransacked and burned the Chinese section of Denver in 1880. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S., and as the Chinese popula­tion of Colorado subsequently waned, the Japanese population grew. Like the Chinese before them, the Japanese who came to Colorado were scorned as the “yellow peril,” subjected to violence, and excluded from union membership. The Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post ran anti-Japanese stories and editorials beginning in 1901, and by 1908 the Colorado State Federation of Labor had formed a Japanese and Korean Exclusion League.

[There was also the Asian Exclusion League, the Japanese Exclusion League and a variety of others that opposed Asian immigrants. The degree of hatred against them was very considerable. ]

As Colorado’s agricultural industry blossomed in the early 1900s, farming and farm labor became a mainstay of the ethnic economy of Japanese Ameri­cans. Beginning around 1902, Japanese Americans found work in agriculture, with many eventually becoming independent farmers in the Arkansas Valley—where they pioneered the famous Rocky Ford melons—as well as in the San Luis Valley and in western Colorado near Grand Junction and Delta; farming communities also sprang up around Denver in Brighton, Fort Lupton, and Greeley. By 1909 an esti­mated 3,000 Japanese Americans worked the fields of Colorado. Many of them were laborers on sugar beet farms to the north and east of Denver, making up one-sixth of the sugar beet workforce.

[One of the major problems was just how successful the people of Japanese ancestry were as farmers. They could take land white farmers would turn their noses up and make it into a productive area. The white farmers became jealous of the PJAs and wanted to drive out the very effective competition. ]

By 1940 Colorado’s Japanese American com­munity population had grown to 2,734. Most lived in rural farming communities, but more than 800 Nik­kei called the greater Denver area home. In Denver proper, a so-called Little Tokyo, nestled between 18th and 23rd Streets on Larimer, contained restaurants, Asian merchandise stores, small businesses, a laun­dry, barber shops, and several hotels. It was situated in an impoverished section of town surrounded by pawnshops, secondhand clothing stores, flophouses, missions, saloons, and cheap hotels—and Japanese Americans tended to live among Mexican Americans, African Americans, and assorted immigrant groups.

On the eve of World War II, more than two-thirds of the people of Japanese descent in Colorado were Nisei—second-generation Japanese Americans, who were native-born citizens of the United States—while the remaining one-third were Issei. This ratio mirrored the Issei/Nisei composition of the rest of the nation. The outbreak of World War II fundamentally altered Japanese Colorado by greatly increasing the so-called free Japanese population and by adding thousands of people imprisoned in Amache, a concentration camp. For a brief period after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, Japanese Ameri­cans could “voluntarily” relocate from the West Coast, and a number headed for Colorado. In the face of widespread anti-Japanese sentiment, Governor Ralph L. Carr welcomed Japanese Americans, stating, “They are as loyal to American institutions as you and I.” Later, when the War Relocation Authority (WRA) attempted to enlist the assistance of governors of western states in relocating and resettling Japanese Americans, Carr stood alone in his willingness to cooperate. Because of his principles, he was excoriated as a “Jap lover” by his political rival, Edwin “Big Ed” Johnson, who instead proposed that the National Guard be called out to close the state borders to Japanese—indeed, Johnson had used the Guard to interdict Mexicans when he was gov­ernor. Carr was closely defeated by Johnson in the 1942 race for the U.S. Senate, arguably because of his toler­ant and democratic stance, but Japanese Americans never forgot his welcome—he was memorialized most notably with a bronze bust in Denver’s Sakura Square in 1976.

One observer noted, “During the early war period, Denver was a ‘Mecca’ for evacuees not desiring to go further eastward, as well as a stop-over for those who eventually continued their journey.” Denver’s Japa­nese American population exploded, from 323 in 1940 to a high of approximately 5,000 in late 1945. Indeed, for a time Denver was considered the “unofficial Japanese capital of the United States,” a title usurped by Chicago during the later war years. The number of Japanese American businesses increased from 46 in 1940 to 258 in 1946. They continued to be concen­trated in the Larimer district, hemmed in by pressure to restrict Japanese Americans from other sections of the city. Most of these businesses catered to a mixed clientele of Mexicans, Japanese, Euro Americans, and a few African Americans. The growth of the rural population of Japanese Americans mirrored that of Denver’s, increasing from about 2,300 before the war to between 6,000 and 7,000.

[Another one of the problems was how hard the PJAs were willing to work on the farms and in their businesses. Many of those who complained about them were simply not willing to put the same effort into their own farms and thus the PJAs ended up with more efficient farms.]

The removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast which fueled the growth of the free population of Colorado also led to the imprisonment of more than 7,500 people at the Granada Reloca­tion Center, nicknamed Camp Amache for its postal designation, “Amache.” Located in the arid plains of southeastern part of Colorado, near the tiny town of Granada and about eighteen miles east of the larger town of Lamar, Amache was the smallest of the 10 concentration camps in the U.S.

The residents, most of whom hailed from southern California and the San Joaquin Valley in central California, were unprepared for the brutal weather that greeted them. Hot, dry summers that swept dust storms across the parched camp were followed by bone-chilling winters dur­ing which wind and snow blew through the cracks in barracks walls. One of the most eminent prisoners at Amache was Yamato Ichihashi, an Issei history professor at Stanford University, who had published a landmark study of Japanese Americans in 1932. Ini­tially imprisoned in California at Santa Anita and Tule Lake before being sent to Amache, Ichihashi wrote extensive notes and correspondence on his confine­ment experience, an experience that unfortunately left him but a shadow of his prewar self. Pat Suzuki, a Nisei who later went on to win fame as a singer and Broadway star, was another notable Amachean.

[It didn't make any difference how good a PJA might be or what they had accomplished in their life. If they lived on the West Coast, then out they went.]

Prisoners operated an extensive agricultural enterprise at Amache which included more than 500 acres of vegetable crops and more than 2,000 acres of field crops, along with cattle, hogs, and poultry. Other prisoners worked in a silk-screening unit that pro­duced recruiting posters for the Army and Navy. The Granada Pioneer, a semiweekly newspaper published by the inmates which was subject to censorship by the camp administration, provided an important source of information about life in camp. Japanese Ameri­cans who visited the towns of Granada and Lamar on weekend shopping passes reported reactions rang­ing from warm welcomes to “No Japs Allowed” signs posted in storefronts. The military service contro­versy that wracked other camps was more muted at Amache, though the camp produced both volunteers and inductees— along with draft resisters—in signifi­cant proportions. Some 953 Amacheans served in the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT), in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and in the Wom­en’s Army Corps (WAC); 31 of them were killed during the war. While Amache produced a higher percentage of military participants than any other camp, 34 of the Nisei drafted out of Amache refused to comply, also a high percentage.

Colorado had historically supported several Japanese-language newspapers. During the war two of them, the Colorado Times and the Rocky Nippon (later renamed the Rocky Shimpo), were issued bilingually in Japanese and English and enjoyed their highest circulations ever. James “Jimmie” Omura, a journal­ist who relocated from San Francisco to Denver after Japanese Americans were evicted from California, became the English-language editor of the triweekly Rocky Shimpo, which during the war years called itself the “largest circulated Nisei vernacular in the continental U.S.A.” In the pages of that publication, Omura carried on what one historian has called “argu­ably the most courageous and significant Nikkei jour­nalist writing ever produced.” The issue being exam­ined and discussed was whether Japanese Americans should participate in military service while their civil rights were being violated. The JACL and its support­ers, who advocated that Japanese Americans volunteer for military service, lobbied to have the draft imposed on men in the camps. Omura, however, believed that Japanese Americans should not be required to risk their lives for the nation until their constitutional rights were restored. When a group of draft resist­ers of conscience called the Fair Play Committee organized at the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming, Omura published editorials endorsing their position. For his troubles he was tried for conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act but was acquitted.

Beyond simply being evicted and imprisoned, Japanese Americans made vital contributions to the war effort in Colorado. Japanese Americans released on seasonal passes performed much-needed labor on farms across the state, proving particularly invaluable on sugar beet farms, where backbreaking manual labor was required. More than 150 Issei, Nisei, and Kibei (Japanese Americans born in the U.S. but educated in Japan), many of them recruited from concentration camps, served as instructors at the Navy Japanese Language School, which operated from June 1942 to 1946 on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Their pupils went on to play key roles in the Pacific theater of operations as interpret­ers, interrogators, and propagandists during the war and subsequent occupation; many, including Donald Keene and Edward Seidensticker (a native Coloradan), later went on to become influential scholars of Japa­nese language, literature, and history.

[As I've pointed out elsewhere, if these people were so potentially dangerous to the American war effort then wouldn't it have been logical not to have allowed any of them to leave the camps for any reason? ]

The Japanese American population of Colorado peaked in 1945 at about 11,700, but this number fell precipitously as restrictions were lifted on the West Coast: in the next year approximately 5,500 returned home, and by 1950 only 5,412 Japanese Americans remained in the state. Despite the out-migration, however, Colorado continues to host vibrant Japanese communities, both urban and rural. According to the 2000 census, there were 11,571 Japanese Americans in Colorado, but this number counted only monoracial people, while the community is increasingly multira­cial. Including multiracial (hapa) Japanese Americans, the population probably tops 18,000. Japanese Americans are clustered overwhelmingly along the Front Range, from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, primarily in the greater Denver metro area; strong communities and organizations also persist in smaller places such as Fort Lupton and Brighton, the home of Sakata Farms, one of the largest farms in the Southwest. One thing that has changed dramati­cally since 1965 is that Japanese Americans, once the predominant Asian ethnic group in Colorado, now trail South Asians, Koreans, Chinese, and Vietnamese, although they still outnumber Filipinos. Students can study Asian American history and culture in ethnic studies programs and departments at University of Colorado campuses in Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs and at Colorado State University.

Colorado has been home to several nationally prominent Japanese Americans. Min Yasui was an attorney who first gained fame for defying curfew orders in 1942, and in the postwar years he became a respected civic leader in Denver for his efforts to pro­mote interracial harmony. During the 1980s he sought to overturn his wartime conviction and was a national leader in the movement for redress and reparations. A city and county of Denver building is named after him, and the Minoru Yasui Community Volun­teer Award is given out annually in his honor. Bill Hosokawa, the dean of Japanese American journalists, worked at the Denver Post from 1946 to 1984 as a war correspondent, columnist, and finally editor of the editorial page; he also wrote a nationally read column in the Pacific Citizen and has published a dozen books over the last half century, including his notable 2005 volume, Colorado’s Japanese Americans: From 1886 to the Present.

Although Japanese Coloradans are geographically, economically, and socially integrated into mainstream society, they maintain strong ethnic ties through orga­nizations, institutions, and events and celebrations. Sakura Square in Denver continues to be a significant gathering place for Japanese Americans today. Com­munity institutions, such as the Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple and the Pacific Mercantile grocery store, are located in the Square, which also hosts the Cherry Blossom Festival each year. The Japanese American community in Colorado continues to thrive as it moves forward in the twenty-first century.

Timeline for Japanese Americans in Colorado (Compiled by Daryl J. Maeda)

1886 • Tadaatsu Matsudaira is first Japanese to arrive in Colorado

1903 • Large-scale Japanese immigration to Colorado begins

1907 • Japanese Association of Colorado established

• Worship services held among Japanese Americans in Denver; this later leads to establishment of Simpson United Methodist Church, a principal institution of the com­munity today

1908 • Japanese Association of Brighton, Fort Lupton, and Platteville formed

1916 • Tri-State Buddhist Temples formed. Today, the Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple in Sakura Square is a central organization among Japanese Americans

1938 • Mile-Hi chapter of Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is established in Denver

1942 • Some Japanese Americans (perhaps a thou­sand) “voluntarily” migrate from the West Coast to Colorado before “voluntary evacua­tion” was banned.

• Colorado’s Japanese American popula­tion begins to swell and continues to grow throughout the war through resettlement

• Colorado Governor Ralph L. Carr, buck­ing prevailing anti-Japanese sentiment, welcomes Japanese Americans to his state, stating, “They are loyal Americans.”

• The 10,500-acre Granada Relocation Center, nicknamed “Camp Amache,” opens in the Arkansas River Valley of eastern Colorado; more than 7,500 people were incarcerated there. Thirty-one Japanese American sol­diers from Amache die fighting in World War II, with thirty-four resisting the draft

1944 • James Omura writes editorials in the Denver-based Rocky Shimpo urging draft resisters at Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming to stand firm in demanding that their civil liberties be restored before they submitted to the draft; he was tried for con­spiracy to evade the draft but acquitted on First Amendment grounds

1945 • Camp Amache closes

1946 • Bill Hosokawa joins the Denver Post. He went on to serve as editor of its Opinion Page

1961 • Influential Nisei journalist Larry Tajiri dies. Tajiri was the editor of the JACL’s newspaper, Pacific Citizen, during the war, then served as art and literary critic for the Denver Post from 1952 until his death. He is commemorated in Denver by the Larry Tajiri Memorial Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in the Performing Arts

1973 • Tamai Tower and Sakura Square in Denver are dedicated

1976 • Bust of Governor Carr is placed in Sakura Square to commemorate his support for Japanese Americans during WWII

• Denver Taiko is established, the fourth taiko group to be formed in North America and the first outside of California

• City of Denver establishes the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award to honor this community leader, political activist, and civil rights advocate who worked closely with African Americans, Latinos, and Euro Americans as Executive Director of the Commission on Community Relations

1977 • Naoichi “Harry” Hokasano, a turn-of-the-century labor contractor, is honored with a portrait in a stained-glass window at the State Capitol in Denver 1983 • Min Yasui challenges his wartime convic­tion for violating curfew orders in Portland. His is one of three landmark “coram nobis” cases alleging government misconduct in the original trials. Although Yasui died before his case could be decided, the other two litigants, Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu, had their convictions set aside 2007 • Bill Hosokawa honored with Civil Rights Award from Anti-Defamation League, Mountain States Regional Office


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