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History of Issei Memorial Building
In the early 1900’s several members of the local
Kumamoto Kenjin Kai Association felt there was a need for a Japanese doctor
and hospital that would service the fast growing local Japanese
community. With this goal in
mind, in 1910 this two story structure was built to serve as a hospital,
and more importantly the group was able to persuade a general practitioner
Dr. Taisuke Kuwabara of Japan to come to San Jose to be the first Japanese
speaking doctor and to manage the hospital. The hospital was named the Kuwabara Hospital, but it was
better known as the “Japanese hospital”.
In 1933, a local group called the San Jose Japanese
Association led by Mr. Hatakeyama learned that Dr. Beattie planned to
retire. Mr. Hatakeyama
conceived an idea for a group to get together to purchase the building from
the doctor. Mr. Hatakeyama and
Mr. Yamada approached fellow members of the association to loan the money
for the down payment. With the
help of Mr. Y. Ando, Mr. T. Takeda, and Mr. K. Kawahara enough money was
raised for the down payment to purchase the building from Dr. Beattie. With the help of other members of
the association donating $100 each, within a year over $4,000 was raised,
which was enough to pay back the down payment and also to pay off Dr.
Beattie. At that time the
title for the building was put into the names of three Nisei’s: George Nakao, Tokio Ishikawa, &
Harry Hashimoto. After a few
years Nakao and Hashimoto transferred the title to Tokio Ishikawa. At the time the top floor was
leased to Mrs. Teranishi, a practicing mid wife, and the ground floor was
leased by a young Nisei doctor Tokio Ishikawa.
With the outbreak of World War II, Dr. Ishikawa was
called into the U.S. Army, everyone of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast
was interned or forced to go inland, and the building was then leased as
apartments. The owner of the
building, the Japanese Association, suspended all activity until the war
was over in 1945. When the war
ended the Japanese Association through Dr. Ishikawa transferred ownership
of the building to The Nisei Service Center, Inc. an incorporated
non-profit organization in 1950.
The sole responsibility of the new owners was that the property
would forever be used in the best interests of the local Japanese
community. Some of the
prominent members of this organization were Wayne Kanemoto, Shig Masunaga,
Eiichi Sakauye, Phil Matsumura, George Tsukagawa, and Dr. Ishikawa.
After the war, the San Jose Chapter of JACL leased the
entire building and was the primary tenant. With being the primary tenant the duties of the upkeep
and maintenance of the old building fell upon the chapter. Some of the other tenants were Dr.
Ishikawa, attorney Wayne Kanemoto, then insurance agent Norman Mineta,
physiotherapist Tom Mishima, and a newly formed organization called the
Yu-Ai-Kai.
In February of 1980 the City of San Jose designated
the 70-year-old building as a historical landmark.
In 1981 under the leadership of the San Jose JACL, a
community wide committee was formed including Issei and Nisei
leaders, who helped raise $300,000, half of which came from the
City of San Jose City Development Block Grant (CDBG) program which
cited the past contributions of Japanese Americans to the greater
community.
In 1991 the Nisei Service Center, Inc. transferred the
title of the building to the San Jose JACL, with the understanding that the
JACL remember the history of the building and make sure the building would
forever be used in the best interest of the Japanese American and
surrounding community.
In recent history the Yu Ai Kai used the ground floor
from 1983 to 1993 before relocating to their new building on Fourth
Street. The Japanese American
Resource Center (JARC) leased the ground floor to house their historical
museum from 1993 to 1997, before moving to their own building down the
street.
The building is currently occupied by the San Jose JACL
office on the 2nd floor, and the San Jose Taiko group
and CATS (Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene).
The Issei Memorial Building will soon be celebrating
its 100 year anniversary and it will continue to be used as the
Issei and Niseis who built it intended.
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