Stories of Solidarity: The JA Experience in Five Points Preview

Stowaway Kitchen

The Japanese community in Denver today is growing, with Japanese Americans and those coming here direct from Japan for work and otherwise.The diaspora of Japanese and JA’s in Colorado is spread throughout the state with organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League, Sakura Foundation, Japan America Society of Colorado, the Consulate General of Japan in Colorado bringing people together for community events and programs. Historic neighborhoods like this one are being reinvigorated by enterprising Japanese Americans like Jeff Osaka with Osaka Ramen + Sushi Rama, and with new community hubs like Stowaway - Amy is half-Japanese, she and her husband Hayden are introducing beloved Japanese foods as cultural gateways and community connectors.The owner, Amy's favorite dish is Asa Gohan, and on Fridays for lunch they also sometimes have onigiri, katsu sando, and Japanese inspired beverages - it’s an interesting juxtaposition of new/modern Japanese influence in a historically Japanese neighborhood.

Casey Kawaguchi Mural

Casey Kawaguchi's family in Utah represent another side of Japanese in America - his grandfather owned a farm and was allowed to stay to manage the farm - created jobs for rural JA’s vs. Incarceration.Casey Kawaguchi is a Japanese|American street artist whose large scale artworks are featured in public spaces throughout and beyond the Denver Metro Area [link to Courtney’s map of Casey’s mural locations]. Recently named one of Denver’s best known muralists byDenver Arts & Venues, it is literally impossible to travel around RiNo without noticing Casey’s work. There’s even a KAWAGUCHI table at Park Burger’s RiNo location!Casey’s aesthetic is both unique and immediately recognizable with its bold black, red and white color palette and the permeating imagery of an iconic face. Influenced by his Japanese heritage and by the strong women in his family—particularly his grandmother—the nameless character featured in most of his works is an ever-constant, yet evolving depiction of a Japanese samurai warrior woman who often appears alongside other Japanese aesthetic symbols and imagery.Casey recently completed a live-painting session at the McNichols Civic Center gallery during Denver’s MLB All-Stars festivities in July 2021. His piece “Tets,” (inspired by a 1940s photo of Tets Furukawa [link to Tets Furukawa?] playing baseball in the Japanese American Incarceration Center at Gila River, Arizona [link to JAMP and/or Densho info on Gila River]). Casey painted the piece for his dad, brother and great-grandfather, Chohachi “Gi-Gi” Fujita. “The love of baseball has been passed down through generation and I’m grateful to have this opportunity to pay homage to Japanese American Baseball Casey explained.

M&G Cafe

TK Pharmacy

T. K. Pharmacy was one of few Japanese American businesses that remained open during World War II. Operating out of Denver—outside the so-called “exclusion zone”—it offered a lifeline to Japanese Americans in Topaz, Heart Mountain, Gila River, and other camps by fulfilling requests for hard-to-come-by items like arts supplies and medicine. But the fact that this collection was preserved at all was a lucky accident.T. K. Pharmacy was owned by Thomas K. Kobayashi and run by his brother-in-law, Yutaka “Tak” Terasaki, during WWII. Because the business was located in Denver, Colorado, it was able to avoid the fate of Japanese pharmacies on the West Coast forced to shutter after Executive Order 9066. In 1942, Tak started receiving letters from Japanese Americans incarcerated in WRA concentration camps.Most of the requests were for items that seem mundane today. Hair dye. Note pads and sumi ink. Antacid tablets. Cod liver oil. Japanese herbal medicines. Rouge in “shade Siren.” There are also letters asking for film (“as much as you can spare”), chocolates, gum. And of course, the most popular item: gallons and gallons of sake.But these ordinary, everyday items tell us a lot about what life was like in the camps. How Japanese Americans passed the endless time, coped with the conditions of confinement, and above all, survived.There are also requests for things we don’t often see in archives—condoms, diaphragms, and other forms of birth control. Mugwort (or “mogusa,” as the Issei called it), which has long been used as an herbal remedy to relieve menstrual cramps and, sometimes, as an abortifacient, was another popular item.Episode two of Campu digs into the ways these letters refute the common misrepresentation of Issei and Nisei women “as passive bystanders left to deal with the aftermath of the business of men.”In an interview with the podcast’s producers, Densho Digital Archivist Caitlin Oiye Coon says, “To me, it just shows agency on the part of women in the camps to say, ‘I still want to be able to control how many children I have in this environment and when I have them,’ whereas so much of everything else was not in their control anymore.”Seven decades after WWII, a Denver couple who had purchased the former pharmacy started renovating the building. They stumbled across these long-forgotten letters and receipts hidden behind a wall. They were remarkably well-preserved, and thanks to the efforts of Caitlin and the rest of Densho’s collections team, they’re now digitized and viewable in our archives. But the fact that it almost didn’t happen—that these stories could have just as easily been lost or destroyed somewhere along the way—is a reminder of the valuable work that archivists do. - DENSHO.ORG

T.Y. Market - Ozaki Family Residence

Japanese Americans in Denver’s Five Points NeighborhoodJUL 9, 2021A Story about Tortillas by Courtney Ozaki as featured in History Colorado's the disCOursethe disCOurse features writers sharing their lived experiences and their perspectives on the past with an eye toward informing our present. In this article, Courtney Ozaki shares her family’s journey to Denver’s historically Black Five Points neighborhood, where a multigenerational love of tortillas was born.Born and raised in Colorado, I am a “San-Hansei”, or third-and-a-half generation Japanese American; my mother is third generation with grandparents born in Japan and parents born in California, and my father is second generation with parents who were both born in Japan. My parents were born and raised in Colorado with both sides of my family finding a place of belonging in Denver’s Five Points and Curtis Park neighborhoods following the closing of the incarceration camps following the bombing of Hiroshima and the end of World War II.Due to the signing of Executive Order 9066, which ordered 120,000 people of Japanese descent from the West Coast into incarceration camps with no legal cause, the families of my grandparents on my mom’s side, Mich and Rose Tanouye (with Rose at the time being a Tateishi) were forced alongside their families to leave all possessions and property behind, including their California farms, apart from what they were able to pack in one suitcase each. They were tagged like cattle with numbers and did not know where they were headed; their only crime being that they were of Japanese descent. Both of my maternal grandparents were American citizens.The families were transported first to a race track where they had to degradingly clean out horse stalls so they might sleep in them temporarily, and were then sent to an incarceration camp which was built for them to ‘relocate’ to in Poston, Arizona. My grandma and grandpa Tanouye were introduced in the Poston Camp and eventually reconnected in Denver where they were married and settled down at 1026 29th Street, in a house which remains standing today but is now a lovely shade of bright blue.After long years of war and life in the camps, Colorado, and more specifically Denver, was one of the ideal places to turn to in order to start anew amidst postwar racism, and many families ended-up rebuilding here. When my mom was born, and her sister, my aunt Maureen, was seven years old, the family moved to a small but slightly larger two bedroom house in north Denver. Grandpa Tanouye built a career doing upholstery work, and my grandma applied for a seamstress job at a western wear manufacturer. In order to be hired, she told a white lie that she had previous experience operating a power sewing machine. Despite not knowing what she was doing, she carefully observed and copied others who were doing the same job and she caught on quickly. She ended up working for that company for over 40 years, eventually working her way up to an administrative position in the office.My grandma and grandpa, Tamiye and “Joe” Motoichi Ozaki, my father’s parents, had a much different story. In 1931, my grandfather left Japan to live in Peru with his uncle to help build up his parquet flooring business. My grandpa found success doing this, and eventually my grandmother was sent to Peru as a bride, arranged by their families. She arrived after days travelling on a boat, to a husband who didn’t recognize her from her picture due to the effects of the long journey.Eventually, my grandfather took over his uncle’s business, and he and my grandma gave birth to my uncle Francisco (who now goes by “Joe”). When Joe was two years old, and while my grandmother was eight months pregnant with another child, World War II broke out. With no warning, my grandfather was seized by the American government, with the consent of the Peruvian government, essentially “kidnapped” by the United States. The intent was for Latin American Japanese to be used as a pawn of war, traded with Japan in exchange for Americans stranded there after the attack on Pearl Harbor. My grandmother, pregnant and with my uncle in tow, was able to eventually find her way to be with my grandfather, who ended-up in an “Alien Detention Center” in Crystal City, Texas. Sadly, she lost the baby, Hatsuko, born and deceased on August 8, 1943—eerily the same birthdate as my father’s when he was born years later.My grandparents and uncle were also now forcibly “illegal aliens” entering the country without visas or passports. Following the war, Peru and other Latin American countries refused to let most Japanese people return to their homes. In order to stay in the United States my family was able to get sponsored by a distant cousin of my grandfather, who resided in Denver. My grandfather eventually purchased his cousin’s husband’s grocery store, and was able to provide for his family despite all odds against him including only sparingly speaking English.The title of this article is “A Story about Tortillas,” so what does all of this have to do with tortillas? The answer is in several stories of shared cultural joy. With both sides of my family landing initially in Five Points and Curtis Park neighborhoods, they were not only with other Japanese people but shared this space with communities that were predominantly Black and Latinx, mostly of Mexican descent, who had moved in there starting from the 1920s. Like those who came before them, the Japanese were not welcome to live where they wanted in Colorado, so many of them migrated to Curtis Park, which had long since become home to others who were not wanted elsewhere. The greater Five Points area, which included Curtis Park and Whittier, was considered undesirable real estate. As a result, housing costs were low and in many areas within the neighborhoods there were no restrictive covenants to keep anybody out. So those of modest means, or with no place else to go, could put a roof over their heads and settle down in this historically diverse, accepting place.The fact that many people in the neighborhood spoke Spanish was helpful to my Ozaki grandparents for whom Spanish was more accessible than English after spending many years in Lima. In fact, during incarceration, my grandfather helped run a Spanish and Japanese newspaper. When asked about living in Five Points, the first thing that my father recollects from childhood is the MG Cafe, a Mexican restaurant that to this day he says had the “best burrito and green chili in Denver”. The cafe was on the same block as his house, which stood between 27th and 28th Streets on Larimer, beside the grocery store my grandparents managed. He and my mother both reminisce about the matriarch of the family-owned restaurant, who would sit by the door and pick through the pinto beans by hand. And, they fondly remember the sign on display that said something like “Keep your little feets off the counter” or “off the chairs.” Throughout my life I have accompanied my parents to numerous Mexican restaurants as they are always in search of an elusive dupe for the MG Cafe burrito.Another story that has stuck in my memory is one my father shared with me of him playing by himself in the alley at the end of the block on the corner of 28th and Lawrence. A nice Mexican lady called him over and asked if he would like a freshly made tortilla. In this day and age it would be frowned upon for a child to accept a gift like this from a stranger, but back then he eagerly accepted it. Throughout my childhood, my dad was always very picky and particular about his tortillas, and he would often feed me a soft and deliciously comforting warm tortilla with melted butter inside it for breakfast.My mother is also particular about her tortillas and she claims that her first generation Japanese grandmother, who lived with her family after the war because my grandfather was the oldest son, made the very best tortillas she has ever eaten. Though she spoke little English, and no Spanish, her neighbor in north Denver, Mrs. Rodriguez, taught her how to make tortillas and she in turn made them regularly for my mom and the whole family. I love reflecting on this now and cherishing the realization that this small bit of cultural joy, despite the circumstances, brought our communities together and has been passed down through generations of cultural continuum.There are many more stories about my family’s life beyond World War II: rebuilding in Denver and Colorado, being entrepreneurial, and working hard so that we, the future generations, would have the opportunity to be educated and pursue dreams of having a positive impact on the world. What was sacrificed by my family, and how they were able to rebuild in Denver despite being stripped of all of their rights and most of their worldly possessions, has had a significant impact on who I am today. My background and upbringing constantly provide me with strength, perspective, and resilience as I continue to forge my own entrepreneurial and sometimes overly ambitious path.My grandparents on both sides of my family were resourceful and resilient, and I only ever knew them to be optimistic and generally cheerful. They didn’t always have a lot, but they still always were able to provide for their families. Any time I doubt my ability to keep moving forward, I remind myself that my entire family, only two generations back, had to gaman (or to “endure the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”), and I observe how my parents established themselves in their respective professions. Recently retired, they have never stopped working hard to support me in my creative pursuits.Not having been incarcerated, but surely being passed down generational trauma, while encountering racism and adversity on their own, my parents have taught me to not take anything in this life for granted, to always maintain deep gratitude, and to look forward to the future confidently, never doubting my ability, worth, rights, and value. My family history of surviving displacement, forced incarceration, and hardship has ingrained values that have encouraged me to pursue a meaningful life of helping others and encouraging artists to share their own stories of identity and cultural connection through artistic and creative platforms. I am proud to carry forward the integration and intersectionality of Japanese culture with other cultural communities through collaborative efforts between community organizations and the Japanese Arts Network, and I am grateful to History Colorado for highlighting the stories of how Denver’s Five Points was built by many incredible individuals within our communities of color.

Universal Language - Grandmas in Backyards

TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW with RICHARD YOSHIDA:"I noticed that there's a lot of diversity in the area. I used to walk to school, only five blocks (not like you), but everybody was so friendly, as you go back. I heard when we moved in that this is kind of a rough neighborhood. Well, I didn't see any roughness at all!Everybody was very friendly, waved, and helped you when you needed to. One thing that really sticks out in my mind. My grandma used to live with me. There's a lot of Japanese around. There's black families. There's Spanish. Well, she was in the backyard and what's going on? She's yacking away in Japanese.The next door neighbor is a lady about her age speaking in Spanish. They were conversing across the fence, and they were understanding each other! I just couldn't figure it out! It’s amazing how they converse. The diversity shows there; that a lot of different people there were able to get together, live together. [Background: So one was speaking Japanese and one was speaking Spanish?] Yeah! I don't know how they did it, but they understood each other. It's amazing."

G & F Market

Look down Champa towards 30th Street to where G&F Market used to be on the corner of 30th & Champa.TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW with NANCY DOMOTO + MILTON DOMOTONANCY: My mom was already in Colorado, but my dad, he had a produce department in California. He and his buddy had just gotten financing to open a store in California, and then the war broke out. But luckily they had relatives here, so instead of going to a camp, they were able to move inland to Colorado.But, like everyone was saying, after the war, there was nothing for them to go back to in California. So then they stayed here and then, after a stint as a dental technician or something where he made false teeth and stuff, he got to finally have an opportunity to go back to his first love.So when I was one, he, with the help of relatives, was able to open a little store. That was on the corner of 30th and Champa, catty corner from Curtis Park. So I was one. Then my mom tells me the story that I used to spend my day, instead of a playpen, inside one of those big Northern tissue boxes.That was where I stayed behind the counter. We were catty corner from Curtis Park, just across the street from the projects. Then mom and dad had four kids. Oh, and then the name of the store was “G&F Market” – [it] stands for Gladys and Frank.MILTON: They sold meats and pretty much anything you wanted. You know, canned foods. Because it was right next to the projects, all the kids from the projects would go to their store. They had a pickle jar, a bunch of candy, canned goods; whatever they needed over there. They had really great meat, cuz they had a meat counter, which was good.NANCY: Later, things changed too, and then when you have a store, it wasn't all peaches and cream for us too. Cuz then we started getting held up and at the end of a gunpoint and stuff like that. I think mom and dad had the store for almost 20 something years. Then they decided maybe it's getting a little too dangerous, so they moved. But it was a good experience down there for us until a little later.

COLOR TV

The Rossonian

TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW with MILTON DOMOTOFats Domino was staying at the Rossonian at Five Points. I was kind of scared to go into the Rossonian to get his autograph. I knew this kid, this girl, that was brave enough to go in there. So I asked her to get me his autograph, and she did. She went in there and got his autograph. Anyway, I got Fats Domino's autograph there.

Radio Pharmacy

TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW with MILTON DOMOTOI used to go to the drugstore on the corner of 26th and Welton. They had two Black guys who created the first… who were pharmacists who had created a pharmacy store – a drug store – on the corner. We used to go there to get ice cream. They probably had the best ice cream you could buy. They had a creamery, kind of a place where you could sit down [background: like a soda fountain?]. Yeah, soda fountain! Yeah. You could buy Sundays banana splits. Whatever you wanted, but their ice cream was really good.

Roxy Theater

TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW WITH MILTON DOMOTODown the street, maybe half a block, was the Roxy Theater. It was the first time I went there. The first run movie was Godzilla. I remember my dad taking me there to see Godzilla. But instead of selling – I don't know if you remember – but instead of selling popcorn there, you got potato chips.And they had the heated, hot potato chips and they were really, I mean, so good. I mean, it was just… you couldn't buy those potato chips any place else except at the Roxy. I'd go in there just to buy the potato chips. There were hot potato chips.

Sonny Lawson Park

First generation Japanese “Issei” brought baseball over with them from Japan, and saw it as a hopeful way to connect with Americans. Became a favorite socioeconomic and social pastime for Japanese Americans leading up to WWII - in the Camps was important way to boost morale, and Leagues continued through the 50’s and 60’s in America post WWII.“Five Points Merchants, 1950s” (2021) - Artwork by LAUREN IIDAThe artwork on display on the side of the storage buildng was commissioned by the Japanese Arts Network with the support of the Denver Theatre District and created by artist Lauren Iida.TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW WITH MARY JANE OKAMATSU and MILTON DOMOTOMary Jane: My brother, speaking of the baseball team he belonged to. At Cole, he was in the ninth grade, All-American team. It was just [a] few years before that, that we had been let out of the camp, but they accomplished a lot just by belonging and feeling – just joining without thinking of color or anything. That was good, I think, back then.Milton: When I was playing baseball, one of the games was at – this was 1967 – and we went to Cherry Creek. Some of the words that came out of the mouths of the cheerleaders at Cherry Creek in ‘67… you realize how much prejudice there was from people at Cherry Creek. Then you realize, man, there's a lot of prejudice coming out of people that lived out south.

RedLine Contemporary Art Center

RedLine Contemporary Art Center is appropriately named after its neighborhood's history. From CurtisPark.org- The (Curtis Park) neighborhood was home primarily to persons of European descent at first, but by the 1920s, both African Americans and Latinos began to arrive. By the first decades of the 20th century, Welton Street had become the economic and social hub for Denver’s black community, members of which had taken up residence in the area as well. The largest concentration of African Americans was on the other side of Welton, in the area now called San Rafael, but many also lived in Curtis Park, primarily on California Street one block over from Welton but elsewhere in the neighborhood as well.By the 1920s, people of Mexican descent also began to move into Curtis Park. Though restrictive covenants were aimed primarily at Black Denverites, there was also prejudice against Latinos. Gradually, nonetheless, persons with Spanish surnames began to appear as residents in the neighborhood. Only a handful are listed in the 1926 edition of the Denver Householder’s Directory, many more in the 1936 directory, and by 1942, the directory shows that Curtis Park was home to a fairly large number of Chicanos.​Originally, it was economic diversity that characterized the neighborhood as one can see from the great variety in the sizes of the houses of Curtis Park. As Black Americans and Hispanic Americans moved into what had been, and continued to be in part, a blue-collar Anglo part of the city, Curtis Park’s diversity became more ethnic than economic.The population of Curtis Park continued to grow as more and more people, unwanted elsewhere, crowded into the neighborhood. As a result, even modest, relatively small houses were divided up into two or three units, providing needed housing for some, and income for others. The population of Curtis Park probably spiked in the 1940s and 50s. It must have been a very crowded, busy place in those years.A final layer of ethnicity was added when Japanese Americans arrived at the outset of World War II. Like those who came before them, they were not welcome to live where they wanted, so many of them came to Curtis Park, which had long since become home to others who were not wanted elsewhere. The greater Five Points area, which included Curtis Park, was considered undesirable. As a result, housing costs were low and there were no restrictive covenants to keep you out; so those of modest means, or with no place else to go, could put a roof over their heads and settle down in this historically diverse, accepting place. Located in Denver, Colorado, RedLine Contemporary Art Center fosters education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change.Founded in 2008, RedLine was created to support emerging artists, and provide creative opportunities for local residents. RedLine serves as an incubator for a thriving group of resident artists, through an in-depth, two-year residency program that includes free studio space, community engagement opportunities, and professional development.The organization also offers a range of programming that responds to the needs of the varied communities that live in the surrounding neighborhoods.Viewing art and arts education through a lens of social issues, the organization ensures equitable access to the arts for under-resourced populations by working to fulfill a vision of empowering everyone to create social change through art.

The Burlington Hotel

For many Japanese Americans, a stay at the Burlington Hotel at 22nd and Larimer streets was a first stop in Five Points. In 1944 out of 22,000 Japanese Americans released from the 10 concentration camps that year, the largest number to head to one place, was the 5,000 that relocated to Chicago. Denver was second with 2,507 former prisoners hoping to start new lives. After the war, the Japanese population in Colorado swelled to 11,700, with almost half living in Denver.One reason that Japanese Americans found it easy to resettle in Denver was that the foundations of the community had been laid decades before World War II, and since Japanese weren't rounded up during the war (though they certainly faced racism and their freedoms were limited by authorities), those institutions were still in place.TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW WITH MARY JANE OKAMATSU and MILTON DOMOTO We ended up at Heart Mountain in Wyoming, but I heard stories about- [interrupted: you were really little right?]. I was born there. I was born in camp. So they went to Heart Mountain, and then came to Colorado. [They] couldn't find housing and lived in the Burlington Hotel. [They] finally found housing there and then kind of moved around.When I look back, when I was a child, I didn't think about that too much. About the hardships that they had to encounter to give us a life, but it's amazing. I look back and I feel kind of bad and sad, but it makes me stronger, I think. I hope.

S-K-Y Bakery & Coffee Shop

“My father opened the bakery after he quit the Brown Palace. His cakes were pretty popular for weddings. He opened the bakery first and then expanded to a coffee shop and restaurant…He gave special deals to policemen at the restaurant; from my memory I think it was 50 percent. We didn’t have tabs or receipts so you’d have to calculate what they ate from memory. My math skills came in handy because I had to work there several years while growing up.” - Mabel Miyuki Googins

Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple (Original Location)

See description in 1947 Lawrence Street Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple.

J.A. Sharoff Egg Company

TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW WITH JOE OZAKI and MARGE TANIWAKIJoe: When, um, my dad first got to Denver, he did everything he could to survive. So he worked in the daytime with the JR-, JA Scharf Egg Company, which is down about 18th and Market or somewhere. And he worked there during the day moving boxes of eggs. It's also a place where a lot of Japanese, uh, American women or Japanese women would do egg candling, because they were good at that. I'm not sure what it means, but they were accurate, I guess.Marge: What, what it is is you hold up the candle to, uh, the egg, to a candle and you look inside and you can tell, I guess, whether it's fertilized or not. I think that was the whole thing.Joe: Yeah. Have an embryo… that wouldn't, wouldn't be good to open it up to make scrambled eggs and have an embryo in the middle!

Sakura Square

Sakura Square has been a central gathering place for the Japanese American community to celebrate our heritage, culture and arts for multiple generations in the Rocky Mountain Region. The Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple (TS/DBT) has long been an important component of the block, located here since 1947. Throughout the years there has always been a strong working relationship between Sakura Square and TS/DBT, but they are separate entities and do not share in the ownership or management of the block. TS/DBT which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016, continues to collaborate closely with Sakura Square to be the focal point of many Japanese and Japanese American cultural activities including the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.Sakura Square LLC which was established in 2014, is a for-profit entity that owns and manages the operations of Sakura Square which includes the 199-unit Tamai Tower Apartments, office/retail space, parking facilities and common area. The Sakura Square management team and staff are employees of the LLC. Sakura Square LLC is owned by Sakura Foundation, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to: “Sustain the Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple and celebrate Japanese American heritage, culture and community”. Sakura Foundation was established in 2014 as a result of a re-organization within Sakura Square and was previously operated as Tri-State Buddhist Church Apartments, Inc. (TSBCAI). True to its charitable mission, Sakura Foundation is committed to preserving Japanese and Japanese American culture and heritage through programs, events, grants and scholarships. Sakura Square is a hub where many Japanese American community organizations continue to meet regularly.It is important to appreciate the significance of this particular block as it represents what remains of a once active Japanese and Japanese American community with residences and many small businesses. After World War ll, many who were incarcerated in the various concentration camps migrated to Colorado because of the welcoming attitude of Governor Ralph Carr inviting them to the state. This was a courageous and bold stance taken by the governor to defend the civil rights of our Japanese community, as this “open arms” attitude was not popular with many of the citizens of Colorado and ultimately cost him his political career. It was in this lower downtown Denver area, which at the time was depressed with rundown buildings, shabby bars and brothels, that our Japanese community was allowed to relocate and settle. Despite the poor conditions, a thriving Japanese community was established with Japanese merchants that operated grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, small shops and businesses. This Japanese community neighborhood was doomed to be displaced when the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) announced in the 1960s that it would initiate the Skyline Urban Renewal Project to redevelop a 30-block contiguous area in lower downtown Denver. The strategy of this project was to clear the area of the outdated and dilapidated buildings, bars and cheap establishments, in hopes of attracting new businesses and economic revitalization. The block that the Denver Buddhist Church (DBC, the name at that time) occupied, was in this path of this redevelopment and would have forced it to be displaced. It was with this threat of having to relocate that the vision for Sakura Square and Tamai Tower was inspired, to establish the Tri-State Buddhist Church Apartments, Inc., to develop the block surrounded by Larimer, 20th, Lawrence and 19th Streets. TSBCAI was chartered on April 6, 1962 by legal counsel Minoru Yasui and incorporated on April 9, 1962. The purpose of the new entity was to provide low rent housing for our elderly Issei. The stated objective was to “acquire, provide and maintain housing facilities and services for elderly persons, especially designated to meet physical, social and psychological needs of the aged, and to contribute to their health, security, happiness and usefulness in longer living”.After much discussion among leaders from the DBC and TSBCAI boards and other stakeholders, it was decided to undertake the project under the following requirements: (a) TSBCAI would develop the whole block except the existing church facility and (b) DBC would remain but would have to refurbish the outside of their building. To accomplish this Step (a) TSBCAI looked to the FHA 236 program which enabled the project to build a housing complex that would also include commercial spaces for the Japanese businesses that were forced to relocate. Thus, this project would become the heart for Japanese business and culture for the Rocky Mountain area. On March 10, 1971, the property was purchased from DURA for $188,800, Bertram Bruton and Associates was selected as the architects, Titan Construction was the contractor, Tawara owned Bonsai Nursery donated the trees and shrubs and the Japanese Gardeners’ Association donated the landscaping labor for the Japanese garden. The original plan for Sakura Square included a 20-Story residential tower with 204 independent living apartments with recreational and community rooms located on the penthouse level. The bottom two levels of the complex were designated for commercial use. The groundbreaking ceremony held on March 17, 1971 with Mayor William McNichols and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials in attendance. The Project was named Sakura Square-dedicated to the commemoration of the men and women of Japanese ancestry who brought Japanese art, religion and culture to the region and to those who continue to sustain this cherished heritage.The original commercial tenants included:Pacific Mercantile Company – Yutaka Inai, ProprietorHaws and Company – William Haws, ProprietorGranada Fish Market – Frank Torizawa, ProprietorKyoto Restaurant – Seiji Tanaka, ProprietorAkebono Restaurant – Fred Aoki, ProprietorNakai Gift Shop – Mary Nakai, ProprietorSakura Beauty Salon – Mae Sawada, Proprietor​The Sakura Square Grand Opening was held on two weekends: May 12-13 and May 10-20, 1973. The ceremonies consisted of the dedication of Sakura Sqaure and Tamai Tower, the first Cherry Blossom Festival and a Wisteria Festival (Fuji Matsuri) which included Japanese cultural and art performances.An important component of Sakura Square is the Japanese garden located in front of Tamai Tower which represents an oasis of tranquility in the downtown Denver urban environment. The garden pays tribute with monuments to honor three individuals that exhibited personal and professional sacrifice for our Japanese and Japanese American community with their selfless acts of giving.Ralph L. Carr was the Governor of the State of Colorado when World War ll broke out. His stand in defending and welcoming Japanese Americans to Colorado after the war cost him his political future, but his steadfast support for their rights attracted many to relocate to Colorado to enhance the Japanese community as we know it today.Minoru Yasui was a community leader and civil rights activist who went to court to challenge the legality of government actions that restricted the rights of Japanese Americans. He was so committed to this cause that he spent nine months in solitary confinement to question the government’s right to discriminate against Japanese Americans based solely upon their race.Reverend Yoshitaki Tamai devoted 53 years of his life in spreading the Buddha-Dharma throughout the region and touched countless number of lives. He is remembered for his kindness, dedication and compassion. His personal sacrifice as a young assistant minister in the 1930s allowed the Denver Temple to survive during a financially difficult period. His leadership and example were critical in the Temple gaining strong direction and vision for their future.As Sakura Square looks forward with anticipation for the many opportunities that the redevelopment of the block will bring, it is important for us to remember the hard work and dedication of those who came before us and built our community. It is with this great sense of gratitude for this precious gift that we have been given, that we embrace our responsibility to remember and honor our Japanese heritage, traditions and cultural past. We must also strive to evolve by keeping our traditions fresh and relevant for future generations. Sakura Foundation is committed to continue to work in partnership with our community to achieve these important goals.

Pacific Mercantile Company

Pacific Mercantile celebrated 75 Years in 2020! The history of Pacific Mercantile Company begins with George Inai, who was born in Tokushima Japan in 1893. He arrived in the U.S. at age 18. He ran a small grocery store in Sacramento, CA until the onset of WWII.Due to the signing of Executive Order 9066, which ordered 120,000 people on the west coast of Japanese descent into concentration camps, George was imprisoned at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center and later transferred to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.George had a vision to open another store once the war ended and chose Colorado as the new home for his family. “It was because of Governor Ralph Carr that our grandparents were able to move their family to Colorado”George Inai founded Pacific Mercantile Company after settling in Colorado post World War II. Inai wanted to name his new store Nippon Market, but Governor Carr deterred him from using that name because of the lingering animosity between Americans and those with Japanese ancestry. After much thought, Inai come up with the name Pacific Mercantile Company because of his connection with California and the Pacific Coast. The store was originally located on Larimer Street and moved to its current location at 1925 Lawrence Street in 1972 when Sakura Square was formed by Japanese American community members as a result of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority initiative.The Pacific team has maintained its operating hours throughout the pandemic and has experienced an increase in online and shipping orders. All employees wear masks and cleaning throughout the store has increased for the care and safety of the customers. In-demand items have included rice, tofu, canned fish and canned inari (deep fried tofu pockets used to make sushi).Pacific is now a fourth-generation business with Alyssa, who is currently learning the different aspects of the business, as well as Kelli and Kristi Nagai (Keith’s daughters) in the near future.States Alyssa: “For me, the store is more than just a place to buy groceries. It’s home. I’ve grown up in Pacific and the people that work here aren’t just employees, they’re family. People don’t come here just to shop, they come for a sense of community.”“Growing up in the community, I never thought of what it meant to me but now that I’m growing older, I realize that it’s a place where I feel a sense of belonging, people understand who I am. It’s pretty unbelievable to me that the store has been open for 75 years; that my great-grandpa came to America not knowing any English and had this goal to open a store.”“My family persevered in camp and still managed to keep the store alive and well in an entirely new state. I never thought that this would be where I ended up, but I feel a sense of duty to my family and I honestly can’t imagine a life without Pacific. I want to keep this going as long as possible.”Jolie adds, “With the legacy of what my grandparents, mother and father, and uncles taught me Pacific Mercantile Company will hopefully be around for another 75 years! We would not be here without the caring families, organizations and partnerships supporting us for all these years. We thank you ALL from the bottom of our hearts.”

20th Street Cafe

Amache survivors opened the 20th Street Cafe in Denver after the war. It lasted 74 years through three generations. The pandemic forced it to permanently close in April. To the 20th Street Cafe thank you for creating community ... and for serving your chicken fried steak with rice.From the NYT article "The Restaurants We've Lost"Rod Akuno started working at 20th Street Cafe as a child, in the late 1950s. He stopped last spring, when he and Karen, his wife and partner, decided to permanently close the downtown diner his grandparents, Harry and Tsugi, opened nearly 75 years ago, after their release from Camp Amache, a Japanese-American internment camp in southeast Colorado.Until the end, Mr. Akuno, 68, woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get stock boiling before opening the restaurant’s doors at 6:30. He spent his days making pancakes and Denver omelets, chicken fried steaks and udon noodles with kamaboko. Many of his regulars also had decades-long relationships with the restaurant, which, for the past 20 years, was open only for breakfast and lunch. “It was a space for Japanese-Americans to get together,” said Erin Yoshimura, 58, who began eating at 20th Street Cafe as a toddler. Her grandparents ran a grocery in the same neighborhood. Her father, Rex, 85, discovered the cafe as a teenager, soon after his family moved to Denver, following their release from an internment camp in Arkansas.Ms. Yoshimura insists that Mr. Akuno’s chicken fried steak was the best in Colorado. “Of course, you had to have it with rice, not mashed potatoes,” she said. “That’s what made it a real Japanese-American meal.”— BRETT ANDERSONDenver Post 4/24/20

Mandarine Cafe

"I loved the old Mandarin Cafe, which, confusingly, was a Japanese restaurant in the space that's Ophelia's now. They had perfect tempura: light-tasting and crisp with just enough batter to give crunch but not overpower the main ingredients. They also had a delicious side dish of bean sprouts that I've been trying, without success, to replicate for years now. " - Emily Frank

Akebono Restaurant (orignal location - also known as "Fred's Place"

A 1969 view of New Mexico Inn at 1949 and Akebono Restaurant at 1953 Larimer street in downtown Denver, Colorado. Signs on the buildings read: Sukiyaki TEmpure Akebono," "Coors," "American Mexican Food," "2 Jumbo Beers 25," "1 Small Beer 10."Fred Aoki, owner of Akebono, was born in California and was one of the first people to lease space following their 1953 loctaion on Larimer Street, in Sakura Square when it was built in 1960. Back before WWII, Aoki's parents sent him to Japan as a teenager to learn the difficult art of turkey sexing, a skill that later kept him out of Japanese internment camps: He was the only turkey sexer Denver had at the time. Aoki made good money as a turkey sexer, and he used it to open Fred's Place, which he later turned into Akebono.

Akebono Restaurant

Pictured: A photo of Michi Aoki Kajiwara, with her mother, Chiyo, was taken in front of Fred's Place, aka Akebono Restaurant

Nonaka Barber Shop

Written by Gil Asakawa - from the Nikkeiview: NOTE: I just heard today that Mas Nonaka, a member of the local Japanese American community who has cut hair at several iterations of his barbershop, Nonaka’s, in and around Sakura Square since before the block was called Sakura Square, passed away.Nonaka’s was where I first got my hair cut when my family moved to Denver from northern Virginia in 1972, and his shop at the time was on 20th Street across from the Buddhist Temple. Mas and his wife Yasuko (who styled women’s hair in the shop) were familiar figures whenever my family and I went to Sakura Square.In recent years, I would see Mas and Yasuko at many Japanese American community events. He was always upbeat and very warm, even though I could see the years had cloaked themselves around him. He always called me “Gilbert” because that’s how he knew me, from my dad. It was when I went to college, everyone started calling my Gil. I never minded him calling me by my full name.He had moved his shop to the ground level of Sakura Square for some years, and I know he wanted to sell the business, but it seemed younger barbers weren’t interested in small, family-owned barbershops. They would rather work for a chain, or maybe save money to buy a chain’s franchise. The past couple of years, Mas had relocated his shop to the mezzanine level of Sakura Square but it was rarely open when I walked past it.I’m sad on hearing about his passing because Mas was the subject of the second-ever “Nikkei View” column I wrote way back in 1998, when the Rocky Mountain Jiho newspaper, now long-gone, asked me to write weekly columns for them.I’m “repurposing” that second column today in his honor. Rest in peace, Mas…I got a haircut recently at Nonaka’s barbershop, the newest addition to Sakura Square. Its bright and spacious location may be brand-new, but my memory of Nonaka’s goes back 26 years, when my family moved to Denver from Washington DC.Nonaka’s is where I got my hair cut when I was in high school in the early ’70s. My whole family made a ritual of going on Saturdays and lining up for Mas’ effortlessly gliding clippers and scissors while my Mom got her hair done by his wife Yasuko-san.Over the years, as I drove by the old storefront location on 20th between Larimer and Lawrence, I wondered how business was. The adult bookstore two doors down had become the block’s major tenant, and the Mandarin Cafe, where our family ate often during our early Denver years, had long been shuttered. The building itself was so hazardous its owners had to buttress it last year, on the corner just a few feet from the Nonakas’ door.I needn’t have worried for Masabi and Yasuko’s business; even as their building was crumbling, their business was thriving. Doing well enough, in fact, that last fall they expanded and moved to their new location across 20th Street, in the Sakura Square courtyard cluster that includes Kobun-sha (the very nicely stocked bookstore), Yoko’s Express (wonderfully hearty homemade Japanese food) and the publishers of this newspaper, the Rocky Mountain Jiho.The location’s ideal for the regular customers who live in Tamai Towers at Sakura Square, says the affable, 63-year-old Mas — they don’t have to cross the bustling divide of 20th Street anymore.For Mas and Yas, this new address is a homecoming — their family business used to be in the block where Sakura Square now stands. They moved the barbershop to its 20th Street location in 1971 to make way for Sakura Square, which was built in 1972.My family moved here that year, but Mas moved here much earlier than that — his mother brought the family to Denver in 1946, when they were released from Camp Amache, the sole internment camp in Colorado during WWII. She had learned to cut hair from her parents; Mas followed the tradition and became the third generation barber.Wow, I thought to myself. I came in to get a haircut and say “hi” to Mas, whom I hadn’t seen in years, and I found myself immersed in local history.I felt a similar connection to history at the January 17 annual dinner of the Japanese-American Citizen’s League, where I was one of the new board members installed for 1998. It felt right for me to be there, pledging to work hard on behalf of this organization, which has since its inception fought for civil rights for Americans of Japanese descent. I also felt that I was finally paying back an obligation from my high school years.I was one of the winners of a JACL scholarship when I graduated from Alameda High School in Lakewood in 1975. I remember receiving my award and shaking the hand of the presenter, Bill Hosokawa. He was a working newspaperman at the time, not a retired one, and he had been named the honorary consul general of Japan to Colorado. I was in awe of him, because I had just read his book “Nisei,” and he had awakened my interest in my identity.Despite that interest, it’s taken me two decades to become actively involved in organizations such as the JACL or the JASC (Japan-America Society of Colorado). And people like Bill and other longtime Nikkei (Japanese-American of any generation) leaders are still the role models.The next generation of Nikkei leaders has a lot to live up to, to leave a worthy history of our own. I’m going to start by getting my hair cut by Mas again, and by listening closely to those who have come before me.

Granada Fish Market

AUG 14 1951, AUG 17 1951; Believe it or not, folks, Denver manages to find a warm spot in its tummy for seafoods-despite being more than 1,000 miles from the nearest seashore. For proof, consider the Granada retail and wholesale fish market at 1919 Lawrence street. There fish of every conceivable measurement and taste are sold. Wrestling one of the large halibuts (photo at left) in a Granada cooler is Kaz Sakamoto. (Denver Post).

Rocky Mountain Jiho

The Rocky Mountain Jiho/Journal opened in 1962, and was a newspaper published in Japanese and English. Early-on it featured a weekly article by Journalist Bill Hosokawa (pictured here).INTERVIEW WITH HIROKO HANSENMy parents started the newspaper called the Rocky Mountain Jiho, and that was a weekly paper. Um, uh, it was English and Japanese, and I think people remember Rocky Mountain Jiho as a, a, uh, English paper, because the readership were, uh, in the community were, um, younger, uh, readers. And then there were [a] few Japanese.Uh, so Japanese were, um, mainly the first generation or the second, mostly first generation from California, also from Japan directly too, uh, that came to Denver. And it was basically community, um, um, news about what was going on in the community, in the tri-state area with the, uh, the Denver Buddhist temple and the Simpson Methodist church.And it was, um, I would say readership was, um, little over 2,000. I have a younger sister and we both were involved in it. And then, um, so, uh, whenever it was close to the deadline, we had to make up the, um, ads and then we would have little clippings and, and paste it on and we didn't have those, uh, glues then. So we had to struggle with that. And then once a year, just, uh, we would issue a New Year issue. Um, it took us probably about three nights of nonstop, almost no sleep to get that out. And then, uh, it was, I would say about 12 pages, uh, of the, or more, uh, depending on how much ad that we had. So we would have to make individual ad for, um, families.And then this was important, because a lot of the people are dependent on reading the New Year issues and, um, finding out, oh, that family is still here, they're over here. And so it was important for the community to, especially the out towners, out of state, uh, families. And then because of the, the Japanese, we called it the Katsuji, um, it would be the, uh, Chinese characters, uh, that the typist would pick up and then it would type, but then a lot of the headlines were hand picked. All the huge characters. So we had a whole tray of the Chinese characters and then they would set it up and then, uh, I, it would be printed. And so that was a big challenge and we had to have that person also the typist and the Katsujii, uh, pick.

Japanese Arts Network

The Japanese Arts Network (JA-NE) is a national resource for artistic collaboration and connection, developing programs to support and strengthen the visibility of Japanese Artists in America who create with cultural intention. Art should be valued for its vital contribution to society and JA-NE facilitates partnerships between artists, communities and stakeholders to collaborate, stimulating growth and connection through meaningful experiences advancing Japanese arts.The Japanese Arts Network is honored to be able to share just a few of many moments in Five Points history. We’re very grateful to Arts in Society, Japanese American Citizens League, and The Savoy for providing support which has allowed us to have this opportunity to share an important piece of both Japanese American and Denver history.ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU! THANK YOU!