Unless you’re a Native American, we’re all immigrants to this state. We were discovered by trappers and explorers, some of whom stuck around, followed by the great Mormon trek of folks who sought a place to live and practice their religion. Once the white colonizers from Britian and Scandinavia took over the land industry began popping up, including gold, silver and copper mines followed by the railroads in the late 1800’s. The blue collar labor jobs of digging ore, working in mills or laying tracks fell to immigrants from China, Japan, Greece, Korea, Crete, Croatia and Serbia. Labor agents in foreign countries worked with local business leaders to bring in thousands of workers to Utah.

By 1910 there were over 2,000 Japanese living in and around 100 South, between 200 West and 300 West. The Issei (first generation) of immigrants who moved here were both skilled and non-skilled laborers, mostly men who later brought wives to the capitol city once they decided to make Utah their permanent homes. Soon after their arrival they built a Japanese school, the Japanese Church of Christ and the Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple, a studio for Obon dance and kendo lessons, markets and noodle shops in what became known as Japantown or Japantown Street.

By the time WWII began and after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, 11,000 Japanese-American citizens were relocated form San Francisco and the West to the infamous internment camp at Topaz, outside of Delta, Utah. This ended up tripling the number of Japanese citizens in our state of which many stayed here, since their homes and businesses had been confiscated and sold off by the U.S. government during the war. Japantown was a wonderful gathering place for social and religious events as well as a source for Asian-centric foods.  Over the years people moved away from downtown and spread out into the community, and when plans were announced to build the Salt Palace in 1969 Japantown was mostly gone except for the two churches on the block.

In 2007 the SLC City Council approved an honorary name change for the street, declaring it officially “Japantown Street”. I was a volunteer member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and fought to keep at least some of the area preserved despite the Salt Palace expansion. We got a small victory with a lovely Japanese garden on the north side of 100 South, and the two churches are still intact.

Now big money is hovering over Japantown, Abravanel Hall, the Delta Center and the Salt Palace to re-imagine and create a sports and entertainment district in the area. The last remnants of this vibrant community and history could be in jeopardy of disappearing, to go by the wayside like ‘Greektown’, which only has a TRAX station named after it left for the world to know another ethic group lived side by side Japantown, downtown.