About Tacoma’s Historic Japantown

Welcome! This website is a community-focused project led by creative nonfiction writer and public historian Tamiko Nimura with technical support from Sarah Pyle. It builds on research from many sources, including research gathered for the book Becoming Nisei: Prewar Japanese American Lives in Urban Tacoma (2021), by professors Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanemann. Whether you are a descendant of Tacoma Japanese Americans, a Tacoma resident, or a student wanting to know more about Tacoma’s historic Japantown, we hope you will find this information useful.

We gratefully acknowledge that our work is about a layer of history on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples, past and present, including the Puyallup tribe.

This site was made possible with funding from private donations and support from the University of Washington Tacoma Library, the UWT School of Urban Studies, the AANHPI THRIVE grant program at UWT, and the City of Tacoma Office of Historic Preservation.

The Project

Tacoma Japantown uses a multilayered, multimedia approach to telling the story of places in and around Tacoma’s historic Japantown leading up to and shortly after World War II. The Project uses interactive maps, historic photographs, and archival content. It builds on the research conducted by Professors Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanneman for their book Becoming Nisei: Prewar Japanese American Urban Lives in Tacoma (2021). 

There are several components to the Project: 

History: The overview history of Tacoma’s Japantown can be explored through four different sections. There are images and documents to accompany each one.

Interactive Maps: A web-based mapping application has been used to show the location of different aspects (institutions, hotels, etc.) of Japantown. The team is incorporating historic photos and maps.

Archives: A digital repository of maps, documents, and photos. Some of these are from existing online collections, but some of them also come (with permission) from the private collections of descendants of Tacoma Japanese Americans, locally and from around the United States. 

Resources: This site is for anyone seeking to understand and learn more about the history of Tacoma’s Japantown, including those who currently work, live, and play in downtown Tacoma. Understanding that descendants of Tacoma Japanese Americans may be looking for more about their family histories, the site also aims to be a resource for these descendants.

Photo credit: Hand-drawn map of Tacoma Japantown (c.1928) by journalist Kazuo Ito, from The Issei: A History of Japanese Americans in North America (1970).