Japanese American Neighborhoods of Chicago
As Japanese Americans began to settle in Chicago, there was a constant pattern of movement up north Chicago, starting from Oakland/Kenwood and Clark & Division to Lakeview before slowly expanding out of the Chicago Midwest Area. Before World War II, there was a recorded census of 400 Japanese Americans in Chicago, but after WWII, the census numbers went up to 20,000. [3]
Many of these Japanese Americans had originated from the West Coast before incarceration, however, after being released and declined entry to the West Coast, many chose to go to the Midwest and specifically Chicago with job opportunities as well as support from the WRA office in Chicago, other Japanese American residents in Chicago, and Japanese American organizations such as the JASC and the Mutual Aid Society. From the 1940s to the 1990s, these neighborhoods in Chicago were residency and community for many Japanese Americans.
Oakland/Kenwood, Chicago’s Southside
Oakland/Kenwood, with Chicago’s Southside, was one of the biggest Japanese American neighborhoods following World War II. Here, many establishments and businesses started and thrived from residencies as they began to establish themselves.
While Japanese Americans officially didn’t have a Japantown, the Southside was very much one from the 1940s to the 1950s. Many owned grocery stores, lived in shared buildings, and later on, bought buildings to rent out as boarding or rooming houses for other Japanese Americans that were still coming from the camps and resettling in Chicago. 43rd and Ellis became the center for many Japanese Americans and their families. [4]
Another factor that led to the Southside being one of the first prominent Japanese American communities was the University of Chicago. College students that were released from the camps on the basis of continuing/pursuing higher education gathered at the University of Chicago, which had been known for its relationship with Japanese and Japanese Americans, as well as Waseda University, a Japanese university, for their baseball teams. During the war, many Japanese Americans were denied admission due to it being a war effort research center/area, and while it wasn’t impossible to be admitted, it was a very long process. [5] Still, many Japanese Americans applied to attend the University of Chicago and reside in Hyde Park due to its long history with Japan. From the baseball exchange program with Waseda University to the Japanese Garden in Jackson Park, the campus and Hyde Park were high valued locations for college students. [6]
Clark & Division
Clark & Division alongside Oakland/Kenwood was one of the most prominent neighborhoods that Japanese Americans settled into. From many boarding homes that were open to the Japanese American resettlers, to the many businesses and clubs/activity organizations that were founded on North Clark St.,[7] Clark & Division was a booming neighborhood that provided many services and opportunities to the resettling Japanese American community. Many Japanese Americans, families, and college students could be found residing in these boarding homes that were often owned or sponsored by other Japanese Americans who owned these buildings and would rent out rooms to them. Clark & Division also had many urban renewal projects, opening both job opportunities and residency opportunities for Japanese American families establishing either a business, family, or getting involved in the workforce. However, Clark & Division, as prominent of a Japanese American community it hosted, was not a permanent residing area, rather a starting place to re-establish and stabilize themselves, for many Japanese Americans and their families as they moved up north eventually to Lakeview. [8]
Lakeview
As the Japanese American community moved up north, they eventually settled into Lakeview, and it became a lively Japanese American community from the 1960s to the 1990s. Lakeview became the largest and longest lasting Japanese American community, despite it being the last, in Chicago. For thirty years, before gentrification of the neighborhood, many Japanese American businesses, following the community, thrived in Lakeview, and many Japanese Americans living in Lakeview were a part of the community, growing up around each other and their school friends. Lakeview was already a diverse neighborhood in terms of the ethnic groups it hosted, and Japanese Americans became an integral part of that area with their businesses. Lakeview also provided families better housing situations as compared to the densely populated Southside and Clark & Division. Families who grew out and families who were beginning to grow no longer were able to thrive in those neighborhoods, and thus they moved up north. [9]
Arlington Heights 1990s to 2000s
Arlington Heights is a much more recent Japanese American community, many of its Japanese American residents involved in the technology company industry. After Lakeview, many sansei had moved out to other parts of the U.S. to pursue higher education or other career paths. Recently however, Arlington Heights has formed its own community of Japanese Americans. [10]
Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket chain, has one of its locations in Arlington Heights, and includes a Japanese cuisine food court. It is popular among Japanese and Japanese Americans, as well as other Asians and non-Asians who come to either enjoy the Japanese cuisine that can be found in their food courts, purchase Japanese merchandise and brands such as Sanrio in their bookstore Kinokuniya, or go grocery shopping in their wide selection of Japanese goods in the supermarket itself.