History of the CID
Early waves of settlers to the Seattle area were ethnically and economically diverse. The booming railroad and logging industries drew many Asian immigrants to the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s, in hopes of finding lucrative work. The first Chinese settler in Seattle was Chin Chun Hock, who arrived in 1868 and founded the Wa Chong Company, a merchandise house.5 Those that followed called themselves Gim San hok, “Guests of Gold Mountain.” Many of these early Chinese immigrants settled in the eastern part of Pioneer Square, creating what eventually would become Seattle’s CID.6 Since that time, the CID has undergone many changes, including its relationship to the city. Understanding the history behind these changes is crucial in understanding the CID today.
The CID in the 1880s
Chinese immigrants continued flocking to Seattle throughout the late nineteenth century. A common expectation of incoming Chinese immigrants was to work hard, save their fortune and move back to their respective homeland and “live an easy life”.8 However, when the economy started to decline, many white Seattle citizens looked for easy scapegoats. Anti-Chinese sentiment was common across the country. In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which placed heavy restrictions on Chinese immigration for the following ten-year period.9 The results of these policies and racist sentiment slowed immigration on U.S. soil. Those already established in the country faced waves of anti-Chinese attacks and policies that often would lead to violence.
For years, anti-Chinese sentiment had been brewing throughout the West Coast, until it finally exploded. On February 7, 1886, a disgruntled mob tried to round up every Chinese person in the city and ushered them down to the Seattle wharf, where a steamer, “The Queen of the Pacific,” was waiting to export them out of the country.11 During the turmoil, over 200 Chinese residents were forced out to San Francisco. Seattle city officials continued the racist sentiment inevitably clashing with the remaining Chinese citizens pushing President Grover Cleveland to declare martial law. Tensions ultimately died down due to the flight and forced removal of most of Seattle’s Chinese population. Congress paid a sum of nearly $300,000 to the Chinese government for damages after Seattle’s once vibrant Chinese population was disenfranchised and marginalized.13
The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 altered the Chinese configuration in Seattle. The original Chinatown location was destroyed in the fire and Chinese immigrants moved to the current CID location.14 At this point, very few Chinese residents were left from the initial boom of the 1850s, those who remained provided labor for much of the reconstruction.15
Harsh immigration restrictions still prevented new Chinese immigrants from arriving to the city. However, no such restrictions existed on Japanese immigrants. For the next few decades, the ethnic makeup of the CID shifted, as Japanese immigration boomed. Census records indicate that there were only approximately 125 Japanese individuals living in Seattle as of 1890, but mass immigration into the city, prompted by steamship service between Yokohama and Seattle in 1896, as well as the Alaska gold rush in 1897, raised this number to nearly 3,000 by 1900.16
The CID in the 1890s - 1940s
Following the racial upheaval of the 1880s, tensions in Seattle started to decrease and economic prosperity returned. The Japanese population continued to grow, although immigration restrictions resulted in higher male immigration. The population of Japanese immigrants was 91% male in 1900.17 In 1907, an informal “Gentleman’s Agreement” was reached between the United States and Japan that eliminated further emigration into the United States of Japanese men, but allowed for the immigration of wives, children, and parents of existing first-generation Japanese, known as Issei.18 This agreement had the profound effect of stabilizing Japanese-American families and led to the explosive growth of second-generation Japanese-Americans, called Nisei.
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 was meant to show the city’s successes and its positive relationship with internationaltrade in the Pacific region.19 At this time, an economic boom and general easing of anti-immigrant attitudes lead to a prosperous time in the CID.
At the turn of the century a successful business owner in Portland, Oregon, a man named Goon Dip, helped to develop the CID. Dip had been appointed Consul by the Chinese government for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.21 During the Exposition, he met E. B. Deming, the owner of a large salmon canning business. Dip worked as a contractor for Deming and hired many Asian workers, including Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino residents.22 As Chinese immigrants were being removed from buildings in the Washington Street area as a part of reconstruction efforts, Dip was key in supporting the investment in and construction of new community buildings in what is now the International District, including the Milwaukee Hotel at King Street and Seventh Avenue.24
Access to labor helped to create a burgeoning CID. Job mobility in industries such as imports, railroads, salmon canneries and sawmills created greater opportunities for economic growth throughout the Puget Sound region.25 In the CID, community members owned and managed restaurants, drug stores, shoe stores, hotels, and barbershops.26 They served traditional needs while also forging unique culturalestablishments, such as Japanese bathhouses, archery arcades, sushi shops and pinball establishments in the Nihonmachi (Japantown).27
As the Japanese population grew to become Seattle’s largest ethnic minority, the Nihonmachi emerged as the second largest ethnic neighborhood of this type on the West Coast.28
In 1924, the adoption of the Immigration Act, banning all Japanese immigration, had the short-term effect of allowing the Nisei population to increase from 1,863 in 1920 to 4,000 by 1930.29 This growth effectively shifted the leadership of the Japanese community to the Nisei. In 1928, several Nisei leaders established a community organization aimed at integrating “the second generation with American life through their participation in civic activities”- the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). The organization was founded by three prominent NiseiClarence Arai, the first Japanese-American attorney in Seattle 30; George Ishihara, “volunteer czar of Nisei ports in Seattle”31; and Jimmy Sakamoto, head of the Japanese American Courier newspaper.
The Chinese community built their own support networks as well. The Chong Wa Benevolent Association was founded in 1915 to “provide a unified voice to serve as an umbrella organization for Chinese Americans in Washington state and mediate
disputes between family associations and tongs.”32 An umbrella organization for all Chinese association and clubs in the region, the Chong Wa Benevolent Association’s role as a neighborhood asset was solidified in 1929 when a building was constructed to support its activities.33 The building is still used by the Association today for a Chinese language school, citizenship classes, and other Chinese cultural activities.34 The growth and prosperity of this period did not last. World War II and the new wave of antiimmigration policy and sentiment aimed at the people of Japan would again change the dynamics and demographics of the CID.
World War II
World War II brought on a more anti-Asian sentiment in the United States, this time directed at the Japanese. Fear and anger after the bombing of Pearl Harbor culminated in the Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. The order forced 110,000 Japanese American people living on the West Coast from their homes to internment camps.35 Many families and community leaders from Seattle were sent to an assembly
center at the present day Puyallup Fairgrounds and later sent to an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho.36, 37
That comment, made by Seattle Mayor Earl Millikin, is emblematic of this period.38 For the 70th anniversary of this painful event in American history, reporters from the Seattle Magazine interviewed Fumiko Hayashida, the woman holding her child in the picture below. 39 Hayashida was already more than 100 years old for her interview, but her image from that year lives on as a foreboding example of what Japanese residents endured during the war years.40
Internment depleted much of the economic power and stability that first generation Japanese-Americans had enjoyed, as they were forced to leave their homes and businesses. Their children, the Nisei, were caught in the precarious position of wanting to support the United States at a time when it was determined not to support them. Many Nisei, including the leaders of the JACL, continued the work of their elders and even supported the war effort that had ripped their families apart. Both the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team were comprised of second-generation Japanese American men.41 After the war, when the internment camps closed, almost a third of the Japanese population did not return to Seattle. Fewer Japanese residents and a pervasive anti-Japanese sentiment deeply impacted the economic well-being of Japantown/Nihonmachi.42 Chinese-Americans also faced the threat of being mislabeled as communist sympathizers, led many families to quietly celebrate their heritage for fear of the government finding “something wrong with their immigration papers.”43
Those who served during the war used the GI Bill to attend college, and slowly the CID returned to its prewar identity. Population grew, as more Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asian Pacific immigrants arrived to the city. The demographics of this area had changed so much over the years that in 1951 Seattle Mayor William Devin official renamed the area from Chinatown to the International District, to better reflect the area’s diversity.44
By this time, the Asian community had existed in Seattle for well over one hundred years. Still, political legitimacy in the city escaped them. This changed in 1962, when Wing Luke was elected to the Seattle City Council, making him the first person of color elected to the council or to any political office in the Pacific Northwest.
Luke tragically died three years after his election, but his example ushered in a new era of political engagement. On May 17, 1967, the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience was founded, to commemorate Luke and others who contributed to the building of a strong Asian Pacific culture in Seattle. Today, that museum is a National Park Service Affiliated Area and a Smithsonian affiliate, the first in the Pacific Northwest.45, 46
Luke helped pave the way for other members of the community to seek political representation. The 1960s and 1970s were an important time in the United
1960s – 1970s Political Representation
States for civil rights and equal opportunities for minorities. Political organizing began in earnest in the CID, as the citizens learned to voice their concerns and demand better service from their government. The CID established its official boundaries with the City of Seattle in 1968, officially occupying the lands from 5th Ave east to 12th Ave and from Yesler Way to Dearborn Street.47
Over the course of the next decade, the CID and its emerging leadership, worked through a number of obstacles to maintain the integrity and cohesion of the district. The building of Insterstate-5 through Seattle severely devastated the CID, as access to businesses and homes was virtually cut off. Many families left the CID to move to the suburbs, further weakening its cultural and political force.48 In 1968, construction on the Kingdome began on the border of the CID. Despite protests and opposition from the CID community over the traffic and economic depreciation that the Kingdome would bring, the construction went on as planned and the stadium was completed in the mid-1970s.49
The fight against the Kingdome emboldened new leaders and organizations. Once the construction site for the stadium was established near the CID, the community quickly formed the King Street Historic District, to preserve the area’s cultural history.50 Activists opposed to Kingdome development led a campaign called “Hum Bows not Hot Dogs” to pressure the King County Executive to provide mitigation money to the CID to offset the effects of the Kingdome development.51 A key leader during this period was Bob Santos, a Filipino- American activist who, along with representatives from the Native American, African American and Latino American communities, joined together to fight for the social and economic equity of minorities. Colloquially known as “Gang of Four,” the group is responsible for stewarding a number of progressive changes in Seattle and across King County.52 Bob Santos continues to be politically active in the Filipino- and Asian-American community in greater Seattle and is still known and revered by community members as “Uncle Bob”.53, 54
During the 1970s, a new wave of Asian Pacific immigrants was arriving to the city, largely because of the Vietnam War, and the need for affordable housing was strong. After years of petitioning the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for support, the CID was declared a Neighborhood Strategy Area and provided with financial assistance for building low-income housing.55 In 1975, the Seattle ChinatownInternational District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) was created, to further promote affordable development and housing in the community.
Another key political member of the Asian-American community during this time was Ruby Chow, who in 1973 became the first Asian-American woman to be elected to the King County Council, representing the diverse 5th District that encompassed the CID, Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, Madrona, Rainier Valley and Seward Park. Chow had already run a successful restaurant with her husband, founded the Chinese Community Drill Team, and lobbied local governments and schools to add more women and people of color to their boards. 56
The CID in the 1980s - 2000s
The political upheaval of the 1960s-1970s gave way to a stronger community in the CID, which continued to grow and change. In the 1980s, a new section of the CID called Little Saigon was recognized. This area contains a large number of Vietnamese Americans who left Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975.57, 58
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s,economic progress continued in the CID. In 1997, the International District Village project was completed, making the largest public-private housing and multi-use development in the history of the CID.59 A number of new projects include private office space development and the Uwajimaya Village brought economic prosperity to the CID. Although some developments benefited
the greater Seattle community, many projects brought housing, local businesses, supermarkets and jobs to the CID.
Not all property owners in the CID agreed on how to enact economic development. Despite inter-ethnic conflicts, local CID leadership and the City of Seattle have taken a stance on the preservation of the cultural identity of the District, exemplified by the blockade of a potential McDonalds development in the 1990s.60 In 2000, the infamous Kingdome was torn down, but was later replaced with the current CenturyLink Stadium and Safeco Field, presenting new challenges to the community.61
The CID in the 2000s to the Present
In the early 2000s, Seattle’s growing population and the established CID community continued to seek a balance between cultural and community preservation in the face of a changing local landscape that brought new residents and created challenges for new development. Across Seattle and the CID, an increasing presence of people experiencing homelessness presented new challenges for residents and community leaders. Located within walking distance of vital social and health services for people experiencing homelessness in downtown Seattle, the CID is home to a number of transient residents that reside in open space in and around the District. 62
At times, tensions ran high between the CID and the city campaign to end homelessness. When the Low Income Housing Institute and ShareWheel negotiated a move of the Nicklesville homelessness encampment to a hillside between Chinatown and Little Saigon, local community organizations expressed concerns about the lack of communication with local residents.63 Despite brief
unrest, the CID has largely been cooperative and accommodating to new residents and emerging community needs.
Concerns over public safety have largely been anecdotal, given the overall crime decrease in the CID in recent years.64 Yet, in recent years the perceived increase in criminal activity due to homelessness encampments and spillover from nearby neighborhoods has resulted in an increase in community engagement with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the City of Seattle. The presence of community police officers and security cameras monitored by residents has been one method to mitigate community concerns.65 In addition, the City has engaged the CID in events like the Mayor’s “Find it, Fix it” program to address small, yet immediate concerns for business owners and residents.66
The ongoing concern over new development generated community organizers. For many years the Vietnamese community lacked a specific community-based organization to advocate on behalf of Little Saigon businesses and residents. In 2011, the Friends of Little Saigon was organized to preserve the economic and cultural vitality of the Little Saigon area in face of rapid development.68 Friends of Little Saigon in conjunction with SCIDpda quickly began working with business owners and residents in Little Saigon to ensure the continued growth and prosperity of the area during neighboring transportation development projects, Seattle Housing Authority redevelopment and other major economic projects that threatened to fragment Little Saigon from the rest of the CID.69
Development in and around the CID continues to shape the community. The Dearborn Street Redevelopment is the latest project to impact the
CID and particularly Little Saigon. Community leaders continue to advocate for a strong CID and Vietnamese presence within the Dearborn Street Redevelopment Project.70 Negotiations for affordable housing, a cultural center, community space and subsidy rents for non-profits that would benefit the Vietnamese community were hindered by the economic recession.71
