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Among the Japanese in the Chicago metropolitan area, there are Japanese-American and Japanese expatriate populations. Early Japanese began arriving around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. During World War II, Japanese-Americans opted to live in Chicago rather than be interned, primarily in camps on the Pacific Coast. In the 20th century, Japanese and Japanese Americans formed local institutions that continue into the 21st century.
The first group of Japanese in Chicago arrived in 1892. They came as part of the Columbian Exposition so they could build the Ho-o-den Pavilion in Chicago. [1] In 1893 the first known Japanese individual in Chicago, Kamenosuke Nishi, moved to Chicago from San Francisco. He opened a gift store, and Masako Osako, author of "Japanese Americans: Melting into the All-American Melting Pot," wrote that he was "said to have amassed $700,000 from the successful management" of his 27th Street and Cottage Grove location. [2]
Some Japanese in Chicago operated businesses such as restaurants, gift shops, and housing units. Some Japanese came to study at universities in the Chicago area. In 1893 Eiji Asada completed a PhD at the University of Chicago. [1]
The pre-World War II Japanese population mostly lived in the Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn region. [3] Many of the Japanese were students of the University of Chicago or had graduated from that school. [4] Irving Cutler, author of Chicago, Metropolis of the Mid-continent, wrote that in that period, compared to the West Coast, Chicago had little discrimination against the Japanese. [3] In 1927 there were 300 Japanese Americans in Chicago. [2] In 1940 there were 390 Japanese Americans in Chicago. [1] Osako characterized the pre-World War II growth of the Japanese-American community as being slow. [2]
During World War II, the first field office of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) opened in Chicago and the city invited Japanese leaving the Japanese internment camps. [1] The first wave of Japanese Americans from the internment camps arrived on June 12, 1942. [5] During the war, the number of ethnic Japanese increased to 20,000. [1] Unlike on the west coast, the Japanese had freedom of movement and could work. Japanese worked in factories making materials to support the war, including aircraft and electronics. [6] They were often placed in areas in between white and black neighborhoods, including Lake View, the Near North Side, Oakland, North Kenwood, and Woodlawn.
The Japanese Americans in Chicago largely relied on each other and avoided support from civic organizations, church organizations, and the WRA. [7] Charlotte Brooks, author of "In the Twilight Zone between Black and White: Japanese American Resettlement and Community in Chicago, 1942-1945," wrote that Chicagoans did not perceive the Japanese-Americans as being "Japanese", but rather as non-White, [8] and being "Orientals" but not black. [9] She stated that Chicagoans, accustomed to living in a city with predominately Whites of a superior status and blacks with an inferior status, had difficulty classifying Japanese in their racial structure. [9] She added that the discrimination against the Japanese mainly came because they were non-White, not because they were Japanese. [9] Some anti-Japanese violence occurred, including the destruction of windows of a Japanese gift shop. During that period Chicago-area Chinese and Filipinos stressed that they were not Japanese. [6] The Japanese of the era had a tendency to gravitate towards the White world and away from the black world, understanding that blacks in Chicago had an inferior status. [7] Ultimately 30,000 Japanese had moved from the internment camps to Chicago. [5]
After World War II ended, many Japanese who had originated from the internment camps returned to the West Coast, so the Japanese population decreased. [1] The influx of Japanese ended in 1950. Almost half of the Japanese who had settled in Chicago from the internment camps moved back to the West Coast. By 1960, there were about 15,000 Japanese in Chicago and the resettlement to the West Coast largely ceased. [5]
In 1981, public hearings were held by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians at Chicago's Northeastern Illinois University as part of a government investigation into the constitutionality of the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. Nearly 100 people participated in the Chicago hearings. [10]
A 1993 article called "Racial Change to the Suburbs" quoted Japanese Americans as being experts on the Asian Americans moving to the suburbs. Jacalyn D. Harden, author of Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago, wrote that it was "seen by many" as "privileging" the "Japanese Americans over other Asian groups." [11]
By 1995 Japanese Americans began moving to the suburbs. Most of them were white collar households who had higher incomes and better educations who wish to find superior schools for their offspring. As of 1995, about 25% of the Japanese American households are in the suburbs. As a result, Osako stated that the next generations of Nisei in the Chicago area will have less contact with the wider Japanese American community in the central city than before. [12]
As of 2006 there is a high intermarriage rate among the Japanese, and there is a large amount of assimilation into the larger American community. [4]
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, 5,500 people of Japanese descent lived in the city of Chicago, and 17,500 people of Japanese descent lived in Chicago suburbs such as Arlington Heights, Evanston, Hoffman Estates, Lincolnwood, and Skokie. Most Japanese within the City of Chicago live in lakefront areas in the North Side, including Edgewater, Lake View, Near North Side, Uptown, and West Ridge. [4]
Jay Shimotake, the president of the Mid America Japanese Club (MAJC), an organization located in Arlington Heights now known as the Chicago Japanese Club (シカゴ日本人会 Shikago Nihonjin Kai), said "Arlington Heights is a very convenient location, and Japanese people in the business environment know it's a nice location surrounding O'Hare airport." [13]
There was previously a "Little Tokyo" near the intersection of Clark and Division. It has gradually diminished since Sandburg Village was developed. [4] The mystery novel Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara, which focuses on a Japanese-American family during World War II, is set in that area.
As of 2006 several thousand Japanese nationals working as representatives of companies live in the Chicago area. [4]
The Consulate General of Japan at Chicago (在シカゴ日本国総領事館 Zai Shikago Nippon-koku Sōryōjikan) is in the Olympia Centre in the Near North Side of Chicago. [14]
There was a Japanese Mutual Aid Society. In the pre-World War II era there was a YMCA mission that served Japanese students. During the 1930s the mission closed. [15]
In the Chicago area, 60% of Japanese people work in professional and white collar jobs. [4]
Many Japanese companies have their U.S. headquarters in Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg. The Mitsuwa Marketplace, a shopping center owned by Japanese in Arlington Heights, opened around 1981. [13]
The Chicago Shimpo is a Japanese-American newspaper published in Arlington Heights. [16] Other media include the Japanese American Service Committee Newsletter; Weekly J-Angle (ジャングル）; Q Magazine (Qマガジン); The JACLer, the newsletter of the JACL; Prairie Magazine (プレーリー); Pavilion (パビリオン); and US Shimbun's Chicago section. [17]
This List contains the anime and manga the city of Chicago has been based on Japanese culture.
The Chicago Futabakai Japanese School is located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The Chicago Futabakai Japanese School Saturday school first opened in the North Side in May 1966. The Saturday school moved to Skokie, Illinois, in May 1978. At that time, [18] the day school opened in Skokie, with four teachers sent by the Japanese government. [19] In August 1984 the Saturday school and day school moved to Niles, Illinois. [18] The current campus in Arlington Heights opened on Monday April 6, 1998, and classes at that location began on Friday April 10, 1998. [20]
There was a Japanese school in the pre-World War II era. [15]
The Buddhist Temple of Chicago was founded in 1944. The Midwest Buddhist Temple, a Japanese Buddhist temple, opened in 1972. [4] In the pre-World War II era there were Japanese Christian churches and Buddhist temples. [15]
Arlington Heights is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. A northwestern suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the city's downtown. As of the 2020 census, the village's population was 77,676, making it the 15th-most populous municipality in Illinois.
Morton Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 25,297. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located in the townships of Maine and Niles, directly neighboring Chicago's far northwest border. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,912. The current mayor of Niles is George Alpogianis.
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Chicago's downtown Loop. The name Skokie comes from a Potawatomi word for "marsh". For many years, Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Skokie's streets, like that of many suburbs, are largely a continuation of the Chicago street grid, and the village is served by the Chicago Transit Authority, further cementing its connection to the city.
Albany Park is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Located on the Northwest Side of the City of Chicago with the North Branch of the Chicago River forming its east and north boundaries, it includes the ethnically diverse Albany Park neighborhood, with one of the highest percentages of foreign-born residents of any Chicago neighborhood.
The North Shore consists of many affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois, bordering the shores of Lake Michigan. These communities fall within suburban Cook County and Lake County. The North Shore's membership is often a topic of debate, and it includes some Chicago suburbs which do not border Lake Michigan. However, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highwood, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glencoe, Northbrook, Northfield, Winnetka, Kenilworth, Wilmette, Golf, Glenview, Skokie, Lincolnwood, and Evanston, are generally considered to be the main constituents of the North Shore. The North Shore is known for its affluence, high level of education, proximity to Chicago, and top-rated public schools. Lake County, Illinois is among the wealthiest counties in the U.S. and several of the wealthiest zip codes are there.
Yasuhiro Ishimoto was a Japanese-American photographer. His decades-long career explored expressions of modernist design in traditional architecture, the quiet anxieties of urban life in Tokyo and Chicago, and the camera's capacity to bring out the abstract in the everyday and seemingly concrete fixtures of the world around him.
Area codes 847 and 224 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of Illinois. The numbering plan area (NPA) comprises the northeastern part of Illinois and many northern suburbs of Chicago. This includes most of Lake County, the northern part of Cook County, the northern part of Kane County, and a small part of McHenry County.
Niles North High School, officially Niles Township High School North, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles West High School. Its feeder middle schools are Old Orchard Junior High, Oliver McCracken Middle School, East Prairie School, and Golf Middle School. Before being moved to a separate facility in Lincolnwood, Illinois, the Bridges Adult Transition program was hosted at the school.
The 9th congressional district of Illinois covers parts of Cook, Lake, and McHenry counties as of the 2021 redistricting which followed the 2020 census. It includes all or parts of Chicago, Evanston, Glenview, Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Prospect Heights, Wilmette, Buffalo Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Wauconda, Island Lake, Long Grove, Lake Barrington, Algonquin Township, Cary, Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood, Oakwood Hills, Trout Valley, Algonquin, Port Barrington, Barrington Hills, and Fox River Grove. It is anchored in Chicago's North Side, along Lake Michigan, and covers many of Chicago's northern suburbs. Democrat Jan Schakowsky has represented the district since January 1999.
Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or Issei. The Nisei, or second generation, in turn are the parents of the Sansei, or third generation. These Japanese-language terms derive from ichi, ni, san, "one, two, three," the ordinal numbers used with sei Though nisei means "second-generation immigrant", it more specifically often refers to the children of the initial diaspora, occurring during the period of the Empire of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and overlapping in the U.S. with the G.I. and silent generations.
Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in ranking to constitute the sixth largest Asian American group at around 1,469,637, including those of partial ancestry.
The Chicago Shimpo, published by Chicago Shimpo, Inc., is a Japanese-American newspaper published for readers in the Chicago, Illinois area. As of 1995 it was published twice weekly. It is currently headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and its offices were previously located in Albany Park, Chicago. The Chicago Shimpo, which publishes articles in Japanese and English, is the only Japanese-American newspaper in the Chicago media market.
Chicago Futabakai Japanese School, alternately in Japanese Shikago Nihonjin Gakkō, is a Japanese elementary and junior high day school and Saturday education program in Arlington Heights, Illinois near Chicago. As of 1988 it is sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, now the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Before moving to Arlington Heights in 1998, the Futabakai education program was previously located in Chicago, Skokie, and Niles in Illinois, with the day program beginning during the period in Skokie.
The mix of ethnic groups in Chicago has varied over the history of the city, resulting in a diverse community in the twenty-first century. The changes in the ethnicity of the population have reflected the history and mass America, as well as internal demographic changes. The groups have been important in the development of the city as well as players in occasional conflicts.
Calvin Sutker was an American politician and lawyer. Over his nearly four decades in politics, Sutker served as a Skokie Village Board member, Niles Township Democratic Committeeman, Democratic National Committeeman from Illinois, Chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and a Cook County Commissioner.
As of the 2020 there were approximately 70,814 Korean-origin people in Illinois, with the vast majority in the Chicago metropolitan area. This makes Illinois the state with the eighth-largest Korean American population and the Chicago metropolitan area the fifth-largest, after Los Angeles, New York, Washington, and Seattle. As of 2006 the largest groups of Koreans are in Albany Park, North Park, West Ridge, and other communities near Albany Park. Many Koreans have since moved to northern and northwestern Chicago suburbs, including Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Schaumburg, and Skokie. A Koreatown, labeled "Seoul Drive", exists along Lawrence Avenue between Kedzie Avenue and Pulaski Road, albeit in diminished form. There were a number of Korean businesses on Clark Street in the 1970s, in Lakeview and Lincoln Park.
Jews began immigrating to Chicago in the 1830s, primarily from Eastern Europe and Germany.
Louise Suski was the first woman editor-in-chief and English-section editor-in-chief at the Japanese-English language newspaper Rafu Shimpo.
