Reclaim Sacramento Japantown

Sacramento Japantown was part of Sacramento’s West End, a diverse and thriving district with thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses.

Japantown was destroyed in 1942 when Japanese Americans were removed and sent to one of ten U.S. concentration camps.

After the war when they were released from the camps, many returned to the community and rebuilt Japantown.

As Japantown was once again starting to thrive, residents and business owners were removed in the name of “redevelopment.”

Japanese residents moved, and were forcibly removed once again for freeway construction.

This time, not only did Sacramento Japantown disappear, the cultural district known as the West End also disappeared.