Santa Barbara Old Japantown (Nihonmachi) Plaque

El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park commemorates the history of a Spanish fort established in 1782. Located next to this site is a small plaque recognizing Santa Barbara’s Nihonmachi, or “Japantown,” which was established on the former site of El Presidio from 1910 to 1942. At its peak, over 500 Japanese immigrants lived in Santa Barbara, with many of them finding home and work within the Nihonmachi. For the most part, the Japanese life of Santa Barbara was focused within this city block bordered by E. Carrillo, E. De La Guerra, Anacapa and Santa Barbara streets. It was the site of a thriving cultural center: residents operated grocery stores, flower shops and hotels, worshiped in the Japanese Congregational Church and Buddhist temple, and some residents even formed a baseball league. Two disasters would eventually strike that erased the memory of the Nihonmachi. On June 29, 1925, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Santa Barbara, flattening many of the city's structures. Rebuilding efforts sought to revitalize itself in the Spanish colonial architectural style. Then, in 1942, following the Pearl Harbor bombing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, beginning what became known as Japanese internment. This forced many of Santa Barbara’s Japanese citizens to vacate their community.

The site of the former Presidio involves the histories of at least four different ethnic enclaves: indigenous Chumash peoples, Spanish colonists, and Japanese and Chinese immigrants. The story publicly commemorated is that of the Spanish. El Presidio de Santa Bárbara was one of four presidios built by the Spanish in the province of Alta California. Though built to protect against invasions, the strength of this military site was never tested. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, and by 1840, the site stood in partial ruins. By 1848, Santa Barbara and the surrounding areas of southern California were ceased to the United States following the Mexican-American war. (SBTHP, El Presidio de Santa Bárbara).

The story of the Japanese communities of Santa Barbara begins around the 1890s. Efforts to modernize hit Japan around the 1860s, and many rural Japanese were impacted by lost land and incomes as a result of industrialization. Japan opened its borders in the 1880s, and some men left for the United States to work as laborers. Those who arrived in Santa Barbara settled within the site of the former presidio. “At the turn of the twentieth century, this area was already a diverse neighborhood of Chinese, Hispanic, and Anglo residents containing several small shops and dwellings” (SBTHP, Nihonmachi Revisited exhibit). The cheap land of the former presidio was an ideal place to start a community.

One of the earliest and most prominent buildings was the Asakura Hotel. It was one of the first built in the community, and initially housed some of the young male laborers who emigrated alone. Over time, the building also held a grocery store and restaurant, but was demolished in 1962 to create a parking lot (SBTHP, Nihonmachi Revisited exhibit). The parking lot still exists today, directly across Anacapa Street from the Lobero theater. 

By 1910, the Nihonmachi, literally translated “Japan-street,” was firmly established and the community grew quickly. On the 100 block of E. Canon Perdido, both a Christian church and a Buddhist church were established. People began to reside in the buildings that occupied the site, and build new ones for homes and businesses. By the 1920s, both the 100 block of E. Canon Perdido and the 800 block of Anacapa Streets were regarded as the center of the Nihonmachi. The community grew steadily over time: “The 1910 census reported that over 200 Japanese people lived in Santa Barbara; by 1940 there were over 500” (Sambajon, The Bottom Line).

However, the longevity of the community was not promised. The first setback came with the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake, which registered as a 6.3 on the Richter scale and leveled much of downtown. Prior to the earthquake, the city already had plans to revitalize the presidio and the Spanish architectural style. One article, which ran in the Los Angeles Times in July 1922, declared, “Restoration of the restful Spanish atmosphere that permeated the city of Santa Barbara of early years is the goal of a movement launched by the City Arts Association here and backed by the entire city” (LA Times archive). After the earthquake, the goals of ‘restoring’ the city to its Spanish heritage became all the more convenient. Areas of the Nihonmachi began to be taken over quickly; a new U.S. Post Office was built on the corner of E. Canon Perdido and Anacapa. 

The earthquake also impacted the nearby Chinatown. When Chinese immigrants began arriving in Santa Barbara in the 1860’s, they found work in industries such as fishing, farming, and laundry services. The earthquake caused this community, located one block over on E. Canon Perdido, to fall to rubble. Rather than rebuilding Old Chinatown, the city opted to begin their revitalization work on the site. This led Chinese residents to establish a New Chinatown within the Nihonmachi, leading to the appearance of business such as Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens, the building that still stands at 122 E. Canon Perdido. 

The second setback came with the onset of World War One. After the Japanese bombed U.S. forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, ethnically Japanese residents of the United States were seen as a threat to U.S. security and safety. The final nail in the coffin of the Nihonmachi came when then-U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which removed Japanese residents from their homes and set them to internment camps throughout the west. Most of Santa Barbara’s Japanese ended up in the Gila River Valley camp in Arizona.

After the war, residents returned to find a changing city. Some decided to resettle, and were given hostels by the Asakura Hotel and the churches. However, most settled elsewhere in the city or moved. By the 1960s, the Asakura Hotel had been shuttered and the church congregations had moved elsewhere.

“A History of Chinatown.” SBTHP, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, https://www.sbthp.org/a-history-of-chinatown. 

“El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park.” SBTHP, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, https://www.sbthp.org/history.

“Nihonmachi Revisited.” SBTHP, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Revive Days of Long Ago.” Los Angeles Times, 3 July 1922, p. 18. 

Sambajon, Troy. “What Happened to Santa Barbara's Forgotten Chinatown and Japantown.” The Bottom Line UCSB, University of California, Santa Barbara, 26 May 2022.