An infamous anniversary

It began 80 years ago today.  March 30, 1942 was the first day of forced relocation and incarceration of individuals of Japanese ancestry in Washington State.  The first affected were the 200 children, women, and men living on Bainbridge Island.  By May 22, 1941, employees of the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company logging railroad - who built and maintained an extensive network of more than 150 miles of track - were forced to leave their jobs and homes. 

Initially, many of those forced to evacuate were sent to Puyallup and temporarily housed in squalid conditions adjacent to the Puyallup Fairgrounds.  Soon after, these people were relocated out of state, many to a hastily-built prison camp in Idaho.  In all, for most of WW II more than 8,000 residents of King County were imprisoned.  They consisted of  aliens and citizens, children and adults, women and men, and the healthy and the infirm.  Following their release, many never returned to their communities. 

Workers of Japanese ancestry had a profound impact on railroads in Washington State.  In the immediate aftermath of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese immigrants were active in the construction of many area railroads including the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway and the Great Northern Railway.  The next time you travel on the Museum's railway between North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls consider that it was originally built by Japanese immigrant labor.

Japanese railroad workers in Snoqualmie

Japanese immigrants to Washington were influential in railway construction, and other industries including forestry. Workers of Japanese ancestry made up the largest ethnic group of workers at the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company, outnumbering even Scandinavian immigrants.

Japanese immigrants settled in several regions of the country, but the Northwest was a particularly popular destination. This new exhibit acknowledges the role of Japanese immigrants and their children in the construction of railroads, but also in the success the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company.  

In the Snoqualmie Valley, the earliest known Japanese connection was through the construction of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway.  The Chinese exclusion act combined with Japan's emergence from isolationism to position Japanese immigrants as the predominant group recruited for railroad construction and maintenance in this region.  Usually, a contractor provided a Japanese worker to a railroad, and that worker was then required to pay a fee to said contractor, often as much as 10 cents a day.

Persons of Japanese ancestry were part of the fabric of Snoqualmie Falls, but it was an imperfect tapestry: persons of Japanese ancestry lived in a separate bunkhouse or a different part of the community than those of European ancestry.  However, they did attend the same schools. 

The Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company - and the Snoqualmie Valley - was devastated by the 1942 incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry.  Overnight, this Weyerhaeuser Timber enterprise lost a significant portion of its work force, and these people - many of whom were either born American citizens or had been living in the United States for decades (Asian immigrants had no path to citizenship) - were interned in camps only because of their ethnic origins.

Japanese Railroaders was funded in part by 4Culture and the Quest For Truth Foundation.  It is a permanent exhibit at the Northwest Railway Museum and is open now in the Train Shed, 9320 Stone Quarry Road, Snoqualmie, WA, Thursday - Sunday, 11 am - 5 pm.