August
2004 • The monthly newsletter for UWT faculty and staff
Japanese Language School coming down by early September
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The
Japanese Language School has been largely vacant since World War
II, when members of a bustling Japanese American community in
Tacoma were transported to internment camps. Most didn't return.
UWT acquired the property in the early 1990s. At that time, a
study was commissioned to evaluate the building's potential, and
tenants were sought with no success. In 1993, the University received
approval from the Tacoma Landmarks Commission to remove the building,
but did not act to do so. In 2001, the City of Tacoma notified
UWT that the building was a hazard and re-approved the original
authorization to demolish the building.
In
2002, UWT commissioned BOLA Architects of Seattle to explore alternatives
to tearing the building down. The firm assembled a team of architects,
landscape architects and a structural engineer specializing in
preservation. The team concluded that rehabilitating the building
would be costly and have doubtful historic preservation benefit.
BOLA recommended the University instead focus on heritage projects
to preserve the memory of the building in the context of Tacoma's
Japanese community.
The initial phase of demolition will involve abatement of environmental hazards. Siding coated with lead-based paint and asbestos present in the building must be removed and be legally disposed of. Salvageable parts of the building, including blackboards and a Palladian window, will be preserved.
Interpretive
materials to memorialize the Japanese Language School are being
planned as demolition of the building begins.
An
oral history project related to the school has been supported
by a grant from the UWT Founders’ Endowment. Professors
Mary Hanneman and Lisa Hoffman are leading the research, which
has involved interviewing people, now mostly in their 80s, who
attended the Japanese Language School as children. Last winter
a day of events held on campus also commemorated the history of
the Japanese Language School. Already, a calligraphy-teaching
chart removed from the school is displayed on campus, and some
additional print artifacts have been moved to a UW library.
Up
the hill from the current UWT campus, the language school was
at the heart of a bustling Japanese community before World War
II. Built in 1922 with an addition completed in 1926, the school
was a place for Japanese children to study language and Japanese
culture. When America entered the war, the building was used to
gather people of Japanese descent before sending them to internment
camps. Unlike other urban centers, where Japanese communities
returned and thrived, downtown Tacoma saw few of its Japanese
return.
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