Issei Women as Community Builders
Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) women were an important part of the Japanese community in San Francisco. They worked, raised families, ran households, and participated in community organizations. In 1912, a visionary group of Issei women, determined to provide social services for the women and girls of their community, founded the Joshi Seinen Kai, an organization that would eventually become the independent Japanese YWCA. The organization offered temporary housing, skills education, and social activities.
Rising from the Ashes
After being forced from their homes and businesses by the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, San Francisco’s Japanese population concentrated in the Western Addition. The area became the center of government and commerce until about 1913 when the City‘s downtown and civic center were rebuilt.
Community leaders, most notably Kyutaro Abiko, publisher of the Nichibei Shimbun newspaper, advocated for the Japanese to locate in the Western Addition and to regard themselves as a settlement of Japanese who would start businesses, raise families, and establish a permanent foothold for Japanese in America.
Image: Japanese YWCA board, circa early to mid-1930s. From the Michi Oka Onuma Collection, Japanese American Historical Archive.
Issei Immigration
Until 1868, Japan isolated itself from the outside world, with some exceptions, under the auspices of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The coming of the Black Ships, eight American steam-run naval ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry, forced Japan to change this closed-door policy. Under Emperor Meiji and during the period known as the Meiji Restoration, Japan focused on Western-style modernization and industrialization.
Image: From Second Kinenhi—Reflections on Tule Lake... "Issei immigrant women would have entered the U.S. at Angel Island, California, in the 1900s." (Reprinted with permission from Visual Communications/vcmedia.org).
Yona Tsuda Abiko
More than any other individual, Yona Tsuda Abiko was instrumental in the creation and continued life of the 1830 Sutter building and its legacy. Her family supported women’s education, as evidenced by the fact that her sister Umeko Tsuda founded Tsuda College for Women in Japan. Active in the Japanese Christian community,
Image: Yona Tsuda Abiko. Photo courtesy of Tsuda University Archives.
