History of the Japanese in Houston
[2] A few Japanese, mostly working as laborers, were present in Houston by 1900,[3] and due to a lack of required English knowledge some Japanese in Houston opened small restaurants that catered to working-class people and served inexpensive American meals.
There, city leaders of Houston told him that they were interested in allowing Japanese people to operate and own rice colonies.
In Japan Uchida talked about the information with friends and published literature in that told about the rice-growing opportunities.
Sen Katayama, a socialist, started a rice colony and failed, while Rihei Onishi, a journalist, succeeded with his venture with his cousin Toraichi.
Karkabi wrote "The World War II years were one of the few times Japanese-Texans encountered problems.
"[5] Abbie Salyers Grubb, author of "From "Tom Brown" to Mykawa Road: The Impact of the Japanese American Community of Houston in the Twentieth Century," wrote that compared to other American cities, "Houston did not see as much racial prejudice" targeting ethnic Japanese.
John M. Moore of the Houston Post said that it "seems to be" that salt water and waste oil introduced by a nearby oil field destroyed some rice field crops cultivated by the Japanese farmers, causing them to leave the area before World War II; Moore said that area residents erroneously believed that the farmers left as a result of World War II.
[12] In 1974 the state of Texas erected a historical marker on Old Galveston Road that commemorated the Saibara family.
One of them, Kichi Kagawa, lived with her son Bill on a 30-acre (12 ha) plot of land that was once part of the original farm.
[5] In 2015 the Japanese Business Association of Houston (ヒューストン日本商工会 Hyūsuton Nihon Shōkōkai) had 681 members.
[15] Bruce Glasrud, a historian, stated that the real figure of ethnic Korean residents in Texas and Houston may be higher than official U.S. Census estimates as some previous Korean immigrants were counted as Japanese, as Korea was then under the Empire of Japan.
[16] Houston's first Japanese grocery store, the Nippan Daido (大道日本食料品店 Daidō Nihon Shokuryōhinden[17]) at Westheimer Road at Wilcrest,[18] in the Westchase district.
[22] In 1988 Leslie Watts of the Houston Chronicle wrote that it is "[v]irtually identical in appearance, sound and smell to the small neighborhood markets found in Japan".
vegetables, cigarettes, video rental, underwear and lingerie, socks, origami kits, toys, dolls, cockroach traps, and pharmaceuticals.
[23] The store's fortunes declined as other shops owned by larger corporations opened, resulting in its September 2019 closure.
[25] In 2015 Hideo Matsujiro, a cofounder of Marukai Market, announced that he planned to open the first large Japanese grocery in Houston; the store was scheduled to open in the fall of 2015 at the Ashford Village shopping center in the Houston Energy Corridor.
[28] A realtor named Susan Kwok Annoura stated in 2016 that the development of Seiwa and some adjacent Japanese businesses may start a "Japantown" in Houston.
There was a restaurant named Tokyo Gardens,[30] established by people of Japanese ancestry, which opened in 1968.
[41] The Japanfest (Japan Festival), sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Houston, is annually held at Hermann Park.
