History of the Japanese in Metro Detroit
In that year, within an area stretching from Sterling Heights to Canton Township in the shape of a crescent, most of the ethnic Japanese lived in the center.
"[11] John Dingell, a U.S. House member from the State of Michigan, assigned blame to "those little yellow men" and Lee Iacocca, the chairperson of Chrysler, made a joke suggestion of dropping nuclear bombs on Japan.
[16] In 1991, Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press wrote that anti-Japanese sentiment had largely decreased from 1981 and American automobile industry trade union members were working for Japanese companies.
[12] She added that "Japan-bashing" still occurred in Metro Detroit, with politicians and Iacocca making public statements against the Japanese automobile industry.
[7] Sharon Cohen wrote in a 1991 Associated Press article that "The Japanese community [in all of Michigan] is tiny and transient: estimates range from 6,000 to 8,000.
For the same reason, Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman, one of the largest law firms in Detroit, hired Japanese employees.
[6] In 1993 the Consulate-General of Japan, Detroit, was established partly due to an increase in the numbers of Japanese businesses and residents in the states of Michigan and Ohio.
[20] In 1999, the majority of the 8,100 Japanese in Michigan lived in a corridor in southwestern Oakland County along Interstate 696 consisting of Farmington Hills, Novi, and West Bloomfield.
[22] Founded on June 17, 1946, the Detroit chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) began its mission to "fulfill the Japanese community's unique needs as a small, displaced group in a new community"[23] after moving to Detroit post World War II relocation camps.
In the early 1940s, the JACL joined the United States government, FBI, and the Office of Naval Intelligence to identify disloyal Japanese Americans.
After the war, the JACL nationwide began to support changing laws regarding citizenship, equal rights, and abolishing derogatory terms.
[24] In the early 1950s, the chapter and the national JACL began its efforts to support the Japanese American community by campaigning Congress to pass the McCarran-Walter Omnibus Immigration and Naturalization Bill.
In working with other ethnic groups, the chapter played "a major role in the formation and operation of these festivals for nearly ten years".
Close connections formed and eventually laid the foundation for contributing to multi-ethnic associations such as the American Citizens for Justice.
The Detroit JACL's work continued into the 1990s when the Civil Rights Act of 1990 was passed and authorized "$20,000 redress payments to former internees of the World War II Relocation Center".
[23] Moving to Detroit was difficult, "the Japanese population arrived here in the mid-1940s with fresh memories of wartime internment in federal detention camps".
[25] Recollections of the camps were vivid, as Kaz Mayeda the head of Michigan's Japanese American Citizen's League committee of reparations recalls that "'As a 14-year-old, it was a lark for me...
[25] After coming to Detroit, James Shimoura recalls that "the FBI used to park a car outside our home every day and keep track of everyone who came in or left the house".
[25] The chapter started a letter-writing campaign requesting support for the full and timely distribution of funds for the redress payments.
Today, the chapter continues its work by "providing a forum for educating school and church groups about the WWII internment experiences of Japanese-Americans".
By 1999, many male employees of Japanese companies are sent to live in Oakland County in Metro Detroit for three- to five-year periods, taking their wives and families with them, before returning to Japan.
The Japanese Society of Detroit Women's Club (JSDウィメンズクラブ JSD Wimenzukurabu) was formed in May 1991 and in March 1992 it had 230 members.
[7] Most of the Japanese K-12 students in Southeast Michigan, like their parents, stay for three- to five-year periods and do not immigrate to the U.S.[27] In 1991, Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press wrote that many Japanese people living in Michigan "enjoy the suburban lifestyle with its open land, big houses and rolling golf courses.
"[12] Izumi Suzuki, an operator of a translator service quoted in a 1991 Associated Press article, wrote that Japanese people returning to Japan would face difficulty if they acted too much like Americans.
Ayako Kinoshita, the wife of a partner of Coopers & Lybrand, started a newsletter in Japanese to area expatriates giving cultural advice regarding life in the United States.
[31] Delta briefly operated a flight to Tokyo Haneda Airport from Detroit that began on February 19, 2011, but ended in March of that year.
In previous eras many Japanese travelers going through Detroit missed connections due to a lack of English comprehension.
