Mykawa, Houston

Mykawa (/mɪˈkɑːwə/ mi-KAH-wə) is an area within Houston, Texas, United States that was formerly a distinct unincorporated community in Harris County.

The community was renamed from Erin Station after Mykawa died after he fell underneath one of his pieces of agricultural equipment.

[1] Officials from the Santa Fe Railroad Company renamed the station after Mykawa, and many Japanese immigrants to Texas perceived it as a place friendly to Asian Americans because of the town's naming.

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.

Local residents of majority white Mykawa expressed dismay at this,[5] as the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision meant that neighborhoods could no longer have rules excluding people on the basis of race.

"[4] Moore said that when he visited a general store where natives of the area said that they did most of their shopping, the clerk was unaware that there was a community called "Mykawa.

John M. Moore of the Houston Post said "the flat plain is easily flooded, but the acreage is not what you would call cheap.

[4] In 1951 Moore said that "[a]bout the only public official" in the Mykawa area was the judge of the voting precinct of yearly elections, E. E.

[4] The Minnetex Civic Club rents the building from its owner, the Houston Independent School District, to use as a meeting place.