Wawawai is a former town in the south central part of Whitman County, Washington in the United States.

[4] Harvests at the orchards in and surrounding Wawawai brought groups of laborers from nearby tribes as well as immigrants from China into the community.

These segregated communities existed through the 1920s and into the 1930s when they began to be replaced by students from Washington State University in nearby Pullman.

[4] Decline began with the arrival of automation to the harvest process in the 1930s, and continued with cost increases after World War II.

The impending inundation as water rose behind the planned Lower Granite Dam a few miles downstream of Wawawai was known by the 1960s, and most of the town was steadily shuttered, with buildings and orchards removed.