Japanese Americans in Spokane

Japanese Methodist Mission Kindergarten Portrait, 1918, Contributed by Lynn (Oka) Dwyer

Japanese migration to Spokane began in the 1880s in the wake of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. In Japan, land reforms placed higher tax burdens on farmers, which helped spur migration out of Japan. Like the Chinese migrants who settled in Spokane before them, the early Japanese community in Spokane consisted largely of laborers, entrepreneurs in service industries, and farmers.