Editing Walnut Grove, California (section)

==== 1900s ====
Early Japanese immigrants described travel through the Sacramento Delta area as going "down river," leading the Issei to call the area around Walnut Grove, "Kawashimo." Chinese immigrants had harnessed the delta’s fertility in the 1870-80s by creating a network of levees and inland islands that controlled flooding in what had been a marshy swamp. White landowners reaped the primary benefits from this major project of land "reclamation" and dominated the local economy, along with the multiethnic population of immigrants who arrived in succession from China, Japan, East India, the Philippines and Mexico to work the fields around Walnut Grove.

Unlike other Japanese agricultural settlements, where some immigrants were able to purchase land and establish independent farms, Kawashimo remained wholly owned by a few white landholders. Issei farmers arrived in Walnut Grove after 1892 and established themselves in fruit, tomatoes, beans and asparagus production, first as itinerant contract laborers and then through tenant farming. Walnut Grove emerged as a hub for Japanese in the delta area and by the 1930s, over 100 Nikkei families farmed around Walnut Grove. Kawashimo’s Japantown had a bustling commercial area to serve their recreational and material needs, as well as community institutions such as the Buddhist and Methodist Churches, a Japanese language school, Kenjinkai (prefectural associations) and Japanese Association.

In 1915, a catastrophic fire consumed Walnut Grove's Chinatown and a portion of the smaller Japantown. Tensions between these communities led the Japanese immigrants to rebuild on adjacent blocks owned by Alex Brown, a farmer, banker and major landholder who helped amend the Alien Land Laws to maintain his profitable relationship with Japanese immigrants. Brown installed water and sewage lines and constructed seven commercial buildings offered for rent, along with additional parcels on which he encouraged Nikkei to build. Families drew numbers out of a hat to determine on which lot they would build their homes and businesses. Japanese builders and carpenters came from as far as San Francisco to lend their expertise and labor to the task of rebuilding Kawashimo's Japantown. The neighborhood still features the narrow streets lined by two-story wooden structures with overhanging balconies that the Issei created in 1915. Even the underlying property arrangements, in which Nikkei owned the house but not the underlying land, were not changed until the late 1990s.

As a rare example of a Japanese enclave designed and built by immigrants themselves, the commercial core of Walnut Grove's Japantown was designated a National Register historic district in 1990 (as was the neighboring Chinatown). The Preserving California's Japantowns volunteer survey team of Barbara Takei, Janet Sakata and Louie Watanabe made an important contribution to the existing National Register information by documenting the "backtown" area of Walnut Grove's Japantown. Just to the east across the Southern Pacific railroad tracks, "backtown's" larger blocks held many Nikkei residences, as well as a hotel, auto garages and the Buddhist Church and Japanese School building.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Preserving California's Japantowns - Walnut Grove |url=https://www.californiajapantowns.org/walnutgrove.html#:~:text=Walnut%20Grove%20emerged%20as%20a%20hub%20for,100%20Nikkei%20families%20farmed%20around%20Walnut%20Grove.&text=As%20a%20rare%20example%20of%20a%20Japanese,in%201990%20(as%20was%20the%20neighboring%20Chinatown). |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=www.californiajapantowns.org}}</ref>

In 1961, documentary photographer [[Pirkle Jones]] did a photo essay on Walnut Grove.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mann |first=Margery |date=1964-05-01 |title="Walnut Grove: Portrait of a Town" at the San Francisco Museum of Art |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/walnut-grove-portrait-of-a-town-at-the-san-francisco-museum-of-art-236770/ |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref>