{"id":20152,"date":"2026-05-11T02:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/20152\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:59:24","slug":"historic-japanese-american-farmhouse-in-san-jose-seeks-renovation-funds-after-relocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/20152\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Japanese American farmhouse in San Jose seeks renovation funds after relocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A historic Japanese American farmhouse has found a new home after an eight-mile journey from what were once the orchards of North San Jose to the city\u2019s History Park.<\/p>\n

A coalition of three local nonprofits, joined by San Jose City Councilmember Rosemary Kamei, pushed the developer and the city to\u00a0save the Sakauye farmhouse<\/a>. The group celebrated their rescue efforts at an April 30 event where they said\u00a0an additional $300,000<\/a>\u00a0is needed to renovate the interior with exhibits, an activity space, a gallery and a small staff office.<\/p>\n

The farmhouse, built around 1920 at the intersection of Seely Avenue and Montague Expressway, was at risk of being demolished when developers decided two years ago to put 1,472 homes on the 23-acre site.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really historic moment for San Jose in welcoming this expanded narrative of Japanese Americans,\u201d Vanessa Hatakeyama, executive director of the\u00a0Japanese American Museum<\/a>\u00a0of San Jose told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cGenerations of kids will be able to see their story reflected in this space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coalition raised $750,000 to move the farmhouse, which arrived at its new location on March 30.\u00a0History San Jose, which operates the History Park, expects to open the farmhouse to the public in October 2027.<\/p>\n

The three organizations \u2014 History San Jose, the Japanese American Museum and the Preservation Action Council of San Jose \u2014 originally wanted to keep the farmhouse within the housing development as a memorial.<\/p>\n

Kamei advocated for the\u00a0preservation of the Sakauye farmhouse<\/a>\u00a0on the property and was disappointed not only with the forced relocation of the house, but with the city\u2019s lack of funding for the move. But the coalition was able to raise the funds and pivot to History Park, a frequent destination for school field trips, which is next to the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Sakauye family in 1945, with their farmhouse in the background. (Photo courtesy of History San Jose via San Jose Spotlight)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the better solution for the hand we were dealt,\u201d Ben Leech, executive director of the Preservation Action Council, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n

The farmhouse was built by the family of Eiichi \u201cEd\u201d Sakauye, who died in 2005 at age 93. The family purchased the property in the early twentieth century before the California Alien Land Act of 1913 that banned Japanese Americans from buying agricultural land. Sakauye, who grew pear trees, was one of 120,000 Japanese American interned during World War II and \u2013 unlike many others \u2013 was able to reclaim his land after the war ended.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Kamei, despite her earlier efforts to keep the farmhouse in place, said the coalition has made a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some work still to do, but I\u2019m delighted we\u2019ve got to this point,\u201d Kamei told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cI look forward to the day when I can take my grandchildren there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: The spelling of Eiichi \u201cEd\u201d Sakauye\u2019s first was incorrectly spelled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contact Mike Langberg at\u00a0mike@langberg.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A historic Japanese American farmhouse has found a new home after an eight-mile journey from what were once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5007,15974,15975,8,17,6184,15976,9835,15977,3697,15978],"class_list":["post-20152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-funding","tag-historic-landmarks","tag-history-park","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-americans","tag-nonprofits","tag-relocation","tag-renovations","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}