Japanese in
Whitefish- Part 2
By Jill Evans,
Administrator of the
Stumptown Historical
Society
There were dormitories
for the “Jap boys” who
worked on the railroad.
In 1919 some of these
“Jap boys” bought a
tract of land south of
the railroad roundhouse.
There was a large
building on the land,
which they converted
into a dormitory.
Later Japanese
families built several
homes here, and it
became the center of a
Japanese community.
Before World War II a
Japanese dormitory was
maintained for Oriental
contractors and laborers
where Duff’s Chevrolet
used car lot is today,
and there were often as
many as seventy single,
male, Japanese railroad
laborers housed there in
bachelor rooms without
baths. At this same
time, four Japanese
families were living in
the houses south of the
roundhouse.
In July, 1941, the
Japanese dormitory was
the scene of a murder
that was at least
partially responsible
for razing of the
building the following
November. S. (Toto)
Takahashi, roundhouse
boss, was shot five time
on July 23, 1941, by H.
(Sam) Kimura. Takahashi
had been in Whitefish
for ten years, was
married to but separated
from a white wife living
in Havre. Kimura was
quiet, reserved, but
there had been bad
feeling between him and
his boss, Takahashi, for
some time. Sympathy
seemed to lie with
Kimura. He readily
admitted the murder and
was found guilty of
second degree murder,
given twenty yars in the
state penitentiary.
Takahashi’s wife
appeared in Whitefish to
attend the funeral and
claim his estate. In
this she was refused.
When the matter was
taken to court, the
verdict was that since
interracial marriage was
illegal in Montana, her
marriage was not valid,
and the only heirs were
Takahashi’s father and
family in Japan.
Japanese snow
gang at triple
divide, BN Wood
Coach ca, 1920's |
|
After the war, and no
doubt as a result of the
war, this kind of
situation swiftly
changed. In the early
50’s one of the most
attractive and popular
girls in Whitefish High
School, Peggy Spink, who
was white, fell in love
with and insisted on
being married to Heloshi
Kusomoto, who was
Japanese. Interracial
marriage was still
illegal in Montana.
Teachers and parents
pointed out obstacles to
the marriage, but were
over-ruled. The young
people were married in
Coeurd’Alene, Idaho,
about 1950, and
eventually earned the
respect of their home
town, even though they
chose not to live in it.
Today they live in
Kailui, Hawaii, where
Kusomoto is GS13 and
second in-command in the
Bureau of Public Roads.
When the United States
entered World War II,
the Suga family
published the following
notice in the Pilot of
December 19, 1941:
“To All Our Good
Friends:
“The thing that
Japanese-American
citizens have feared has
come unexpectedly and
swiftly, and the time
has arrived for us
Japanese Americans to
show our loyalty which
we have professed so
long.
We want all of our
American friends and
neighbors to know that
‘we shall serve the
United States of
America, Our Country,
the Country we love, to
the best of our
ability’. “Lena Suga,
Ben Suga, Don Suga”
At the same time Tom
Hatsukano, age 19,
enlisted and left for
Missoula. Ted Kusumoto
and Ben Suga were
already in the army.
All enemy aliens were
required to turn in
radios, cameras, and
guns by January, 1942,
but no Whitefish
Japanese were sent to
camps, as their
compatriots were in
California. For a time
in February, 1942, it
seemed a camp for
coastal Japanese might
be established in the
Flathead, but it never
was. The Great Northern
discontinued its policy
of hiring Japanese
laborers in Montana, but
once during a wartime
emergency it brought
thirty American-born
Japanese to Flathead
County, with the consent
of Kalispell and
Whitefish officials, to
shovel snow at Essex.
They made clear that
these workmen were under
guard at all times and
would be replaced with
white labor as soon as
possible.
See more of their story
in the Whitefish museum,
located in the Train
Depot.
Note: The quoted
material is taken from
Stump Town to Ski Town, by Betty Schafer and
Mable Engelter, written in 1972 and reprinted by the
Stumptown Historical Society in 2003. It is available
for sale in the Whitefish Museum located in the Train
Depot. |
