- On March 10th, 1967, Utah governor, Calvin Rampton, presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for the Salt Lake County Civic Auditorium known as The Salt Palace.

The master of ceremonies, Henry N. Aloia called the event, "another chapter in the inspirational Utah storybook."

Costing $19 million, The Salt Palace would seat more than 10,000 people, A grand arena worthy of hosting the 1972 Winter Olympics.

But there was another cost.

To make space for their new arena, Salt Lake City officials demolished one of the oldest Japantowns in the US.

- And when I look back on it now, I look at it as kind of a cultural genocide.

- The development displays hundreds of Japanese American families who had built their homes and businesses there.

This is a story of how urban renewal and a dubious Olympic bid destroyed a flourishing cultural hub.

What happened to Salt Lake City's Japantown?

And how is history threatening To repeat itself?

I'm Harini Bhat, and this is "In the Margins."

In the 1950s, Salt Lake City's Japantown was thriving, spanning 32 city blocks of downtown, Japantown had supermarkets, dance studios, schools, pool halls, and two Japanese language newspapers.

- It was just kind of like a gathering place, you know?

You'd go into a store and they know you by name, and they had all the foods that Japanese people liked to eat.

There were a lot of happy times.

- Japantown's earliest residents arrived in the late 1800s.

Japan had officially lifted its ban on emigration, and the country's industrialization left many rural workers jobless in seeking better wages.

They came to Utah to work on railroads, on farms and in mining.

In 1902, Edward Daigoro Hashimoto established the E. D. Hashimoto Company and what will become the heart of Japantown.

The company connected Japanese immigrants with jobs, supplies, and familiar foods.

By 1910, Salt Lake City's Japantown had more than 2,000 residents, and that number was growing as workers brought their wives and families from Japan.

- There was a very special sense of community there.

And when I talk about community, I'm not talking about just geography, but a sharing of values.

- Finding community wasn't the only reason immigrants flocked to places like Japantown.

Many real estate agents refused to sell property to Japanese Americans outside of these ethnic neighborhoods.

In 1913, California restricted immigrants from owning land with their Alien Land Law.

For years, many states had used various legal means to restrict Asian immigrants from owning property.

But in the 20th century, Alien Land Laws disproportionately targeted the Japanese.

Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor.

(dramatic music) (explosion booms) Within months, life would change drastically for Japanese Americans.

On February 19th, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, the forced incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent, the majority of whom were American citizens.

- We were going someplace, but I didn't know where we were going, but my parents always told me that, you know, "We're American citizens."

The day that I was leaving, my girlfriend said, "Well, if you're an American citizen, why are you going to camp?"

And I said, "I don't know, but that's what the president said," And so I just... We obeyed the law.

- Because the executive order primarily applied to the West Coast and southern Arizona.

Salt Lake City's Japantown residents were not incarcerated, but many lost their jobs and face anti-Japanese discrimination.

And just 150 miles south of Salt Lake City was Topaz internment camp, which housed more than 8,000 Japanese Americans taken mostly from the Bay Area.

When the war ended in 1945, some Japanese Americans at Topaz returned to the Bay Area to find their homes and businesses in disrepair or gone entirely.

Others went to Salt Lake City's Japantown to build a new life.

The community tripled in size and flourished over the next decade.

But trouble was brewing ahead.

In the 1960s, Salt Lake City was among the wave of cities across the nation experiencing big changes.

People were moving to the suburbs faster than ever before.

This was partly driven by a phenomenon known as White Flight, in which white people were leaving ethnically diverse areas en masse.

With fewer residents, Salt Lake City's economy was in decline, and city officials were looking for an economic boost.

So in 1965, Utah governor Calvin Rampton announced that Salt Lake City would make a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics.

To put the bid together, the governor formed a committee called Olympics for Utah Incorporated, or OUI for fun.

The committee proposed using existing venues to host the games, from Park City to the Utah State fairgrounds.

But the centerpiece of their plan was an indoor sports arena in the works called the Salt Palace.

The arena would host popular events like ice hockey and figure skating, and it would be built right in the heart of Japantown.

- It was a community which was obliterated.

It was a community where social structure and economic and everything was there.

You know, I think it's now valuable land, you know?

So when it's valuable, I think money talks.

- City officials had a playbook for taking that valuable land.

Bolstered by federal policies, cities across the US were relying on urban renewal, which targeted slums and blighted areas for redevelopment.

This strategy of urban renewal relied on so-called eminent domain laws.

Expanded by 1954 US Supreme Court ruling, the law gave the government the power to take private property for public purposes without the owner's consent, but with proper compensation.

That's exactly what happened in Japantown.

- And then the erasure of another community, and Japantowns all over the country being demolished and or not surviving after incarceration.

- According to news reports, some Salt Lake City residents had doubts about fundraising this expensive arena with taxpayer money, but they stayed quiet for fear of being seen as opposed to progress and the magnitude of the Olympic bid.

By 1966, the majority of Japantown was demolished to make way for the new Salt Palace.

What's worse is that Salt Lake City ultimately lost the bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics, which instead went to Sapporo, Japan.

Now, here's the kicker.

The Olympic bid that saw Japantown's destruction was never even meant to win.

In 1994, former Governor Rampton, and John Gallivan, publisher for the Salt Lake Tribune, shared the real story behind the bid.

Quote, "Max Rich and I and Cal, and Jack Daniels, were waxing on how we ought to go after the Olympic Games.

We weren't all that convinced we could really host them.

We were more interested in drawing attention and publicity for our ski industry," end quote.

- There is a profound sadness, and not just for myself, but once again for my son, and daughter, and future generations that won't experience that.

- But then the Japanese word called "Shikata ga nai", it can't be helped.

You could either stay and suffer and, you know, lament over it, or you could move on.

- Today, only a half a block remains of the original Japantown consisting of the Buddhist temple, and the 100-year-old Japanese Church of Christ.

In 2007, the street was officially designated Japantown Street, and soon after, a small Japanese garden was planted next to the loaded docks of the Salt Palace.

There's hopes of revitalizing the larger Japantown.

In 2018, members of the Japanese Community Preservation Committee began working with city officials to renovate Japantown's only remaining street.

And they're working quickly as Japantown is coming under threat again.

To the north of Japantown, the city has plans to build a new entertainment district that would house both an NBA and NHL team.

And to the south, developments are underway for a hotel, office building, and parking garages.

It's unclear how these developments will unfold, but Iwamoto and other community members say what's important is that they have a seat at the table when deciding the future of Japantown.

Despite being a dark chapter in Utah's story, the Japanese American community says it's critical that we remember that communities like theirs are part of the fabric of Utah.

- I think it's a historical moment in the state of Utah that we had a community there, a thriving community.

It should be remembered.

- In 2022, Jani Iwamoto sponsored a bill to make February 19th the anniversary of the Executive Order 9066, an official day of remembrance.

And the community continues to celebrate their cultural heritage with public events like the annual Nihon Matsuri and traditional Obon festival.

To guide the preservation and renovation of Japantown, community members came up with a vision statement.

"Okage sama de" - "Okage sama de" means, I am what I am because of you.

But it means a lot to me personally too, because none of us are alone.

- Ultimately, Salt Lake City's Japantown experienced a devastating loss, but the community leaves behind an important legacy, one that lives on through celebrating Japanese culture, and in remembering the history of those who came before them.

We learned so much researching this episode on the Hidden History of Salt Lake City's Japantown.

Thank you so much for watching.

(gentle music)