J.W.A Site
"Japanese Welfare Association Site"
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The Japanese Welfare Association (JWA) is an international, cultural, or student exchange program in Arroyo Grande that was founded in 2017. It is a non-profit organization that focuses on community development, and is working to establish a Japanese cultural center and senior housing on Cherry Avenue.
In the early 1920's, the J.W.A. site was bought by Juzo Ikeda and the Japanese American Community that was living in Arroyo Grande to be used as an educational site. Two houses were established on this land. One house was turned into a Japanese school and the other one was a home for the Japanese school teacher. This site became an area for the primary purpose of education to begin with.
As the 1930's approached, Juzo Ikeda (Margaret Ikeda's grandfather) helped build a community hall in the same location (in place of the two houses). As the war approached, the federal government began creating new regulations to limit the activities of the Japanese Americans in California, who were starting to be viewed with suspicion without cause. One regulation limited the places Japanese Americans could be after dark. The lines were established based on borders such as Highway 101. Those who lived on the coastal side of Highway 101 were able to work during the day on that side, however when night came, it was now illegal for any Japanese Americans to be on that coastal side, due to an unfounded fear that the Japanese Americans could be communicating with Japan. The J.W.A site was on the east side of 101, and thus became a place for Japanese Americans to sleep when they weren't allowed to be at their homes on the coastal side at night. The Ikedas, a well known farming family in the Arroyo Grande community lived on the coastal side and used the community hall frequently. They opened this hall to others in the same position. Unfortunately, that community hall remained standing only until 2011 when an arson incident occurred on the property.
The point of the borders was for the government to keep defining the spaces that Japanese Americans could occupy. At first, they couldn't be on the west side of Highway 1, then the boundary was moved slightly east to Highway 101, then they were required to move to certain areas called “relocation centers.”, before finally being incarcerated in the Internment Camps.
