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Curious City Japanese neighborhood. A family walks down the street in Chicago's former Japanese neighborhood in Lake View
Chicago

What happened to Chicago’s Japanese neighborhood?

By  Katherine Nagasawa
   

This story originally published in August 2017. 

The reason Chicago's Japanese neighborhood disappeared is directly tied to a Chicago immigrant experience like no other. Japanese-Americans didn’t end up in Chicago of their own accord: The U.S. government forcibly resettled 20,000 of them to the city from World War II incarceration camps. And, as part of that effort, the government pressured them to shed their Japanese identities and assimilate into white society.

In this special Curious City presentation, we trace the history of Chicago's Japanese-American community, from World War II to today. Click here for the full story.

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