Two Decembers: 1934 and 1948

ABOVE: Eighty-three years ago, the Santa Ana Register reported on the gathering to dedicate the Wintersburg Japanese Church held on December 9, the second mission building and one of three buildings at Historic Wintersburg associated with the Wintersburg Japanese Mission. Already noted as one of the oldest Japanese missions in California, the congregation was marking its 30-year anniversary of the founding as they dedicated the Spanish Revival style church at the corner of present-day Warner Avenue and Nichols Lane. (Santa Ana Register, December 10, 1934)

   In December 1934, the communities of Wintersburg Village and Huntington Beach gathered to dedicate the newest house of worship for the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.  Formally recognized as a Church with the Presbyterian Church USA in 1930, the Wintersburg Japanese Mission was marking its 30th anniversary in 1934.

   The first Mission building also had opened in December, in 1909, followed shortly by the Manse (parsonage).  Reverend Joseph K. Inazawa and his wife, Kate Alice Goodman, were there for the 1910 dedication and services, as was Charles Furuta, the Furuta farm; and Reverend Terasawa and Dr. Ernest Adolphus Sturge, who had helped found the Wintersburg Japanese Mission in 1904. 

LEFT: The program for the Wintersburg Japanese Church dedication featured remarks by Church elders, including Charles Furuta and Kyutaro Ishii.  Charles and Yukiko's daughter, Kazuko (Kay), spoke on behalf of the Sunday school program, while her cousin, Sumi Akiyama played a violin solo.  The Treasurer's Report was delivered by Shuji Kanno, father of California's first Japanese American major, the first mayor of Fountain Valley, James Kanno. Note the program states "motion pictures to be taken". (Wintersburg Japanese Church dedication program, December 9, 1934. Courtesy of Furuta family.) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    The 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Church building is home to significant events that are part of the reason the Historic Wintersburg property is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Treasure. 
  
   It was home to the first Japanese American Citizen League meeting in Orange County. The Church and Mission buildings were shuttered during World War II incarceration, prompting the Presbyterian Church USA to formally apologize in 2014 for "abandonment" of the congregation.  The 1934 Church building is one of six historic structures that are part of the Furuta farm and Wintersburg Japanese Mission complex at National Treasure Historic Wintersburg. All six structures have been deemed restorable by the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

RIGHT: The first meeting of the Japanese American Citizens League in Orange County, California, is held in the Wintersburg Japanese Church, one year after the church building was dedicated. (Santa Ana Register, January 28, 1935)

   Fourteen years after the dedication of the Church building in 1934--and after Orange County's Japanese American community had returned from World War II incarceration--the Church held a program of national significance.  The body of Orange County hero, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda with the "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team, was returned home from Europe.  He had been killed in action in Italy in 1944, and--in an event that received national media coverage in 1945--Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda's family was presented with his Distinguished Service Cross by General Joe Stillwell and an Army captain who would one day be President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

   On August 27, 1944, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, a graduate of Huntington Beach High School, voluntarily led two men on a night patrol across the Arno river and through the heavily-mined and booby-trapped north bank. Hearing movements to his right he ordered his men to cover him while he crawled forward and discovered that a strong enemy force had surrounded them. 

    Realizing that he was trapped, he ordered his men to withdraw while he engaged two enemy automatic weapons. At the sacrifice of his life, he enabled his comrades to escape with valuable information which materially aided the successful crossing of the Arno river.
Finally, in 1948, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda was returned home to be laid to rest. 

LEFT: The services for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda noted in the Santa Ana Register.  His grave site at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California, is home to the annual Memorial Day program with the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. (Santa Ana Register, December 10, 1948)

   The funeral services were held in the Wintersburg Japanese Church in 1948 with a military honor guard. The funeral procession made its way down Beach Boulevard to the Westminster Memorial Park for the burial, where Marines from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station fired a 21-gun salute.

ABOVE: The funeral procession for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, a member of the "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team, makes its way north on Beach Boulevard from the services at the Wintersburg Japanese Church to the Westminster Memorial Park on December 9, 1948. Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda was remembered by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.  (Courtesy of Dennis Masuda) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    In 1988, at the official signing of the Civil Liberties Act, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda and his family were remembered by President Ronald Reagan.  

   Watch President Reagan speak in 1988 about visiting the Masuda family decades earlier in 1945:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcaQRhcBXKY  (Video courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

   Members of the Masuda family and Clarence Nishizu, a congregant of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission, were at the signing with President Reagan, who had visited the Masuda family when he was a young Army captain at their Talbert farmhouse with General Joe Stillwell in 1945. Captain Ronald Reagan and General Joe Stillwell were there to award posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda.

RIGHT: The annual Memorial Day program at the grave site of Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda in Westminster Memorial Park with the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. (Photo, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    Today, the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Church building remains standing and is one of six historic buildings that are part of National Treasure Historic Wintersburg, listed as one of America's Most Endangered Historic Places in 2014 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and listed as one of Orange County's Most Endangered in 2017 by Preserve Orange County.  The grave site of Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda is home to the annual Memorial Day services held by Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. The 21-gun salute remains part of the annual Memorial Day program, at which all military veterans are honored for their valor and service. 

ABOVE: The Wintersburg Japanese Church on dedication day, December 9, 1934. The congregation fund raised and built their second church building during the Great Depression, a major effort in the rural farming community of Wintersburg Village. (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Church) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima. 

At the Newland House Museum: It was a 1914 Holiday for Historic Wintersburg and the Huntington Beach Historical Society

IT'S 1914: Historic Wintersburg Task Force member Dennis Masuda gets fully into character in the Tashima Market display on the front lawn of the Newland House Museum for Holidays in Huntington Beach, 1914.  Both Historic Wintersburg Task Force members and Huntington Beach Historical Society members provided "pioneers" for visitors to meet.  (Photo by Mary Urashima, December 5, 2014) © All rights reserved.

OUR NEW ASSEMBLYMAN:  Matthew Harper, now Assemblyman of the 74th District and immediate past mayor of Huntington Beach (center), inside the Tashima market with Historic Wintersburg Task Force members Dennis Masuda and Rebecca Nehez.  Assemblyman Harper helped present The Order of the Newland Rose to Historic Wintersburg Task Force chair, Mary Urashima, "for her continued work in historic preservation in Huntington Beach, namely the Wintersburg Historic District. We honor her for her efforts to our treasured buildings as well as the diverse history of our community." (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

ORANGE COUNTY PIONEERS: The Tashima family with Historic Wintersburg Task Force members Kanji Sahara (third from left) and Rebecca Nehez (far right), with Task Force chair and Historic Wintersburg author Mary Urashima (third from left).  The Tashima's traveled from outside Orange County to be at the event. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

NIGHT FALL: A crowd began to arrive as holiday candles glimmered in the windows of the Newland House.  Approximately 200 to 250 people attended the open house Holidays in Huntington Beach, 1914 event. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

WHERE IS WINTERSBURG? A directional sign at the event provided the mileage from the Newland House to locations significant to the Japanese pioneer community, as well as for Huntington Beach's Sister City in Anjo, Japan.  The sign was crafted by Historic Wintersburg Task Force member Barbara Haynes.

Mileage from the Newland House:  Wintersburg Village, 2.7 miles (Wintersburg Mission, Furuta farm, Tashima market); Smeltzer, 3.9 miles (Southern Pacific Railroad siding, Chino camp); Garden Grove, 12.2 miles (Ida Tofu Factory, Japanese Language School); Talbert, 3.3 miles (Escalante Circus campsite, Ishii home, Kato farm, Japanese Language School); Santa Ana, 11.7 miles (Santa Ana early 1900s produce market); Costa Mesa, 6.8 miles (Japanese Language School); Laguna Beach, 14.3 miles (Japanese Language School); Little Tokyo, 36.2 miles (Fugetsu-do confectionery); Anjo, Japan, 5651 miles (Huntington Beach Sister City). (Photo by Mary Urashima, December 5, 2014) © All rights reserved.

TASHIMA MARKET DETAILS: A pair of handwoven tatami sandals and bamboo rake in the Tashima market were among the details providing a glimpse back to 1914.   

These items can be found today in the Historic District of Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, at Anzen Hardware on First Street, which is worth a field trip in itself.  Early 1900s residents of Wintersburg and Smeltzer's Japanese community traveled back and forth to Little Tokyo regularly, on the Pacific Electric Railway "Red Car."  Yukiko Furuta's 1982 oral history includes a reference to shopping in Little Tokyo and enjoying the sweets at a confectionery that undoubtedly was Fugetsu-do Sweet Shop, which opened in 1903.

Also in the market were major crops for Wintersburg and Smeltzer, celery and chili peppers, advertisements from the Orange County Directory for 1913, and a 1914 recipe book.  (Photo by Mary Urashima, December 5, 2014) © All rights reserved.

LOCAL ROYALTY: Miss Huntington Beach, Claire Epting (center, in green), and her court, Alexis Rodriguez and Jena Jean Farris, in the Tashima market with Historic Wintersburg Task Force members Rebecca Nehez (far left), Kanji Sahara (second from left) and Mary Urashima (center). (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY: Local businessman Ed Laird (left) with his family, chats with Assemblyman Matthew Harper (center), Chris McDonald of the Local News (in straw hat) and Huntington Beach Historical Society president Darrell Rivers (in 1914 attire with top hat). (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

PASSING ON HISTORY: Inside the Tashima market, Kanji Sahara enthralls a visitor as he shares the history of Japanese pioneers and the significance of Historic Wintersburg. In addition to volunteering his time for Historic Wintersburg, Sahara is on the Japanese American Citizens League board and a member of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition Board. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

WINDOW INTO THE PAST: Near the Tashima market display, an exhibit constructed of vintage windows shares historical photographs and information about Historic Wintersburg.  This display made of re-purposed materials---in keeping with the purpose of preservation to re-use and recycle---was used at the Smithsonian Museum's traveling exhibit, Journey Stories, at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in October 2014. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

FRIENDS OF HISTORIC WINTERSBURG: Leadership from the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) Pacific Southwest joined Historic Wintersburg Task Force member Kanji Sahara in the Tashima market. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5, 2014) © All rights reserved.

The JACL recognized Task Force chair Mary Urashima with their Community Hero award this year at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, and has actively supported the preservation of Historic Wintersburg.  

The Japanese American Citizens League was formed in 1929 in California and Washington, and spread to become the largest and most well-known Japanese American organization in the United States.  JACL was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1988, signed by President Ronald Reagan.  

Today, it is the U.S.'s oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization, with 108 chapters nationwide. JACL continues to work on existing and emerging civil liberties issues. 

MOCHI! Special thanks to one of our event sponsors, Fugetsu-do Sweet Shop, on First Street in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.  Guests at the event had the opportunity to taste mochi, a sweet rice confection, at the Tashima market, offered on a vintage tray by a pioneer. Information and directions to Fugetsu-do at http://www.fugetsu-do.com/   (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5 2014) © All rights reserved.

More event photographs and information about the preservation effort for Historic Wintersburg can be found on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-Wintersburg-Preservation-Task-Force/433990979985360

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Santa (the jolly fellow at right) greeted visitors from 1914 and 2014 inside the Newland House, checking his list.  We wish all our readers a very happy holiday season and joyous New Year in 2015. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Robertson, Dec. 5, 2014)
© All rights reserved.

Thank you to our hosts at Holidays in Huntington Beach, 1914, the Huntington Beach Historical Society. 

We are endlessly appreciative of our Historic Wintersburg Task Force members and volunteers.  You made this happen! 

Thank you to Assemblyman Matthew Harper, Huntington Beach Mayor Jill Hardy, and the other dignitaries, officials, and all our guests who stopped by to celebrate the Holidays in Huntington Beach, 1914.  Sharing history is sharing community.

Historic Wintersburg will have much more news to share in 2015 about the effort to preserve one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  We appreciate the growing support, both locally and nationally, to save Historic Wintersburg for future generations.  

Perhaps in 2114, there will be holiday events looking back 200 years, at both the Newland House and at Historic Wintersburg.  The world will be a different place in the next century.  Knowing where we come from and how far we all have traveled will be even more important.

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima

What's next? Historic Wintersburg's future

A vintage postcard promotes the rich soil of Orange County's peatlands, this photo likely taken in the Wintersburg / Smeltzer area where celery was king.

   In 1902, Presbyterian clergy went out into the celery fields of Wintersburg and Smeltzer, talking to the Japanese bachelors about building their new lives in America.  Charles Furuta had arrived in the United States in 1900 and was hard at work in Wintersburg.  

   By then, Furuta had met Episcopalian minister Hisakichi Terasawa, a mentor who advised he should work hard, stay on the straight path and buy land.   The Westminster Presbyterian community had enlisted the Cambridge-educated Rev. Terasawa to help establish a mission in Wintersburg, due to his knowledge of both Japanese and American culture and language.  Holding meetings in a Wintersburg barn, Charles Furuta was the first to be baptized in the mission effort, founded in 1904.

   Their close friendship led to the joint effort to buy land between 1904 and 1909 for the Furuta farm and for the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.   
 

The Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission effort in north Orange County included support for Japanese schools and community centers in Garden Grove, Talbert (Fountain Valley, not shown on map), Costa Mesa, and in south Orange County, Laguna Beach. (Image, JapantownAtlas.com)

   The Mission's reach in Orange County grew as their congregation grew, with Japanese schools--gakuens--and community centers in Garden Grove, Talbert (Fountain Valley), Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach (Crystal Cove).  The Talbert school, located near present-day Bushard Street and Talbert Avenue, opened in 1912, the same year Charles and Yukiko Furuta built their new home on Wintersburg Avenue.

Crystal Cove Cottage #34 once served as the Laguna Beach Language School (Japanese school and community center) supported by the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church. (Photo courtesy of Flikr, murraycdm photostream)

   By the 1920s--while the Furuta Gold Fish Farm was flourishing in Wintersburg Village--some of the Japanese truck farmers who got their start in north Orange County moved further south.
 
Left: an excerpt from the California State Parks brochure for Crystal Cove State Park, http://www.crystalcovebeachcottages.com/resources/CrystalCoveFinal.pdf
 
   The original Japanese school / community center supported by the Wintersburg church for those living on and farming Irvine Company land is now Cottage #34, the cultural center at the Crystal Cove State Park.  

   The Historic District of Crystal Cove was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The original building for the Japanese school and community center supported by the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church now serves as the public cultural center, Cottage #34 at Crystal Cove State Park. (Image, JapantownAtlas.com)

Excerpt from 1930 history of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission, written by Reverend Kenji Kikuchi, referencing the church's work in Laguna Beach.  (Image courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church)  

   The County-wide legacy of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission effort of 100 years ago is evident today, but the original Mission complex with the Furuta farm remain in jeopardy, under review for a zone change to commercial/industrial and an application for demolition.

Historic designation
   A recent Historic Context Survey conducted by Galvin Preservation Associates, Inc., recommended four of the six buildings on the Historic Wintersburg property as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places: the 1912 Furuta bungalow, the 1910 Mission, the 1910 Manse (clergy home) and the 1934 Depression-era Church.

Left: An aerial of the Furuta farm and Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission complex from the draft Environmental Impact Report. There is a residential neighborhood to the west, across Emerald Lane, and an elementary school to the south, across Belsito Drive.  (Image, City of Huntington Beach)

  There are hopes to add historic landmark designation for the century-old pioneer heritage barn built by the Furuta family for their goldfish and flower farm.  The barn appears to be the only remaining heritage barn in Huntington Beach and one of the rare few in Orange County.

   The Furuta farm and Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission complex is a rare, extant Japanese pioneer heritage property.  Over the arch of 100 years, the history associated with this property tells of the settlement and development of Orange County and California.

Planning Commission
   The Huntington Beach Planning Commission held a public hearing on the environmental impact report for Historic Wintersburg (Warner-Nichols) at their April 23, 2013 meeting.  The Commission will again discuss the fate of Historic Wintersburg at their May 28, 2013 meeting.

   Two actions were directed by the Planning Commission: 1) Add the Furuta barn as a City historic landmark, 2) provide more documentation regarding the draft Environmental Impact Report's "Statement of Overriding Consideration" which states the historic buildings are a public safety concern, justifying demolition.

   The Commission debated the pros and cons of designating the property as a historic district, uncertain about its effect.  The City staff recommendation--to certify the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approve the Statement of Overriding Consideration (which allows the demolition to proceed) is acknowledged in the draft EIR as inconsistent with the City of Huntington Beach General Plan.  

   The demolition permit would fall under a "ministerial" action by staff, as opposed to a discretionary action by an elected or appointed body.  However, ministerial actions must be fully consistent with the General Plan per City policy.  State law considers the demolition of historic resources a significant impact that cannot be fully mitigated.  Once they are gone, they are gone.

   California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) law states "where a project involves an approval that contains elements of both a ministerial action and a discretionary action, the project will be deemed to be discretionary and will be subject to the requirements of CEQA." 

Tadashi Kowta, son of Reverend Sohei Kowta, recently revisited Historic Wintersburg after more than 50 years.  The Kowta family lived in the Manse on the property between 1938 and 1942, until they were forced to evacuate to the Colorado River Relocation Center.  Kowta recalled his last visit was about a decade after World War II. (April 19, 2013)

The History of Southern California
   The concern for preservation of  Historic Wintersburg echoes in concurrent discussions about the historic China House in Rancho Cucamonga.  The two-story China House, built in 1919, once housed a Chinese market and was home to the Chinese laborers who dug tunnels bringing water from the mountains to the valley.  It is the last remaining Chinese pioneer structure in an Inland Empire Chinatown.

   Designated as a City historic landmark in 1985, the City staff report questioned the historical significance of the China House and, in familiar fashion, deemed the building a public safety concern.  The day following the Historic Wintersburg public hearing, Rancho Cucamonga's planning commission rejected the staff report, delayed demolition, and directed full environmental review.

Left: Academy Award®- winning and Emmy®- nominated actor and director Chris Tashima toured Historic Wintersburg as a representative of the Little Tokyo Historical Society.  Tashima's award-winning film and stage work has included subjects about Japanese and Japanese American history and culture. (April 19, 2013)

   Asian Americans were an integral part of the settlement, farming and development of Southern California, yet evidence of this history has almost entirely been erased.  The last remaining tangible pieces are jeopardized, the history often discounted, and the structures--after surviving a century--considered somehow unsafe to preserve.
 
   At the public hearing in Huntington Beach, Kanji Sahara with the Japanese American Citizens League called the preservation of Historic Wintersburg a civil rights issue.  Sahara, 79, explained no one should be denied their cultural heritage. 

   Huntington Beach Independent Reporter Anthony Carpio writes (Future of historical site still in question, April 24, 2013), "Sahara compared Wintersburg to Manzanar, the relocation camp in California where thousands of Japanese Americans were sent during World War II.   He said Manzanar was registered as a national historic site because it told the history of what had happened there and it would have lost historical value had it been moved."

"Manzanar tells the story of what happened 70 years ago." said Sahara.  "These buildings at Wintersburg tell the story of what happened 100 years ago."

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What is next?
The Huntington Beach Planning Commission will meet to discuss Historic Wintersburg at 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 28, at Huntington Beach City Hall, 2000 Main Street (corner of Yorktown Avenue and Main Street).

California
A half-day workshop on Historic Wintersburg will be conducted for the California Preservation Foundation on Friday, May 3.  http://www.californiapreservation.org/main.html

Nationwide
In February 2013, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced--in conjunction with the National Park Service--the Asian American Pacific Islander Theme Study to investigate the stories, places and people of Asian American and Pacific Island heritage.  The theme study will guide future nominations of National Historic Landmarks and National Register properties.  Per the Department of the Interior, less than eight percent of National Register properties can be identified as representing the stories associated with African Americans, American Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians, or women.  Asian American history experts from around the country meet May 9 in Washington D.C. to discuss implementation of the initiative.

Historic Wintersburg will be included on a panel discussion at the National Historic Trust Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the end of October 2013.  http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/training/npc/

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.