Sento at Sixth and Main : Preserving Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage

Quietly elegant, yet issuing a clarion call for intervention, Sento at Sixth and Main rediscovers early Japanese American culture and presents an indisputable case for the preservation of ten key landmarks in California and Washington. The authors recreate the Japanese American experience, intertwining rich oral histories from community members with current and historical photographs, plus personal snapshots, archaeological findings, newspaper clippings, and other wonderfully nontraditional sources.

So much of the Japanese American past was lost after the attack on Pearl Harbor; terrified families burned scrapbooks and personal possessions for fear they would be labeled as traitors. Sento at Sixth and Main is a graceful effort to find that past and to explain that, even now, it is still not too late to include these places as part of the American cultural landscape.

Gail Dubrow is the winner of the 2004 Antoinette Forrester Downing Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. She is a professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Washington and lives in Seattle.

Donna Graves directed the Rosie the Riveter Memorial Project in Richmond, CA. She lives in Berkeley.