San José Council OKs Development of Historic Japanese American Farm for Housing

A patch of farmland deeply linked to the history of Japanese Americans in Santa Clara County will be torn up to make way for nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, retail spaces and a public park after the San José City Council approved a development proposal on Tuesday night.

The 22.8-acre parcel has been owned by the Sakauyes — a Japanese American family with a long farming legacy — for roughly 120 continuous years. It survived through racist laws limiting Asian Americans’ rights and immigration, two World Wars and decades of redevelopment following the region’s tech boom.

Members of the Sakauye family, like 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were forcibly interned at concentration camps during World War II. They were only able to keep their land by having a white neighbor safeguard it for them until they returned.

The family now plans to sell the property to Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer, whose representatives said grading of the site could begin as soon as February 2025.

The crops are not the only thing that will be uprooted. A fruit stand business will be forced to shutter when development gets underway. The stand has been run for the last four decades by the Tsukudas, another Japanese American farming family, who lease and farm a portion of the land.

And while a host of historic structures such as barns and pump houses — including some dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century — will be leveled to prepare for the development, a century-old home on the site may be spared from the wrecking ball.

In a victory for preservationists and history advocates, the city council asked city staff to seriously explore ways to preserve the 1920 home where prominent farmer, civic figure and booster of Japanese American history, Eiichi Edward Sakauye, lived almost his entire life.

Hanover previously proffered a plan to include historic plaques or storyboards on the park site to tell the story of Eiichi Sakauye, but some preservationists, history advocates and councilmembers said more should be done.

Thanks in part to an impassioned plea by Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei, the council’s directions issued Tuesday night include a “preference” to preserve the home near where it currently sits by relocating it into the boundaries of the future public park.

“At the end of the day, it’s not just about the house, it’s not just about creating a few plaques to tell the Sakauye story. It’s about our San José story and an American story,” Kamei said from the dais, speaking through tears about the internment orders decades ago.

“I really tried not to get emotional, but this is hard because we have many (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities that have been erased, and we have a chance to do something about this,” Kamei said. “It’s about having the will to preserve a vital piece of history that we can share with future generations …there will be something there, for what was once there.”

The other path the council asked staff to explore would see the home relocated about 10 miles south to History Park, a local nonprofit-run space with a growing collection of original and replica homes, businesses, and once prominent landmarks laid out across a miniature city-like grid to reflect the region’s past.

Neither option is guaranteed to result in the home being saved, and would depend on hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding that could come from the city, nonprofits, residents or other sources to help pay for the relocation and restoration of the home.

City parks officials will come back to the council in the coming months with an evaluation of the two options, officials said.

The possibility of relocating the home to History Park gained support from Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May, who are the daughters of Eiichi Sakauye and own the land. The sisters’ attorney, Sam Farb, previously wrote to city officials to say they didn’t feel their father’s home was worth saving, but that view has apparently shifted.

Farb, at the meeting on Tuesday, said the sisters “would strongly be in favor of trying to preserve the family farmhouse offsite,” such as History Park. Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May previously declined to be interviewed by KQED for a story about the land, citing advice from their attorney.

City parks officials also raised concerns about the ongoing funding needed to maintain another historical home in a public park, which the city already struggles to do at some other sites. The council just last week scrapped plans to put a tax measure on the ballot to address a parks maintenance backlog of over $450 million.

Hanover, for its part, has said it will pay $100,000 to help cover some relocation costs if the city or other organizations can secure a place for the home.

Councilmember Bien Doan suggested that Hanover should consider offering “at least double” that amount to help with the preservation effort.

“I think it’s a minimal investment for the history of the Japanese Americans right here in the city of San José,” Doan said.

Other council members suggested that more should be done than putting up plaques or storyboards, but the council did not go as far as to require the developer to preserve the home on the site where it currently sits. No part of the council’s approval of the development is contingent on the ultimate outcome for the historic home.

Councilmember Peter Ortiz questioned Scott Youdall, a development partner at Hanover, about how much engagement and outreach the company did to the Japanese American community when the development process began. Youdall said the company only consulted with the Sakauye family.

“Which does to me send a message that wasn’t front and center of your guys’ minds,” Ortiz said.

Rod Diridon Sr., a longtime former city council member, county supervisor and member of regional boards for transportation, told the council on Tuesday that he supports preserving the home.

“It is a beautiful project, and I hope you do approve it. But you’ve got to save the house,” Diridon said. He mentioned that History Park had recent success taking on a historic train depot building, which was donated to the park, and a county grant helped cover relocation costs.

“There’s got to be a way to protect that house and to do all the things necessary to remind the world what this family went through and what they provided — after they went through it — to society,” Diridon said.

Speaking about the generosity of Eiichi Sakauye, Diridon said, “It makes me have goose pimples thinking about how wonderful that quiet, quiet gentleman was.”