Kosai Farm, B Street north of Northwest Twenty-ninth Street, Auburn, King County, WA

Significance: Participation by Japanese immigrants in the economic, cultural and political life of the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century is part of a larger pattern of relocation, settlement and assimilation. This pattern is similar to that of many ethnic immigrant groups. However, the history of Japanese-Americans is unique in their confrontation with anti-alien land laws, prejudice, racial discrimination, and their internment and evacuation during World War II. The Kosai Farm, located in Auburn, Washington. It is associated with a pattern of agricultural development in the White River Valley and the presence of Japanese immigrants in dairy farming in the area. It is also significantly associated the political history of Japanese-Americans and the discrimination that they faced in the first half of the twentieth century. Kiichiro Kosai and his son, Frank Kosai, original owners of the Kosai Farm, embodied this struggle through their acquisition of the dairy farm site in 1919, and the subsequent legal battle over its ownership in violation of the State's Anti-Alien Land Law of 1921. The Kosais' struggle also anticipated tragic events which occurred between 1941 and 1945 with the internment and forced evacuation of Japanese-Americans from their homes in Washington, Oregon and California.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N344
Survey number: HABS WA-211