Founded in 1902 by immigrants from Japan, the North American Post Publishing Inc. is the oldest, minority-owned, publishing company in the Greater Seattle area. Located in what is today’s Japantown, we represent the long and storied history of the Japanese American (JA) community in our area. The company was shuttered during World War II when JA’s were sent to war relocation concentration camps, but as soon as the war ended, the company was revived because of strong community support.
Today, as one of the few surviving JA-owned newspaper publishers, we serve both JA and newly arriving Japanese natives by featuring bilingual articles in both English and Japanese. We have positioned ourselves as a focal point for information within the community because our articles involve interviews with community leaders and relevant news on regional politics, community events, and businesses.
We also articulate the history of JA and the broader Asian American community. In today’s often charged political environment, it is important to preserve and spotlight the lasting impact of JA and Asian American history. There is a lot to learn from the experiences of early Asian immigrants, e.g., the development of the redlined district in and around Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, the waves of anti-Asian agitation in the region, the incarceration of JA’s during the war, and the Pan-Asian American Civil Rights movement in the 1970’s – just to name a few.
