Japan and New Orleans: An Exotic Love Affair?

The history of Japanese encounters with New Orleans has been surprisingly substantial and multivalent. From the beginning of the 20^th century until World War II, Japan was a leading customer for Louisiana’s exports, particularly in the cotton trade. Trade was halted during World War II, but quickly revived afterward, and by the mid-1960s Japan had become New Orleans's chief foreign trading partner. In large part as a result, ethnic Japanese settlers in the city were treated with courtesy throughout the century, accepted in “whites only” areas and for civil service jobs, even as Blacks were segregated and barred from public employment.

Such trade relations led to myriad cultural exchanges. Japanese tourists became a common sight on the streets of New Orleans, while local citizens adopted the Japanese iris and camellia as popular flowers. The iconic Café du Monde granted a franchise to Japanese businessmen, who began serving chicory coffee and beignets in some two dozen branches in Japan--the Cafe’s only locations outside Louisiana.

At the same time, New Orleans became a spiritual home for numerous ethnic Japanese artists and intellectuals, who remained torn between appreciation for the city’s unique culture and revulsion against Jim Crow.  Issei Artist Hideo Date, unable to visit France, spent several painting trips there. Canadian Nisei critics Frank Moritsugu and Hugo Yamamoto extolled Louis Armstrong and New Orleans jazz as the highest art. Yoichi Kimura, drummer with the Japanese Dixieland band New Orleans Rascals, made a pilgrimage to the Crescent City to nurse the African American drummer Joe Watkins during an illness. The association with Blacks gave these individuals a special kind of transnational identity and sense of belonging.