(This is part of our ongoing series, Lost Kinjo– a look at the more than 40 Japanese communities that disappeared after World War II. It is supported by funding from the California Public Library Civil Liberties Project and the Takahashi Family Foundation.) 

An historic farmhouse that survived the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II may not endure the test of time and redevelopment.

As AsAmNews reported in August, the San Jose City Council in California’s Silicon Valley approved a 1,000 unit multi-family residence redevelopment project on the 23-acre property but also called for the farmhouse to be saved and relocated elsewhere.

The East Bay Times reports History San Jose had faced a deadline of Friday, November 15 to raise an additional $450,000 for the move.

“What we need to do right now is we need to get the fundraising to be able to move the house,” said Bill Schroh Jr., president and CEO of History San Jose said to KTVU.

The hope is to move the home to San Jose History Park.

At last report, $300,000 had been pledged for the move out of the needed $750,000.

The home is significant because unlike most families, the Sakauye family returned to the farmhouse after the war as their home was cared for by a White neighbor, Edward Seely, during the war.

Eiichi Sakauye ran the farm until his death in 2005 at the age of 93.

“If we let the past be erased, how will we teach our children where we came from? This is why the mission of History San Jose and museums around the country are so important. Preservation and education are the keys to a bright future. As the saying goes, ‘Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it,” History San Jose President and CEO Bill P. Schroh said to AsAmNews back in August.

AsAmNews has reached out to both Schroh and the Preservation Action Council of San Jose for an update and we will update this story when the information becomes available.

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

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