Japanese In Hanna
Page by Bob Leathers and Gary Beaver.
Japanese Cemetery Headstons Transcribed by Ayako and Noriaki Ohara from the University of Wyoming
Japanese Cemetery Headstons Transcribed by Ayako and Noriaki Ohara from the University of Wyoming
Japanese in Hanna
Daniel John Lyon in the 2023 edition of his book Japanese in Wyoming, Union Pacific's Forgotten Labor Force wrote the following about Hanna, Wyoming:
Hanna was a coal mining town founded in 1889. The Wakimoto-Nishimura Company of Cheyenne supplied the Union Pacific Coal Company with an estimated five hundred Japanese laborers. The agency charged $1.50 per month in commission fees and also received five-sixths of a percent on the product mined. Union Pacific owned everything in Hanna. The company charged miners $18 monthly for a six-room cottage, which was equivalent to one week's wage. The town did not have an adequate sewer system, so on many occasions, foul water seeped into the cellars of all the buildings on the main street. The stench was so vile that residents used carbolic acid and other disinfectants to kill the smell. In September 1908, freight traffic in the Wyoming Division decreased by 25 percent when Japanese miners joined the southern Wyoming coal miners' strike. During the strike, Japanese laborers found jobs in the beet fields of Colorado and Kansas and at the rolling mill in Laramie. In the aftermath of the strike, only 120 Japanese lived in Hanna when mining operations resumed. (Daniel John Lyon)
- More at: Japanese in Early Wyoming.
1930
In Hanna it was called Jap Town. It was located near the No. 2 mine and most of the Japanese workers that lived there mined coal in the No. 2 mine. The No. 2 slope ran directly under the community. The Japanese people maintained a large garden during the summer months. (State of Wyoming Archives)
2024
Hanna, Wyoming. Jap Town. (Image by Bob Leathers)
Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 2 Mine in Hanna
Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna Mine No. 2 mine at Hanna. (Emil Salo) (Gert Milliken from Gary Milliken
The Japanese community was located just south and next to the Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No. 2 mine. For the most part the Japanese men worked in the No. 2 mine. In the picture above, the Japanese community can be seen behind the No. 2 mine smoke stacks. Elk Mountain is at the top of the picture.
The Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No. 2 underground mine, like the No. 1 mine, was developed in 1889 and 1890. The lower levels of the No. 2 mine did contain large amounts of explosive gas much like the No. 1 mine, but no explosions or fires causing death occurred during the life of the mine. However, some deaths did occur from other types of accidents and eight Japanese men were killed in the No. 2 mine. After the No. 2 mine was closed the Japanese miners went to work in the Hanna No. 4 and Hanna No. 4A mine.
Ten Japanese men were killed in the Hanna coal mines: 8 killed in the No. 2 mine, 1 in the No. 4 mine and 1 in the No. 4A mine:
- Fujinami, Seikichi - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 4A underground coal mine.
- Konishi, Frank T - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 4 underground coal mine.
- Ikegami, Gitsuji - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Kido, Rikitarou - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Nakayama, Satoru - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Nakayama, Y. - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Namba, Chuutarou - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Nomasa, Y. - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Oosumi, Yoshiya - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
- Shimizu, Touhei - Killed in Union Pacific Hanna No. 2 underground coal mine.
Japanese in the Hanna Cemetery
There are thirty-one known Japanese headstones in the Hanna cemetery. Of the thirty-one - three headstones are not readable. Headstones or burial informations for two Japanese miners killed in the Hanna mines, Seikich Fujinami and Y. Nakayama were not found. They could be two of the three individuals buried in the cemetery in graves where the headstones are not readable.
A list of the known Japanese buried in the Hanna cemetery at: Japanese in Hanna Cemetery
Additional information on the Japanese buried in the Hanna cemetery may be found in the Hanna Basin Death and Burial Records below.
A list of the known Japanese buried in the Hanna cemetery at: Japanese in Hanna Cemetery
Additional information on the Japanese buried in the Hanna cemetery may be found in the Hanna Basin Death and Burial Records below.
Hanna Basin Death and Burial Records - Alphabetical
If a person died in a Hanna Basin coal mine, a death record will be listed regardless of where he was buried.
Index
Source Code
(Inquest) Official Inquest Reports, (MIR) Mine Inspector Reports, (MM) Miner Monuments in Hanna,
(Headstone) cemetery headstone, (BL) Bob Leathers, (JB) John Baldwin
(NA) Nancy and Victor Anderson, (LK) Lynne Kuderko, (AR) Andy Ruskanen and (AO) Ayako Ohara,
(UPCCEM) Union Pacific Coal Company Employee's Magazine
(Inquest) Official Inquest Reports, (MIR) Mine Inspector Reports, (MM) Miner Monuments in Hanna,
(Headstone) cemetery headstone, (BL) Bob Leathers, (JB) John Baldwin
(NA) Nancy and Victor Anderson, (LK) Lynne Kuderko, (AR) Andy Ruskanen and (AO) Ayako Ohara,
(UPCCEM) Union Pacific Coal Company Employee's Magazine
The Hanna Basin includes the towns of Hanna and Elmo, which still exist, along with the coal camps of Carbon, Dana and Sampo, which are now ghost towns.
More at: Men Injured in the Hanna Mines
Hanna Monuments
Looking for a deceased veteran or coal miner? Check the names on the Hanna monuments.
- 1940's and 2023: Unknown Miner Monument and Grave Headstones in the Hanna Cemetery
1925: Hanna's Japanese Star Baseball Team
Our Japanese employes have organized a Base Ball Club and can be seen, in their bright new uniforms, every day the mines are idle, learning to play the game. (UPCCEM, 1925)
Japanese Star Baseball Team of Hanna: S. Doi, Picher; C. Sato, Catcher; H. Matsumoto, First Base; I. Noaki, Second Base; N. Takishima, Short Stop; R. K. Ishida, Third Base; M. Mutow, Center Field; R. Tamigawa, Left Field; Tim Ito, Right Field; T. Kameda, F. Miyamoto, K. Endo, and K. Oki, Substitutes. (UPCCEM, May 1925)
Hanna's Japanese Community and World War II
1941 December 7: The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. War was declared.
1942: The Union Pacific Coal Company's Japanese employees at Hanna were not required to leave Hanna and live at Wyoming's Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Center. The Japanese workers at the coal mines were designated to be essential to the war effort and thereby should stay on the job and help produce the coal that would be necessary for the production of war supplies. It is unclear how many days the Japanese workers were off the job, but one or two days seems to be all the work time the Japanese miners missed.
Our Japanese Employes
There was recently addressed to Hon. Nels H. Smith, Governor, Officials of Carbon County, Wyoming, the Union Pacific Coal Company, a communication signed by twenty-three Japanese residents of Carbon County. This communication not only carries a scathing denunciation of the treachery shown by the Japanese war lords in their attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7 last, but in addition, the signatories to the letter pledge their unalterable support to the United States Government with which they and their children are aligned. The communication calls attention to the long residence of these people, the universal education of their children in the public schools, and the adoption of the American way of life. To the employing companies they address the following statement: “To those organizations such as the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Coal Company who have placed their trust and faith in our loyalty and devotion, we offer our most grateful appreciation, and trust that the sincerity of our actions in the past and the diligent application of our labors henceforward, to help motivate the wheels of National Defense for the common cause, will add in some small measure to the defeat of the Axis powers.
“We hereby pledge to the land of our adoption active participation in the following:
1. Enlistment of our citizen children in the armed forces of the United States.
2. Purchase of Defense Bonds and Stamps.
3. Support of the American Red Cross.
4. Full cooperation with all agencies of government to assist in the Elimination of subversive activities and elements.
5. Cooperation with any and all agencies of Civilian Defense.
“In closing may we respectfully submit that the leadership of our group is in your hands, that under your just guidance, we shall all win through to the inevitable victory which is our deepest wish and fondest hope and that the coming year will see triumph of peace and freedom over the forces of violence and hate.” It should be borne in mind that this communication comes from a people who are not able, under our laws, to avail themselves of citizenship by naturalization. For that reason, we have a double obligation to protect our alien Japanese who are law abiding and, by their work and conduct, show their allegiance to the American Flag. We have made this matter our concern and we are confident that every citizen of Wyoming is in accord with our position. (UPCCEM, Feb. 1942)
Japanese Headstone Translations in the Hanna Cemetery, April 5, 2017
Hanna Cemetery. Japanese Section. 2024. (Image by Bob Leathers)
The Union Pacific Coal Company in 1954 closed its underground coal mines in Hanna. At that time, the town had a large and vibrant Japanese community located near the No. 2 mine. When the mines closed the Japanese people moved away from Hanna searching for new employment opportunities, but those that died in Hanna were left behind in the cemetery. Some of the Japanese monuments in the Hanna cemetery have been there for over a hundred years. During that time, many people have viewed the monuments and wondered who the people were and where they came from. The monuments are mostly written in Japanese making them unreadable by most visitors. On April 5, 2017, the thirty Japanese monuments in the Hanna cemetery were transcribed by Ayako and Noriaki Ohara. Their work is recorded below and is recorded in the HannaHistory.com cemetery records.
April 5, 2017: Ayako and Noriaki Ohara from the University of Wyoming transcribed the Japanese monuments in the Hanna Cemetery.
Images taken by Bob Leathers and Gary Beaver, April 5, 2017
Music: Tanko Bushi, Japanese Coal Mining Folk Song by Mogami Chiyo
Music: Tanko Bushi, Japanese Coal Mining Folk Song by Mogami Chiyo
Click on the center button to play the video.
Help Needed
Sometime after 2017, the translation page and the matching headstone image page done by Ayako and Noriaki Ohara from the University of Wyoming was lost. We are now in the process of finding someone to help us identify which headstone goes with which burial record. The purpose of the headstone images below is the help with that process.
