Seattle's Chinatown - International District (CID) has been home to Asian American communities since the late 1800s. The original Chinatown was located directly south of Pioneer Square, but was pushed east to the CID's current location by construction on 2nd Avenue in the 1920s. At this time, the CID was home to flourishing communities of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants and their US-born children. During World War II, the Japanese American population was forcibly removed to incarceration camps and part of Nichonmachi (Japan Town) was demolished to build Yesler Terrace. The CID was physically divided when I-5 was built through the heart of the neighborhood in the 1960s. The construction of the Kingdome in the 1970s also threatened the CID's historic and cultural character. Nevertheless, the community survived and grew more diverse as Koreans and Pacific Islanders began moving to the area in the 1960s, followed by Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian immigrants in the 1980s.

In this image, people shop for fresh produce at one of the CID's many grocery stores specializing in Asian cuisines.

Caption information source: "Seattle Neighborhoods: Chinatown International District - Thumbnail History," by Walt Crowley, HistoryLink, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/1058