The Hunt Hotel provided housing for Japanese American families and individuals who were released from incarceration camps during World War II and had no other home to return to in Seattle. Genji Mihara listed the hotel in the local Japanese newspaper to attract residents. Families would use word-of-mouth to find housing like the Hunt Hotel since it could accommodate larger families and elderly people who struggled the most to find accommodations and work. Former residents recalled being sent to local churches first for temporary shelter before being directed to the Hunt Hotel, which housed some of the last former incarcerates who left the camps with no other housing options.

1. Moving Into the Hunt Hotel
Although most lodgers came directly from
the camp at Minidoka, Genji Mihara listed an
advertisement for the hostel in The North American Post,
Seattle’s Japanese-language newspaper.
Families and individuals without homes to return to in
Seattle relied on word-of-mouth to find potential
lodgings, and word spread rapidly about the Hunt Hotel
and its eighteen schoolrooms.
The Hunt Hotel was especially helpful for larger families and elderly
Issei, who found it the most difficult to obtain housing and work. Indeed,
the residents of the Hunt Hotel were some of the last to leave the camps,
not knowing where they would live.
“There was a couple that my husband knew very
well.They were living next to the Tsutsumis in
camp and somehow they knew Mr. Mihara . . .
we contacted him and we somehow got a room.
At the time, when we moved in there were five
children and two of us. Mino was the last born.”
– sumiye ohashi, former hunt hotel resident
“I know when we got off the train we were sent to
the Methodist church and stayed there overnight.
The following day we were sent over here [to the
Hunt Hotel]. . . . I think the churches handled it
[resettlement] at that time. It was like a drop-off
point.There were several families there at the time
. . . sleeping on the floors there.”
– shigeru tsutsumi,
former hunt hotel resident
Yoneki Tsutsumi and his three nephews (Tsuneo, Shigeru, and Susumu)
outside the steps of the Hunt Hotel.The young boy on the far left is
Jerry Tada.The boy in the back is unidentified. The Densho Project
“Hunt Hostel, Former Japanese
Language School, 1414 Weller
Street, Phone Number 953”
The North American Post
Ohashi children outside the Hunt Hotel (left to right: Shige “Joe”,
Susumu “Victor”, Hiroshi “Donald”, Etsuko “Peggy”and Kiyomi)
The Densho Project
left: Warren Suzuki and his wife, Kiyoka Kinoshita, pictured here in the
incarceration camp, where their daughter Grace was born. below: Toshiyuki
Suzuki holds his granddaughter Grace, inside the Hunt Hotel.This is the
only known photograph of the inside of the Hunt Hotel.The Suzukis shared
a room with the Taki family for a short while. Suzuki Family