Archives Olympia Branch Researcher Dr. Jewell Lorenz-Dunn came across some interesting information about an old Seattle hospital while digging through the State Archives collections last month.
Many Chinese and Japanese immigrated to the Pacific Northwest to work as laborers as early as the mid-1800s. The Asian workers were met with resistance and discrimination which led to the labor riots of the late 1880s in Seattle. Many of these laborers were credited with some of the hardest work in the region on the ship canal that connects Lake Washington to Puget Sound.
It is unclear if the growing Asian population created a need for their own hospital, or the board of the hospitals seized an opportunity to sever them. The Reliance Hospital was created in January of 1913 and the Nippon Hospital Association came about in July 1917, then was disincorporated in 1925.
The trustees for the Reliance Hospital Association were Hoshin Fujii, Benj. S. Ohnick, and Selma Anderson.
The trustees for the Nippon Hospital were Shoichi Okamura, Chojiro Fujii, Tatsujiro Akiyoshi, Masijiro Mori, and Kojiro Takeuchi.
Both hospitals were to give medical and surgical attention to the sick and injured and to be in the greater Seattle area. They were also to supply and maintain drugs, medicine, and lotions to the patients of said hospital.
The building the hospitals were located in became the Moose Hotel.
Expect a more in-depth article in the coming months with additional information.
