The Castroville Japanese Language School was built in 1936. The language teacher was also the Buddhist priest. Attendance by Japanese-American children of elementary school age was almost compulsory.

The Japanese valued education highly. Japanese children attended the public elementary school across the street, then walked to the Japanese school for language lessons.

The building was used only six years until the Presidential Order for evacuation of all Japanese regardless of citizenship or due process. The Presidential Act placed all into concentration camps. Upon their return, some internees used the building briefly as a hostel. They had nowhere else to go when displaced from the camps.

Source: Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1995.