Then and Now: Highland Park United Methodist

May 3-The Japanese congregation of the Highland Park United Methodist Church dates back through 125 years of Spokane history.

The church started after 30 to 40 young men came to Spokane from Japan in 1901 to work in the sugar beet industry.

Though Japan is mostly Buddhist and Shintoist, some converted to Christianity in the late 1800s.

Two of the young agricultural workers who came to Spokane were already Christians and began teaching English to the others, incorporating Bible readings and hymn singing.

The classes led to regular meetings wherever space could be found.

These meetings became the Japanese Methodist Episcopal mission, starting with 21 members and 15 prospective members. A 1903 Spokane Chronicle article said as many as 125 people attended each service. Rev. G. Tsuruda from Seattle was the first pastor.

A story in the Spokane Press newspaper described the pastor: "Mr. Tsuruda has assumed all the mannerisms of a full fledged American and is using his influence toward bettering his own race. Every Japanese in the city attends his church."

The Spokesman-Review reported 16 Methodist Japanese churches on the Pacific Coast in 1909.

Those first converts often brought back or sent for brides from Japan to form families in Spokane. The agriculture workers moved into other businesses.

In 1933, the group moved into the former Swedish Methodist Church at Fifth Avenue and Grant Street and renamed it Grant Street Methodist.

Rev. Shigeo Shimada came to Spokane in 1950. He was born in Japan around 1906 and raised in a Buddhist family. When he converted to Christianity at 16, his father disowned him. He came to America in 1935 to attend seminary. Before he finished school, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii during World War II, and he and wife Nobuko were sent to an internment camp. Through his imprisonment, he encouraged Japanese men to volunteer to serve in the U.S. military. After the war, he served in a Methodist church in San Francisco before coming to pastor the Spokane congregation at the Grant Street church in 1950.

In 1953, Shimada reconciled with his father, who traveled to Spokane and was baptized at the Grant Street church.

In 1958, the congregation built a modern new church at Garfield Street and Hartson Avenue, renaming it Highland Park United Methodist Church.

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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 11:47 AM.