One hundred and six years ago, Jiro Iwamura began selling rice cakes to Japanese working at Puget Sound sawmills and railroad shops. When one of them died, Iwamura performed Buddhist rites, then sent a consoling letter and a burial photograph to the bereaved family in Japan.

By 1902 there were 162 Japanese businesses in Seattle that were serving 2,990 Japanese and Caucasian sawmill and railroad hands. Buddhist missionary Gendo Nakai arrived in 1902 to ascertain if an Asian religion could be successfully implanted in American culture. It took six years to raise the funds to construct a temple on Main Street.

By 1939, the Buddhist congregation numbered over 1,000. Their Main Street Temple was torn down to make room for a housing project. Two months after the congregation dedicated a new church, World War II started. Presidential Executive Order 9066 forced all West Coast Japanese to evacuate. Seattleites were sent to Camp Harmony Assembly Center in Puyallup and later to Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho. But, at the conclusion of the war, 600 Buddhists returned to Seattle.