Century-old time capsule found at a Utah church evokes memories of a now fleeting Japantown

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A historian's hunch about what might lie hidden within the walls of a Japanese church in Salt Lake City led congregants to uncover a century-old snapshot of a once vibrant Japantown now fighting for survival.

Elders at the 101-year-old Japanese Church of Christ — one of two remaining buildings in the city’s Japantown — drilled through brick, concrete and rebar to extract a metal box from the building’s cornerstone. Its contents tell the stories of early Japanese immigrants to an area now overtaken by urban sprawl.

Community members got their first look at the artifacts over the weekend, pulling from the box hand-sewn flags, Bibles and local newspapers in both English and Japanese, the church's articles of incorporation and a sheet of glitter-trimmed paper with the handwritten names of its Sunday school teachers.

“You see the thoughts, the hopes and the faith of people from a community over 100 years ago. What they hoped for is still continuing to happen in the heart of Salt Lake City," the Rev. Andrew Fleishman said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Japanese-language Bible had been given to founding member Lois Hide Hashimoto by her mother when she left her home country of Japan for the U.S. in the early 1900s. More than a century later, Hashimoto's grandchildren, Joy Douglass and Ann Pos, held her Bible for the first time.

A handwritten inscription reads: “To Lois Hide from her mother when she started to America. 20th June, 1906. ‘The Lord is our strength and refuge.’” Also in the box was an English-language Bible placed in the time capsule by their father, a then-13-year-old Eddie Hashimoto.

Members of the Presbyterian church knew their chapel had been dedicated in the fall of 1924 but did not know the exact date, Nov. 2, until they opened the time capsule. It was discovered when Lorraine Crouse, a third-generation member and former historian at the University of Utah, pointed out that time capsules were popular at the time of the church's construction. A radar scan later confirmed the presence of a trapezoidal box encased in the concrete foundation.

For Lynne Ward, a church elder, seeing the contents evoked childhood memories of walking the streets of a bustling Japantown full of fish markets, hotels, dry cleaners, restaurants and other Japanese-owned businesses. She recalled visiting a market with her mother where the merchant would give her chewy, citrus candies wrapped in edible rice paper that melted in her mouth.

Once 90 businesses strong, Salt Lake City's Japantown formed in the early 1900s when a mining and railroad boom drew thousands of Japanese immigrants to northern Utah. The downtown neighborhood changed dramatically during World War II, when many community leaders were “harassed, detained and sent to internment camps,” according to the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance.

Japantown hung on until the city expanded its massive Salt Palace Convention Center in the 1990s, wiping out most remaining businesses and scattering residents into the suburbs.

Today, all that remains is a couple of street signs, a small Japanese garden and two religious centers — one Presbyterian, one Buddhist — surrounded by sports bars, hotels, the convention center and the home arena for Utah’s professional hockey and basketball teams.

For many church members, the time capsule recalls the history they’re fighting to keep alive as urban development threatens Japantown with extinction. It also documents the resilience of a minority ethnic and faith community in a state where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church, is the largest religious group.

The single-story church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, sits in the midst of a planned sports and entertainment district that promises to bring a modern flare to a rapidly growing downtown.

Developers with the Smith Entertainment Group have vowed to be respectful of the church's needs as they build up the surrounding area. But church leaders worry the multibillion-dollar project could drive away what's left of the Japanese community's local history.

Ward said she left the recent time capsule unveiling feeling empowered to show people that the Japanese community is not only a valuable piece of the city’s past, but also its present.

“Our founding members believed that our community would still be around in 100 years to find that time capsule, and we can believe we’ll be around another hundred more," she told the AP, noting members are already brainstorming what they might leave in a time capsule of their own.

A Salt Lake City street sign leads into the city's Japantown, where the Japanese Church of Christ is one of the few remaining original buildings, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Lynne Ward, Japanese Church of Christ elder and time capsule committee member, uses a magnifying loupe to look at glitter detail on the edge of paper included in the Japanese Church of Christ's 100-year-old time capsule at the University of Utah Marriott Library Preservation Department in Salt Lake City, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

Randy Silverman, University of Utah Marriott Library head of preservation, talks about the uniqueness of a heavy metal box used for the Japanese Church of Christ's 100-year-old time capsule at the University of Utah Marriott Library Preservation Department in Salt Lake City, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

Elder Lynne Ward poses Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, at the Japanese Church of Christ in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Rev. Andrew Fleishman looks at a century-old time capsule at the Japanese Church of Christ in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Joy Hashimoto Douglass holds a Bible donated in 1924 by her father, Eddie Hashimoto, and included in the contents of the Japanese Church of Christ's 100-year-old time capsule that was recently opened at the University of Utah Marriott Library Preservation Department in Salt Lake City, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

Karen Okawa, Japanese Church of Christ member and time capsule committee member, reacts as she holds a heavy lid that was used on the Japanese Church of Christ's 100-year-old time capsule at the University of Utah Marriott Library Preservation Department in Salt Lake City, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado comes to the White House on Thursday to discuss her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.

The White House says Machado sought the face-to-face meeting with Trump without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.

Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate following her lunch with Trump, who has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.

Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.

The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.

Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)