writing and editing
"CCLPEP Projects Focus on Preservation of Japantown History"
Published in the Nichi Bei Times, June 15, 2006.
While the Japantown updates showed that there are no easy answers, "each community has begun to be proactive," pointed out moderator Alan Nishi.
The 2004-2005 funding cycle of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) provided $500,000 for projects to research and document California's Japantowns. Representatives of eight of these projects detailed the variety of ways in which their projects were being proactive.
- Birth of a Community; sponsored by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC)
The symposium itself was one part of the wide-ranging project, which seeks to "look at San Francisco as the birthplace of the Japanese American community," said project coordinator Naomi Funahashi. Other components include the distribution of 800 copies of "Generations: A Japanese American Community Portrait" to California public libraries and San Francisco schools; californiajapantowns.org, featuring interactive virtual tours of the three Japantowns; and a musical and theatrical performance led by Soji Kashiwagi of the Grateful Crane Ensemble.
After taking "a moment to freak out" about the challenge of telling "one hundred years of Japantown history in less than two hours," Kashiwagi decided to tell the story of Japantown through three generations and 100 years of a manju business.
The protagonist is the fictional Sansei Alan Iwata, owner of Sakura-do manju-ya, which is closing after 99 years. For Alan and his wife, manju-making has become too much to handle. But the spirit of Alan's Issei grandfather, the founder of Sakura-do, takes Alan back to Nihonmachi, 1928. Through the journey, Alan relives his family's history — his feisty Issei grandmother, who speaks only Japanese, except when she swears in English; the Great Depression; his grandfather making manju in camp, redevelopment and resettlement of the 1950s and '60s, the Asian American Movement and the eventual fight for redress. After learning his story and finding his roots, Alan is inspired to take the family business to its 100th anniversary.
"And in the end, Alan's journey is our journey, his story is our story," said Kashiwagi. "And the message is, 'Don't let J-Town die because for a hundred years, Nihonmachi has been our place to be.'"
- The San Jose Japantown Historic Context and Intensive Survey; sponsored by the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose (JCCsj)
The two-phase project began with a City of San Jose-funded survey of 17 potentially significant blocks, resulting in the consideration of 67 specific properties with the potential to be historically designated, said Dr. Joe Yasutake, outgoing president of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.
Phase two, continued Yasutake, funded by the CCLPEP, is a more intensive study that will also explore areas as Traditional Cultural Properties, to see what historical designations could possibly be made.
"The importance of a particular site is not just what's physically there," reminded Yasutake, "but what happened there."
The project is expected to be completed by September of this year.
- The Matsui Project; sponsored by California State University, Sacramento
Although the original proposal planned to use the late Congressman Robert Matsui's life as a metaphor for Japantown, it has instead evolved into a Website that will document Matsui's role in redress and reparations.
Although it is "nothing fancy," the project seeks to have a comprehensive listing of speech texts, audio and video clips, photographs, and links to related sites, informed project team member Wayne Maeda.
- Bronzeville in LA's Japantown
During the World War II internment, African Americans moved into the vacated Little Tokyo properties, resulting in communities called "Bronzevilles." The Website bronzeville-la.com will document this time period.
However, "even within the African American community, the history is not known very well," project director Martha Nakagawa informed, saying that the easiest part was finding Nikkei who remember returning from camp to find African Americans living in Little Tokyo. Even the California African American Museum "had nothing on Bronzeville, they didn't even have a picture," said Nakagawa.
While overall the transition from Bronzeville back to Little Tokyo was "pretty smooth," said Nakagawa, several lawsuits existed and a meeting to ease racial tensions between the Japanese American and African American communities occurred.
- J-Town/Bronzeville Suite
- Japanese American Historical Mapping Project; sponsored by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council
The project focuses on the relocations from the 1900s to the 1950s of pre-World War II Japanese American farming communities in the Palos Verdes Peninsula area of Los Angeles County. Information collected from oral histories and geographical data will be documented on a Website, said project coordinator Dale Ann Sato. In contrast to traditional historical documenting, mapping the migrations placed the main focus on places, not events, noted Sato.
- Japantowns of Placer County; sponsored by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council
"When you're driving on the freeway, you're actually driving over Newcastle J-Town," said project director David Unruhe, who also pointed out that there was also once a Japantown in the city of Roseville. Unruhe's project will research and document the four Placer County Japantowns — Penryn, Auburn, Newcastle and Loomis — resulting in the production of a book and Website about the Japanese American history of the area.
- Preserving California's Japantowns; sponsored by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council
This project will document a range of 43 Japantown communities that existed prior to World War II, said Gail Dubrow, who along with Donna Graves co-directs the project. It is a timely matter, they reminded attendees.
"These are the final years that we can still gather and record stories associated with pre-war Japanese American heritage," said Dubrow. "Gathering Nisei memories and connecting them to the full range of California's Japantowns is an urgent task and…important to accomplish now, while Nisei are still available to describe the Nihonmachi of their childhood that changed dramatically after the war."
Musician/composer Dave Iwataki's "J-Town Bronzeville Suite" was created in three movements, representing Little Tokyo's history from the late 1930s to 1948.
Shigin, koto and shakuhachi in the first movement symbolize the Issei and Nisei who built the pre-war Little Tokyo. The camp years when Little Tokyo became Bronzeville, resulting in the opening of many jazz clubs, is therefore symbolized by a jazz quartet. The third movement represents the return of the Japanese Americans to Bronzeville "which definitely created some friction," said Iwataki.
"It's not real clear to me how the Bronzeville age ended but since it was my project, I chose to have it end in harmony," he concluded, calling the project a success. "People came up to me after the show in tears — black people, Latinos, Japanese Americans…I think they were really moved."