Week 3: Education

Picture with Mary Katayama at Suzume no Gakko

Day 1:
Today we started out by asset tagging at the Akiyama Wellness Center.  We put numbered stickers on all the furniture and recorded them in a excel spreadsheet.

At 11, we walked over to the Suzume no Gakko summer program and met with Mary Katagama, who worked on staff at the school.  The Suzume no Gakko program is a three week summer program which spreads awareness of Japanese culture, Japanese-American culture, and the community in San Jose Japantown. She showed us around the small school, and explained how the staff meets year round to prepare for this summer program, and the program itself is run by volunteers and parent participation (which is required by the student's parents). The program was started 35 years ago because of the need to educate the youth about JA culture, which was absent in many families' upbringings.  The school accommodates 1st to 6th grade, and each grade has a focus, for example 1st grade focuses on rice and 5th grade on internment.  In each grade, the Nikkei heritage and culture is passed down to the youth through field trips to the tofu or monju shop, learning an odori dance for the SJ Obon festival, interviewing an internee or even cooking meals such as spam musubi.  Also, Japanese culture is passed down through the making of garden sculpture, ikebana, and learning simple Japanese phrases.  Also, a sense of community is stressed through making gifts for the seniors at Yu-Ai-Kai, taking a tour around Japantown and working in the kitchen of the monju shop, and getting to watch and play with San Jose Taiko.  In addition, the values of the JA community, such as appreciation of elders (Yu-Ai-Kai) and having a thank you gift when you meet people are stressed throughout the program.

Through talking with Mary, it was obvious how much this program tied in with our week on education.  This program was specifically created to educate the youth about their culture, the culture of Japantown, and how they fit into this community.  It was also interesting hearing that many of the parents whose kids are in the program had gone to the school many years before. 

What was even more interesting, was that Mary was one of the people who started the first Culture Night at UCLA! She explained how the Culture Night was originally created to educate UCLA of the fight for redress and reparations through a play.  It was really amazing seeing one of the people who started Culture Night, because I performed in during my freshman school year, and the idea of the show being a way to illustrate a social problem within the JA community still remained true over 25 years!

Afterwords, Alex and I ate with Sami (one of the past interns) at Sushimaru, then we made our way back to Akiyama to continue asset tagging.

We then walked over to the Issei Memorial Building to talk with Roy Hirabayashi, the newly elected president of Japantown Community Congress, and one of the founders of San Jose Taiko.  He talked about how San Jose Taiko was a way to educate the art of Taiko to kids who would otherwise not have the opportunity to.  They often go to surrounding schools to put on an assembly to educate the youth, and there is a Junior Taiko program for kids who want to get more involved.  Roy said that through taiko, he tries to pass on not only the culture and history of the drum, but also leadership and equality to future generations.  Because San Jose Taiko performs kumidaiko (group playing), working together and equality of all parts is an important part of playing, which are life lessons that can be applied to the community as well.  Roy explained his past, about how he went to Japan to train with Kodo, where he endured harsh training and was taught how important seniority was to the taiko group.  When he created San Jose Taiko, he wanted to include traditional aspects of Japanese Taiko, but make it more contemporary with musical styles from Jazz and R&B.  Also, because the culture in America is much less based on seniority (for example noone would join the group if they had to spend years serving tea and listening to the elders), he made taiko accessible to all age and skill levels.

Through talking to Roy, the passing down of the education of arts from one generation to the next became more clear.  While the culture is still preserved through the art of Taiko, many of the values and traditions are changed to fit modern day time and keep the youth interested.

 California History Center at De Anza

Day 2:

Today we met with Mae Lee and Tom Izu (one of the coordinators of our NCI program) at De Anza College.  She explained to us the history of Asian American Studies.  Coming into the interview, I had the preconception that she would explain how Asian American Studies (AAS) was a way to pass on the history of Asian cultures, however I learned so much more by talking with Mae.  She explained how the AAS explores what it means to be Asian in America, and it began in 1968 with the civil rights movement in SF state by second generation Asian American activists.  The discipline was originally created to teach students how to serve the community and solve community issues involving Asian American influence in politics.  Through studying AAS today, most students gain a sense of identity and learn why past experiences have occurred (such as arguments with parents involving grades).  Most students who major in AAS then go into teaching and public engagement by going back to serve the community.  Mae explained the distinction of AAS at the university level versus the community college level.  While AAS professors in universities are focused on researching on Asian Americans, AAS professors at community colleges are there specifically to teach students about contemporary issues, history, and literature of Asian Americans. In terms of Japanese Americans specifically, AAS focuses on internment and the reparations movement.  AAS explores beyond simply studying JA culture, but also the struggles that are experienced in America adn how it fits in with the struggles of other immigrants (such as how Heinlenville became Japantown).

After the interview, we participated in the APALI program (Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute), a course that stresses personal leadership skills in helping the community in order to give Asian Americans a voice in the community.  We got into groups and went around the Cupertino area and had white pedestrians fill out a survey on their view of Asian Americans.  It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a really interesting people! 

Picture with Mae Lee and Tom Izu

Day 3:

Alex and I went to the Issei Memorial Building to paint the front railing.  We cleaned and repainted most of the banister, which took most of the afternoon.  We then went inside and helped San Jose Taiko by making fans with their two interns.  Today was mainly to help out the Issei Memorial Building for Roy Hirabayashi and Leon Kimura, because they both helped out a lot with the NCI program!

Painted Rails