Picture with Reiko Iwanaga
Day 1:
Today we met with Lloyd LaCuesta at Kubota's for lunch with Reiko. He is a reporter and journalist for KTVU, and has been for 35 years now. He explained his background, how he knew that he wanted to be a journalist since high school, and he later became a military journalist in Korea when he was drafted. He explained how when he first came to KTVU, it was because of affirmative action, so many of his coworkers didn't help him out, and many resented him. Because of this discrimination that he faced, he stressed the importance of being unbiased while reporting, because a good journalist can report well on any story. However, he was also the president of the Asian American Journalist Association, which provides social support for Asian Americans in journalism, and also spreads awareness of Asian Americans in the media. Lloyd explained how while it is important to have Asian American issues covered in the news, it is just as important to be unbiased while delivering the news. He explained how it is important for communities to be accessible to news media if they want their story to be told. Through talking with Lloyd, it was more clear of the role Asian Americans have in reporting and journalism, how they have to portray that they are American, while still ensuring that the minority issues are still exemplified in the media.
We then helped Reiko by putting up flyers for community events in various businesses in Japantown, then worked on the JCCsj website and our blogs
Picture with Robert Handa
Day 2:
Today we met with Robert Handa at a KTVU Bureau. He explained how he knew that he wanted to be in journalism since he was in high school, and he later became a reporter and segment producer for CH2. He explains that the process for reporting is that they all meet in the morning to decide what stories to cover (Based on urgency and interest), and this is where he can try to get Japantown's stories heard. Many of the stories he has reported on are the failing of Japantown, earthquake/tsunami effect, and MCing for Spirit of Japantown. Unlike Lloyd who we met yesterday, Robert believed that it was important to be biased while picking stories, but you can't be biased while reporting. He explained also that by traveling to and reporting on different communities (such as the Muslim community) he begins to feel a personal tie to this community.
We then met with Ed Shikada, the deputy city manager of San Jose at City Hall. This was by far one of the most interesting interviews we've had, because he asked questions of us, making it a more conversational interview. Ed explained how he has interacted a lot through his work in the city, such as the corp yard project, Akiyama project, and utility/parking issues of Japantown. He also is very involved in the Japantown community in his personal life, with his kids in the Betsuin and a leader of the boy scouts. He explained how Japantown is able to maintain city funds because it presents itself as a cultural asset to the city by attracting visitors and constituents, rather than a JA asset. Ed was able to clearly illustrate how Japantown interacts with the city, and he provided both a city perspective and community member perspective.
Day 3:
Today we met with Dennis Akizuki, the assistant city editor, at the Mercury News site in San Jose. He showed us around the office area, and took us into the machine room where all the newspapers are printed and packaged. We sat down with him in his office area, and asked him a few questions about how newspaper has changed over the years. He explained that with newspaper ads no longer as relevant, the Mercury has lost a lot of funding. To keep up with the times, an online aspect of the Mercury News was created, and we met with some of the members who work on the website page. Dennis is also a one of the obon dance organizers for Japantown, and has long been a community member, so he explained to us the need to have diversity in the newsroom so the JA stories get told, as well as other ethnicities.
After meeting with Dennis, Alex and I worked on our website, and also prepared for the closing luncheon.
Day 4:
Today was our intern day, once again in San Francisco. I was given the opportunity to practice taiko with Yuta Kato, so I joined the interns around 11:30. Once in SF, we talked with Jon Osaki again about how to bring more youth involvement in the community, specifically college age. Some simple things that we took away from the discussion was: having a community organization that our respective college organizations work with, or having a mentorship program with community leaders and college students. We then met with two JACL members, who talked about hate crimes that have occurred against Asian Americans. Afterwords, we walked over to Kimochi nursing home, and met with Steve Nakajo again. He showed us around the building, then gave us a short tour of Japantown (and explained what everything used to be when he was growing up before redevelopment). One of the most interesting parts was when he brought us into this building that he used to watch samurai movies with his friends. Afterwords, all the interns prepared for closing luncheon!
We then met with Ed Shikada, the deputy city manager of San Jose at City Hall. This was by far one of the most interesting interviews we've had, because he asked questions of us, making it a more conversational interview. Ed explained how he has interacted a lot through his work in the city, such as the corp yard project, Akiyama project, and utility/parking issues of Japantown. He also is very involved in the Japantown community in his personal life, with his kids in the Betsuin and a leader of the boy scouts. He explained how Japantown is able to maintain city funds because it presents itself as a cultural asset to the city by attracting visitors and constituents, rather than a JA asset. Ed was able to clearly illustrate how Japantown interacts with the city, and he provided both a city perspective and community member perspective.
Day 3:
Today we met with Dennis Akizuki, the assistant city editor, at the Mercury News site in San Jose. He showed us around the office area, and took us into the machine room where all the newspapers are printed and packaged. We sat down with him in his office area, and asked him a few questions about how newspaper has changed over the years. He explained that with newspaper ads no longer as relevant, the Mercury has lost a lot of funding. To keep up with the times, an online aspect of the Mercury News was created, and we met with some of the members who work on the website page. Dennis is also a one of the obon dance organizers for Japantown, and has long been a community member, so he explained to us the need to have diversity in the newsroom so the JA stories get told, as well as other ethnicities.
After meeting with Dennis, Alex and I worked on our website, and also prepared for the closing luncheon.
Day 4:
Today was our intern day, once again in San Francisco. I was given the opportunity to practice taiko with Yuta Kato, so I joined the interns around 11:30. Once in SF, we talked with Jon Osaki again about how to bring more youth involvement in the community, specifically college age. Some simple things that we took away from the discussion was: having a community organization that our respective college organizations work with, or having a mentorship program with community leaders and college students. We then met with two JACL members, who talked about hate crimes that have occurred against Asian Americans. Afterwords, we walked over to Kimochi nursing home, and met with Steve Nakajo again. He showed us around the building, then gave us a short tour of Japantown (and explained what everything used to be when he was growing up before redevelopment). One of the most interesting parts was when he brought us into this building that he used to watch samurai movies with his friends. Afterwords, all the interns prepared for closing luncheon!
Picture with George Kiriyama
Day 5:
Today is my last full day on the San Jose NCI internship! We had two interviews today. Our first was with George Kirayama at Minatos Restaurant. George is a reporter at NBC on the 11 o clock news, and he grew up with his parents talking about news and he was always interested in english and history, so he knew he wanted to be a reporter early on. He explained how some of the information he receives to report on is through social media, such as facebook and twitter. He explained what happened when the earthquakes hit Japan. He facebook chatted his journalist friends who were in Japan and used these chats in a news report. Within 36 hours, he got on a plane to Japan and reported through skype to NBC. It was really interesting how useful social media sites are to his job, which I didn't hear about from previous people we had interviewed.
We then met with Tim Yamamura, a playwright, actor, and Nichi Bei Board member. He is currently completing his dissertation on how the nikkei is affected by the sea, through interactions between Japan and the US involving militarization of the sea during WWII. He started out studying acting, but realized that he wanted to be the one to write the stories rather than act out what other people wrote, so he became a playwright. He would write about JA issues, such as how Nikkei musicians couldn't get jobs after WWII, in order to spread awareness of the Asian American experience. As a historian, he explained how important it is to read journals and newspapers printed by the Issei (which are in Japanese) because history was recorded since the Japanese first arrived. He also created Japantown Underground, which is an institution for performing arts created to connect different JA communities and strengthen existing community organizations. One interesting thing that he stated was that growing up in a JA community, by doing basketball and boyscouts, the history that needs to be passed on to future generations does not, because these institutions were created to assimilate the Japanese into American culture. To conclude, he posed an interesting question: how do you gauge how successful an ethnic community is? People never get rich by helping out the community, but a strong network is created through successful collaboration within the community, which could be a solid measure of success.
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