Redress, Hayakawa and a new Japan JACL chapter

Vol. 90, No. 87, April 4, 1980. 8 pages. View this issue

The Pacific Citizen of April 4, 1980 gave much of its commentary to redress. Clifford Uyeda wrote about a visit to Dr. Min Masuda, who urged unity among those working on redress. Karl Nobuyuki reported on a Chicago community meeting with Minoru Yasui and Ron Ikejiri, and letters from Akira Kubota and Mary Tani argued over the commission approach versus direct compensation. Dwight Chuman and an unsigned poem took aim at Senator S.I. Hayakawa. The front page reported the first overseas JACL chapter, in Japan, with Barry Saiki as president pro-tem, and the White River Valley effort to restore Issei lamp posts.

Also inside: Mary I. Watanabe on filling out the 1980 Census, news of Vernon T. Yoshioka’s bid for national JACL vice president, and a look back at the wartime incarceration in the “20 Years Ago” column. Two pages remembered jazzman Tib Kamayatsu, and the community pages carried Seattle’s Nikkei queen and San Francisco’s Cherry Blossom Festival.

What’s in this issue

Community

• White River Valley Lamp Posts Historic, page 1. The Auburn, Wa. School District plans to reinstall two ornamental lamp posts originally presented by the prewar Japanese Association of Auburn, with the Auburn JACL chapter leading a fund drive to restore them. The committee is also seeking to locate and preserve other Issei historical artifacts for the White River Historical Society museum.
• Seattle Nikkei Queen Crowned, page 1. Lori Kimi Sakamoto, 20, an engineering student at the University of Washington, was crowned queen of the Greater Seattle Japanese Community at its 20th annual coronation ball on March 15. The event was sponsored by the Greater Seattle Japanese Queen Committee.
• Nikkei EPA Division Chief Named to New Seattle Post, page 1. Seattle Mayor Charles Royer has nominated James D. Kamihachi as permanent Director of the City’s Office of Policy and Evaluation. Kamihachi, a Lakeside School and Williams College graduate with a Harvard MBA, has worked for the U.S. EPA since 1974.
• Credit Union Honors Ushio for Service, page 1. Two new directors, Yas Tokita and Jane Sakashita, were elected at the National JACL Credit Union annual meeting in Salt Lake City. Shake Ushio was honored for 37 consecutive years as board president before leaving to serve as a Mormon mission president in Japan, and Ichiro Doi was honored for his years of service as Credit Union Manager.
• Nao Takasugi Seeks 2nd Term, page 1. Nao Takasugi, 57, a Ventura County JACLer and lifelong Oxnard resident, is seeking re-election to the Oxnard City Council in the April 8 race after serving as mayor pro tem. His family was interned at Gila River camp during WWII, and he now operates Asahi Market, established in 1907.
• Sansei Seeks Seat in El Cerrito, page 1. Steven Yasuaki Okano, 25, is the first Asian American to run for public office in El Cerrito, seeking one of three available city council seats in the April 8 election. A San Jose State graduate, he has worked in environmental studies and fair housing advocacy.
• Entertainers from Japan Add Color to San Francisco Festival, page 3. Hundreds of entertainers from Japan, including folk dancers from Osaka and musicians from Tokyo, will join Northern Californians for the 13th annual Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco’s Japan Center during two weekends in April. Nine candidates for festival queen honors were introduced, and four Nihonmachi businesses were reported burglarized during a six-day period.
• Chapter Pulse: Fremont, page 6. Fremont JACL is organizing a charity bowling event in May with Calif. First Bank and Sumitomo Bank sponsorship, with proceeds going to local charities. The chapter also reported winners of a recent paper-airplane flying contest held at a community potluck dinner.
• Chapter Pulse: Gardena Valley, page 6. Roy Nakano of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center spoke at the Gardena Valley JACL meeting on April 1 about Japanese Cultural Institute programs. The chapter meets monthly on the first Tuesday.
• Chapter Pulse: West Los Angeles, page 6. West Los Angeles JACL has a full spring calendar including a Las Vegas weekend trip, a general membership meeting, an Auxiliary wine-tasting benefit, and a scholarship awards dinner featuring actor George Takei. Films including ‘Uprooted’ and clips from ‘Hito Hata’ will be screened at an upcoming meeting.
• 4 More Branches Due Cal. 1st Bank, page 6. California First Bank received permission to open new branches at La Jolla, Oceanside, Encino and Citrus Heights. The bank currently has 106 offices throughout the state and four overseas facilities.
• San Jose Set for Nikkei Matsuri, page 7. A Japanese American festival called ‘Nikkei Matsuri’ will be held Sunday, April 20, in San Jose’s Japantown at Fifth and Jackson Streets. The event runs from 9:30 a.m.

National

• Gov. Brown Appoints 3 Nikkei to S. Cal. Superior Court Bench, page 1. California Governor Brown appointed three Japanese Americans to superior court positions, including Edward Y. Kakita of LaCanada and Ben T. Kayashima of Pomona to the San Bernardino superior court. The appointments bring the total number of Nikkei superior court judges in the area to six.
• Japan JACL Picks Officers, page 1. Barry Saiki was voted president pro-tem of the new Japan JACL chapter, the first overseas unit of the organization, with functions scheduled to begin in May. There were 33 paid-up members at the organizational meeting held in Tokyo on March 18.
• Refugee Bloom in D.C. Wilting, page 1. An estimated 18,000 Vietnamese refugees have settled in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, making it the third largest concentration in the country, but anti-Asian attitudes and racist backlash have become increasingly apparent. Incidents include racial insults, housing discrimination, vandalism of Indochinese stores, and growing competition for low-cost housing between refugees and longtime residents.

Arts & Entertainment

• Tib Kamayatsu: Pioneer Jazzman, page 2. Tadashi ‘Tib’ Kamayatsu, a Los Angeles-born Nisei jazzman who played a major role in Japan’s postwar jazz boom, died of esophageal cancer at age 68. Funeral services were held in Tokyo, with many of his jazz students and colleagues from his storied career paying tribute.
• ‘Mondai wa Akira’ Due in Berkeley, page 3. Center Players of San Francisco will stage Hiroshi Kashiwagi’s play ‘Akira wa Mondai’ on April 12 at North Berkeley Senior Center as a benefit for the Berkeley Nikkei Center. The program also includes two Kashiwagi one-act plays addressing Issei family life and wartime camp loyalty conflicts.
• Kamayatsu Continued: Funeral Details and Film Role, page 5. Additional details on Tib Kamayatsu’s funeral describe his cremation urn displayed with symbolic items including whisky, a pipe, and his white guitar. The article recalls Kamayatsu’s brief film appearance in ‘Nobiyuku Nisei’ and his roots in the 1930s Los Angeles Nisei jazz band scene.

JACL

• Hayashi Law Scholarship Awards Increased to $700, page 3. Applications for the JACL Thomas T. Hayashi Law Scholarship are now being accepted, with a single $700 scholarship to be awarded annually for three years, totaling $2,100 per recipient. Mike Masaoka of the Eastern District Council announced the changes, with applications due by July 15, 1980.
• Down to Earth: National Director Reports on Chapter Visits and Redress Campaign, by Karl Nobuyuki, page 6. National JACL Director Karl Nobuyuki recounts visits to chapter installations in San Francisco and Stockton, and describes a Chicago community meeting on redress legislation featuring Minoru Yasui and Ron Ikejiri. The column emphasizes the importance of building broad community support for the JACL redress campaign and summarizes the status of commission bills S 1647 and HR 4499.
• San Diegan Seeks JACL Nat’l Post, page 6. Vernon T. Yoshioka of San Diego is the first declared candidate for National JACL vice president in the upcoming 1980 convention race. A Yonsei aerospace engineer and longtime chapter leader, he currently serves on the California State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Commentary

• President’s Corner: Dr. Min Masuda, by Clifford Uyeda, page 4. JACL National President Clifford Uyeda reflects on a visit to Dr. Min Masuda, a respected professor of psychiatry who was gravely ill, recalling their years of collaboration on JACL causes including redress. Masuda urged unity among those working on redress despite differences in strategy.
• Guest Editorial: Make Your Count, Count! and Correctly, by Mary I. Watanabe, page 4. A JACL Census coordinator urges Japanese Americans to accurately identify their ethnicity as ‘Japanese’ on the 1980 Census form rather than as ‘American,’ emphasizing that Census data determines political representation and government funding. The column explains census questions regarding race and ancestry for Asian and Pacific Islander populations.
• Ode to a Junior Senator, page 4. A satirical poem mocks Senator S.I. Hayakawa for his comments trivializing the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and his controversial remarks about Iranian hostages. The poem highlights the hypocrisy of his positions on minority rights and government power.
• 20 Years Ago in the Pacific Citizen, page 4. A historical roundup of news items from April 1945 covering anti-Japanese American discrimination and violence on the West Coast during the WWII incarceration period. Items include eviction disputes, racist signage, night-rider attacks, and government responses to anti-evacuee sentiment.
• Corner for Guests: ‘Capt. S.I. Queeg’, by Dwight Chuman, page 4. Dwight Chuman describes Senator S.I. Hayakawa’s embarrassing and rambling performance at a JACL testimonial dinner, comparing him to Captain Queeg from ‘The Caine Mutiny.’ The column suggests Hayakawa’s grasp on the redress issue and his public speaking abilities have severely deteriorated.
• A Variety of Views on Redress, by Akira Kubota, page 4. A letter writer from Windsor, Ontario argues for combining the commission approach and reparation approach to redress into a unified strategy, warning that internal division among Japanese Americans could undermine the movement. He suggests JACL should be prepared to pivot toward direct reparations legislation if political conditions shift.
• Letter: Questioning JACL’s Redress Committee Course, by Mary Tani, page 4. A letter writer from Los Angeles criticizes the JACL redress committee for supporting the commission approach favored by Senator Hayakawa rather than Congressman Lowry’s direct compensation bill, HR 5977. She questions whether ethnic loyalty is influencing JACL’s strategic choices on redress.
• PC Renewals, by Shizue Nakao, page 4. A reader from San Francisco writes a brief note asking that her subscription not be cut off, stating that she did renew her membership. This is a short letter to the editor regarding subscription matters.
• Frying Pan: ‘Dry – Wet’: Imaginative Ingrish Words, page 5. The column explores ‘Ingrish,’ creative Japanese adaptations of English words, inspired by a scholarly article sent by reader Warren Tsuneishi. Examples include compound words like ‘doggu pan’ (hot dog bun) and ‘ningen dokku’ (human dock, meaning a physical exam), illustrating Japanese linguistic creativity with borrowed English terms.
• East Wind: Wisdom of the Ages, by Bill Marutani, page 5. Columnist Bill Marutani reflects on aging, noting an updated photo accompanying his column after four years, and muses on how time changes physical appearance and vitality. He praises the youthful vigor of Nisei women and contrasts American youth-worship culture with the Japanese reverence for age and wisdom.

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