Week 6: Governance & Advocacy

Our first interview for this week was over at City Hall with Councilmember Sam Liccardo. Sam is on council for District 3, the part of San Jose that includes Japantown. I was really impressed on how much that Sam knew about Japantown and the culture. Since coming into office, the two things that he had been working on were public improvements and redevelopments to increase foot traffic, as well as the Corp. yard project which is now a temporary parking lot. Another thing that is of concern is the challenge of preservation and being able to sustain Japantown, something that has remained prevalent throughout these past 6 weeks. In the long term, Sam believes strongly that we need the housing density in order to sustain the retail shops, and hopefully when the economy gets better we will be able to do something about it with the Corp. yard. Also, the marketing and signage could be improved to make outsiders more aware that there is a Japantown here in San Jose. Lastly, we need to new concepts to the generational changes that are occurring. We find that there is a conflict with trying to preserve the historical aspects as well as keep up with the changing wants and needs of the new generation. In all, I enjoyed meeting with Sam, he’s a very entertaining guy and hopefully we’ll get the chance to work with him again.

On Monday night we attended the monthly API Justice Coalition meeting where we had 3 major presentations. The first was on a new film produced by Andrew Byrnes called The Power of Two. This documentary is about half-Japanese twin sisters who have battled Cystic Fibrosis all their lives. It focuses on the miracle of their double lung transplants and their journey growing up. It seems especially touching for producer Byrnes whose wife is Isabel, one of the sisters. The next presentation was on the Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Campaign which works to help strengthen the immigrant community who have become citizens by helping them gain access to voter guides and getting them more active in the political sphere. The last presentation was by Glen Wong who is working for the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) with the Education Equality UC Admissions Policy Project. The new freshman UC admissions policy starting in 2012 will eliminate the SAT II Subject Tests for students. Therefore, UC admissions will rely on the SAT reasoning test. After a series of three simulations, they have found that by removing the subject tests results in an overall reduction in guaranteed admissions, especially for ethnic minorities. In particular Asian American admissions would have dropped 12%. The API coalition took a stand against the elimination and will be working to do what they can to help rescind this new freshman policy. This is one issue that is relevant to our generation because without the SAT II subject tests, a lot of us probably wouldn’t have gotten into the schools we are at now.

On Tuesday we went over to AACI and had the chance to interview Anne Im, Director of Community Programs and Advocacy. Although she first started out in public policy, she now works with advocacy efforts and oversees the community programs and direct services at AACI. She is also very active in the API Justice Coalition, which just celebrated its fourth year in June. The coalition began with AACI, the Asian Pacific Bar Association, the Asian Law Alliance, and JACL and has now grown to 26 member organizations. Basically, what the Asian Pacific Islander Justice Coalition does is provide a rapid response network and a venue for outside groups to present to. They hope to also be able to work with other ethnic groups such as Latino and Black in the future. Working with both APIJC and AACI, Anne gets the chance to see both the immediate and wide scale needs of the community.

Tuesday night we also had our monthly JCCSJ Board of Directors meeting. San Jose Japantown’s Community Congress is full of character and entertaining individuals which makes these meetings fun. We presented what we had so far on our available space and community calendar projects. Everyone seemed really excited about finally having a calendar together so hopefully it will be a success!!

Week 5: Business & Economic Development

For our topic of business, we got to spend the week working with Kathy Sakamoto, the Executive Director of the Japanese Business Association and owner of Sak n’ Sak. Working with Kathy we had the opportunity to find out what a busy job she has dealing with all the different aspects of the business world here in Japantown. One of the things we learned about from Kathy was what a Business Improvement District, or BID is. BIDs work with the beautification, safety, marketing, as a government liaison, with community support and coordination. We also had our daily workout everyday by helping Kathy clean up her office by moving filing cabinets, bookshelves, and organization. It was really interesting to see all the important documents that she had and the stories that go along with the various projects and events that she has worked on. Thank you Kathy for treating us to lunch this whole week!!!

In addition to working with Kathy we also had the chance to interview Helen Hayashi who is part of the San Jose Downtown Association and the membership outreach coordinator. Helen is very involved in the community including being a founding member of the JCCSJ, empowering woman of the YWCA, and a city council member for the Evergreen Valley district. She was also a part of the 1978 campaign for Norman Mineta. One of thing we talked about with Helen was “How do we define what Japanese American is?” The issue arose when they were discussing the implementation of a gateway or traditional Japanese “tori” on Taylor Street here in San Jose Japantown. They ended up deciding against that idea because San Jose’s Japantown is a Japanese American place not traditionally Japanese. Instead we have the plum blossom icon that represents J-town here. It can be found on the banners that line the streets throughout Japantown, giving our community more of a JA feel.

We also met with Arlene Damron who owns the Nichi Bei Bussan, a retail business that has remained in her family for over 100 years!!! It started with her Grandpa Tatsuno in 1902 who owned a shop in San Francisco. It was there where the immigrants would come in dressed in their kimonos and leave wearing western clothes. In 1948 they opened in San Jose’s Japantown and started as NB department store, standing for “name brands.” They specialized in short sizes for all of us Japanese Americans. Today it has transformed to vintage sales on consignment, traditional Japanese clothing and accessories, home décor, fabrics, martial arts equipment, books, and various Japanese American goods.With the ups and downs of the economy Arlene tells us that it is hard at times. Being a family business she feels that the future of Japantown will be with blended families, hers being multiracial itself. In order to sustain it, we must respond to what the customers want and adapt on that, while remaining a unique place to visit and shop.

On Thursday we had another intern day up in San Francisco. We met with Bob Hamaguchi of the Japantown Task Force and a major head in the Better Neighborhoods plan. We helped him get some idea of the youths’ perspective in this project as he asked us questions on his survey, which we discussed as a group. We also had a tour of San Francisco Japantown led by our very own NJAHS interns Stephen and Devin. One of really interesting spot that we got to see was the building that still had the spray painted words “Japs Keep Out.”

They say that the homeowners didn’t know that it was there when the first bought the house. Although the writing is faint, it still reminds us of the hatred and racism that Japanese Americans faced during the war.

We also stopped by at New People, a retro looking new café, cinema, shop, and art gallery.

Maybe this could be one of the new hangout places that we, as future leaders of the JA community wanted to put in for those of our generation…

Lastly for our intern day we had a workshop with Aya about communication and teamwork. We used a lego building activity that forced us to work together and efficiently to get the job done. We ended the day with a practice run of the Yaki Onigiri that we are making for the street fair next month and some good ole intern bonding over at Sundance Kitchen.

Our third interview this week was with Heidi Shigematsu of Famers’ Insurance Group. She lives and works here in Jtown and has the cutest little son ever. Living in Japantown she finds that there are many connections within the residential neighborhood, however her customer base comes from everywhere. Heidi emphasized the sense of community she finds while both living and working in Japantown, especially for her son Trenton who will be able to experience growing up in this community setting. As well as being a business owner, Heidi is very involved in the Kiwanis Club, Christmas in the Park, Japanese American Chamber of Commerce, and a Farmers Market Volunteer. One word of advice that she gave for future business owners is to gather customers through networking, which will help to grow your business. Networking has definitely been one of the major skills that all of us interns have been working on this summer. After visiting Heidi we stopped off at Sak n’ Sak, the tote bag business that Kathy runs with Lydia Uchida-Sakai, Yosh’s daughter. At Sak n’ Sak they recycle the old Jtown banners and make them into bags, purses, clutches, etc. They have even made their first appearance at the San Jose Mineta Airport. We talked to Lydia a little bit about the business as well as what it is like to be Yosh Uchida’s daughter.

For me this subject this week was intriguing, being a business major, I had the chance to learn firsthand what it is like to run a business in the Nikkei Community. I have found that although many of the businesses here in San Jose Jtown are family operated, we are getting to the generation where maybe there is no one willing to take on the family business. In order to sustain this feel of community based and family oriented Japantown I think that these businesses are vital to keep around. They may have to adapt to the changing outside community and people but I believe we should strive to keep this feeling of a family run town and character.

Week 4: Arts, Culture, & Spirituality Cont.

On Thursday Sami and I drove up to the city for our second intern day. It’s always fun to be together spend the day working with all the other Norcal interns. First we sat down with Jon Osaki, Executive Director of the Japanese Community Youth Council, or JCYC. He showed us videos of the group and how it has grown and changed over the past four decades. JCYC is actually celebrating its 40^th anniversary, as it is the second oldest Japanese American based organization following JACL. What surprised me the most about the JCYC was how many different programs that it works with and how it has grown to encompass many other multicultural backgrounds and diverse groups of people. It was also amazing to see that this group was formed 40 years ago by youth just like us who wanted a place to hang out with other JA’s and has now expanded to such a successful and powerful organization. We also discussed a lot about the future of the JA community and what it is going to take to keep the young people involved with it. It hit me that it is us interns and our leadership that really is going to have to be the foundation for the future. It seems like we have a lot of work cut out ahead of us if we’re going to do so!!! After speaking with Mr. Osaki, we had a workshop with Aya back at the JCCCNC. Our job was to go around in pairs to the different malls among San Francisco Japantown and speak with the merchants about how to improve Japantown and the surrounding areas, along with the Better Neighborhoods Plan. What we found was that most of the businesses are hurting for customers, especially with the high rent and competition between restaurants. Some favored reconstruction and others thought that it would just skyrocket prices even higher.

In all, most wanted to find a way to bring about more business and foot traffic but didn’t know how. Lucky me I was partnered with Casey, who got sucked into eating a full meal at one of the restaurants where we interviewed the owner. So unfortunately, we didn’t win the prize for talking to the most businesses but it was a good experience as a way to take direct action in the community. We concluded our intern day with discussions and planning for our closing retreat and food booth for the Nihonmachi Street Fair. It was a long day in San Francisco, but definitely worth the commute.

For Friday we focused on more of the spirituality aspect by meeting with Reverend Keith Inouye of Wesley United Methodist Church. Being raised Buddhist; I wasn’t too familiar with the religion. Rev. Inouye explained to us about the origins of this offshoot of Christianity with founder John Wesley who was really concerned with more of the social issues like education and poverty. Him and his followers were named “Methodists,” a derogatory term at the time, for being so methodical in their work and I guess this name just stuck as they began to refer to themselves at Methodists. Racism was probably the biggest factor in bringing the JAs together to this historical Japanese American church over 100 years ago, and today they attract members through other ways. Due to the growing number of intermarriages about half of the youth are biracial and they get many others from outside the community as well, expanding in the diversity of their membership. One interesting thing about Wesley United is that they have Japanese language services and their very own Japanese language minister, one of the only three left. They also keep the youth involved with programs such as their vacation bible school, which Rev. Keith was preparing for next week.

We then went to San Jose Buddhist Temple Betsuin and sat in on the Lotus Preschool service that Rinban Ken Fujimoto performs for them every morning. It was so cute seeing all the preschool students shout “good morning Sensei!!!” and listen to them recite along with the chanting and sing “Buddha Loves You.” This was a familiar scene for me and it was a nice refresher to hear Rinban Fujimoto share his thoughts on Buddhism. One thing that caught my attention was how much of an influence western thoughts and ideas have had on the Buddhist Temple. Services came to be held on Sundays because all the other religions held theirs on that day. The idea of pews originated from the western religions and the title of “temple” came to be known as “Buddhist Church” instead. However it was different than many other churches because it served more of social center for Japanese Americans rather than just a place of worship. It also has become a sort of community and I still have that feeling of my home temple nowadays. As Buddhism has come from Japan it has transformed and adjusted to the different American ideals. Still today the values within the Buddhist temple are adjusted as well, whether through chanting styles or etiquette. Rev. Fujimoto spoke on change and although he believes in keeping many of the Buddhist traditions the same, he feels that augmentation and change can be good, as long as you know what you are changing and why it is necessary. I believe that this idea is very important, especially when people talk about the future of the youth in Japantown organizations. In order to sustain our culture, we must also be open to change some of the traditional ways of how things used to be, which might actually help to preserve it and get the younger generations involved.

Lastly for our week on arts, culture, and spirituality we met Dr. Jerry Hiura for lunch at Kubota restaurant. Thank you again for treating us Reiko!!!! Dr. Hiura is one of the founders of the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene, CATS, which started 15 years ago. He is also a member of the California Arts Council and involved in the J-town scene having his dental practice right on Taylor Street.

Our question for this week was what role does the arts and spirituality play in our community? I believe that it is really important that we have these places available in Japantown because otherwise the only form of culture that is shared with the community is Japanese food. It is really great that we have places like Ken Matsumoto's Art Gallery, Kika’s Ikebana Arts, the San Jose Buddhist Temple Betsuin, and the Wesley United Method Church. I feel like it gives Japantown a greater sense of culture and community that unites us and that we can share with others.

Week 4: Arts, Culture, & Spirituality

We began another busy week focusing on the arts and culture with an interview with Roy Hirabayashi, co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko. I grew up playing taiko for fun and as more of a leisure activity at the Mountain Buddhist Temple so it was very interesting to see how the San Jose group had formed and has become such a strong and powerful group. It was the 3^rd American taiko group to form in 1973 after groups had been created in San Francisco by Seiichi Tanaka and at the Senshin Temple in LA by Reverend Mas Kodani. Reverend Abiko, was actually at San Jose Betsuin at the time and wanted to start something like Rev. Kodani had done in LA. Roy was studying over at San Jose State and also was pretty active in the community. Although he had never played taiko before he thought that it would be a good way to organize the youth in the community and share this culture as well. Together with the YBA, San Jose State students, and other community members, they were able to start it up. Today San Jose Taiko has grown and expanded to provide for youth programs, workshops, and even goes on tours. They have a collective leadership style to create their songs but were criticized for their creativity by traditionalists. Because they used more of a Japanese American style and used wine barrels to make drums, it was very different then the traditional Japanese style of taiko. However, although they have Americanized this art quite a bit, they do have a concern of taiko groups starting without a basis of the origin and understanding of the roots. Therefore, Roy says that San Jose Taiko makes sure to talk about taiko and show the community a little about their culture at every performance. One of the main barriers they face over the years is the generational challenge, and because it is such a collectively based effort, having people step up for leadership positions. Another new big project is their planned purchase of Okida Hall. Roy says that they would like to really keep their ties with the JA community and being able to own the building, which was once a theater and performance venue, will be a great way to try and bring back that historical and communal significance. San Jose Taiko continues to remain a big part of the arts and cultural aspect of the community with its growing popularity as a “high-level music performing ensemble.”

On Tuesday we went over Ikebana Arts, located at the new Miraido Village over on 6^th street to meet with Kika Shibata. Not only is she a successful businesswoman, but a renowned Sogetsu instructor. Having been teaching in the United States for 44 years, this will be her 11^th year here in San Jose’s Japantown after opening Ikebana arts. She told us how this tradition is passed down from generation to generation and how she first had learned from her mother. Although this art form had originated in Japan, living in American Mrs. Shibata says that she may have a little bit of a different way to express her free style ideas seeing and experiencing it in a different cultural setting.

Next Reiko treated us to lunch with Yosh Uchida, whom they call the “Godfather of Japantown.” Mr. Uchida has done so much for the community and is also very well known, being the first Asian faculty member hired at San Jose State University and for his building of the new Miraido apartment complex. Another major accomplishment is being an Olympic Judo Coach and his work to successfully bring Judo to the Olympics in the first place. He also worked with American Airlines to bring the first flight to Japan and his face can be found in the Hall the Fame at the HP Pavilion. During lunch Yosh had so many interesting stories to tell us about growing up, the wartime, resettlement, and the hardships that he faced while working in the medical field. We also found out that he loves In-N-Out burger. I wish we had a little more time to just sit down and talk with him because it seems like he has done so much and is still looking good!!

After lunch we drove over to the Mexican Heritage Plaza and met with Elisa Echeverria, the transition manager at the plaza. She showed us their beautiful facility and theater that they rent out to the public but are really trying to create an arts and cultural school for children. Their vision is to have a place for kids to go after school that will be open to the community so the youth can have a place to further their learning in the arts and cultural fields. They will be housing some classes from the Alum Rock school district while their campus goes under construction in the meantime and hopefully they will be able to open up their center shortly after that. Seeing the Mexican Heritage Plaza, which is also owned by the city, can give us an idea of what may possibly be able to be created over on the 6^th street lot here in Japantown. A place where we can get the youth more involved as well as fostering the Japanese arts and culture could be a good idea to look at, especially as we are trying to preserve the important ideals of San Jose’s J-town.

Wednesday we went over to the Art Object Gallery and talked with Ken Matsumoto, both artist and owner of the gallery. Mr. Matsumoto was first introduced to the art world attending Catholic School as a child. He said that it gave him a foundation where he first became interested in painting and soon after found his true calling in sculpture. In 1996 he opened the studio in J-town because of the great opportunity of location. In 2000 he opened the gallery, which added another aspect to his workplace. One of the challenges to having both a studio and gallery is that running the gallery takes time away from the “magic” or inspiration that could be coming to him while in the studio. He likes being able to touch a person’s life with his artwork and it is the little things that are significant because they take you back to certain memories like a time machine.

Then we went over to Notre Dame High School where Hector Armienta runs his Opera Cultura Summer Conservatory Program. There he directs middle school aged students in putting on a musical at the end of the 2-week camp. What is interesting about his program is that he tries to get kids from all different backgrounds to come together. About half the students are on full scholarships while the others pay the tuition. As a NEA grant recipient I feel that Hector has done an amazing job get these kids together and forming such a great program. We had the chance to sit in and watch part of their rehearsal and they sounded so good after only 6 days of rehearsing!!

Although she has been leading us around all week, we finally had a chance to sit down and talk to Reiko about her own specialty of Odori. Although it is a traditional dance form that has been sustained through camp life, she sees a decline in interest in today’s community. However, Bon Odori still remains a popular hit at all of the Obon festivals—Reiko being the head instructor here for San Jose. She likes that the Bon Odori features simple steps so that everyone can join in. We all had the chance to participate in this at the Obon festival last weekend.

Midsession Retreat –San Jose

The midsession retreat was a busy, fun filled weekend that we got to spend with the other interns from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

FRIDAY:

• We picked up the Socal interns from the airport and enjoyed breakfast at YAK
• Jimi Yamaichi gave the group a little history and walking tour of Japantown. We were also joined by my good friend Trisha, Jimi’s grand-daughter. The San Jose Japantown history was a little bit of a review for Sami and me, but the other interns seemed to learn a lot from Mr. Yamaichi.
• When we finished the tour Tamon gave us a quick workshop on development and fundraising. It was very useful information that will probably come in handy with future projects and trying to retain and form successful donor relations.
• Lunch was served here at Yu-Ai Kai where we at with the seniors and had a chance to talk with them. I think the meal was a little too healthy for most of the interns but it was nice to have a chance to talk and hear their stories.
• After lunch, John Abe from Union Bank came and talked to us about financial planning. He came armed with 3 huge packets of information for students on how to start saving and building up credit for the future. This was extremely relevant because we got the first half of our scholarship money this weekend!!
• Next we did a branding activity where we had to come up with a 30 second Elevator Statement on NCI. An elevator statement would be something that you would say about your organization if you were in an elevator with someone who asked about what the organization does. I learned that branding is a useful skill to have when trying to promote a business or organization so I definitely learned a lot from this activity.
• Following this, Mickie led us in a communication styles workshop where we all evaluated our personality types and categorized ourselves in either the Analytical, Amiable, Driver, or Expressive groups. We then had to perform a skit in our groups acting out the opposite personality type. I ended up being a Driver and after reading the description I found that it was pretty true. This workshop was both entertaining and eye-opening because now I am aware of certain “driver” characteristics I hold and can be more open to other communication and work styles.
• The workshop portion of the day was concluded with a game of Cranium, --JA style. Mickie changed all the questions and answers so they had to do with Japanese American culture, people, places, and traditions. It was definitely a fun way to end the day.
• Lastly on Friday night we attended the Collegiate Taiko party potluck for dinner. It was held at the San Jose Taiko Dojo and all the collegiate taiko groups that were performing at Obon gathered for a mixer. There was sooo much good food and I got to see some familiar faces whom I used to play with at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple taiko group back home. San Jose Taiko also taught us all the kakegoe and dance steps for the song Ejainaika which they were performing at the Obon the next day. I learned that Ekainaika translates to “isn’t it good,” such as referring to life. Eijainaika!!
• After the taiko mixer, we went back to the hotel and ended the night by relaxing with some good old NCI bonding time :)

SATURDAY:

• Saturday morning we went back to YAK for the last workshop of the midsession retreat. We were divided into 3 groups and told to create our own “Topia” Japantown. Each group had their own version of what we wanted our perfect Japantown to be like. They all encompassed what we like about the different J-towns now and other things that we would like to see if they had the opportunity to grow. One of the main things that we wanted to implement is something for the younger college-age generation. An Obon Club was an idea that we thought of as a bar/nightclub where people can rock out and dance to taiko and odori music. It would be like a single place where our generation can come together and hang out, possibly bringing a little bit of nightlife to the sleepy feel of the J-towns. From this final workshop I realized that it really is our group of NCI interns who will be the future leaders of the Japanese American communities and if we would like to see changes then it is up to us to make these transformations.

In all I’d have to say that this was a great weekend. A majority of the interns decided to stay an extra night in San Jose for the Obon so we had a lot of fun spending time together. Some of us went to the Great Mall to get in a couple good hours of outlet shopping in and we spend the rest of the night enjoying the Obon festival, a first time experience for many of the interns. It was nice to see everyone again at the midsession retreat, and I can’t believe we are already up to week 4 of the NCI internship, halfway through!!

Week 3: Education

For our topic of education we had a nice short week due to the 4^th of July holiday and our midsession retreat on Friday. First we met with Professor Stephen Fugita, a retired Asian American and Ethnic Studies professor at Santa Clara University. Born in Chicago, Professor Fugita didn’t really have the same experience as someone growing up involved in San Jose Japantown. However, as a teacher here in the Silicon Valley he did come to face some of the same issues that many of us see in the educational atmosphere. We talked about how in most history textbooks there is very limited material on Asian American history. This may be due to the fact that Japanese Americans have a collectivist culture and strong community where they tend to be group-oriented trying to assimilate into the larger American culture. However, I feel that as a student we are missing out on learning about this subject and nowadays this topic has been given more academic credibility. At Santa Clara University there is a very small Asian student population, however Professor Fugita found diversity in many of his classes. One of the things that he would like to see is a better integration of Ethnic Studies and Asian American classes into the mainstream courses at the collegiate level. I believe that this has been improved upon because there are certain requirements such as to take a cultural diversity course at many colleges. Hopefully the subjects of Ethnic Studies and Asian American History will continue to grow in interest so students of all backgrounds can become education on different aspects of culture.

The second person we met with this week was Yuri Oda, the board president of Suzume no Gakko. Suzume is a 3 week long, half-day summer camp created so that elementary school-aged children can learn about the culture of Japan. Founded by three mothers 34 years ago, they used arts and crafts to teach the kids in an attempt to keep the Japanese culture alive. The curriculum focuses on more of the Japanese, rather than Japanese American culture, with topics ranging from internment to how rice is grown. Suzume no Gakko also remains active in the community by helping out with the Nikkei Matsuri and Spirit of Japantown festivals, as well as putting on a performance for the seniors at Yu-Ai Kai. One of the major barriers that the Suzume faces however is the popularity of the program without the available space and resources to provide for that many students. The board of directors are all volunteers so to ensure that her children get a spot Yuri felt that she should volunteer to be on the board. The program is able to somewhat adapt to the growing amount of students by having three double classes this year. However, Yuri tells us that every year there is always a waitlist and some families get turned away. I think that it is a good sign that programs such as these are so popular and it is a great way to teach the younger generations about the Japanese culture. Other programs such as Medaka no Gakko in Palo Alto and Nakayoshi Gakko in Mountain View have been created as a result of the growing popularity. I actually had the opportunity to attend Nakayoshi as a child and then also remain involved in their Sempai program, as well as teach the Undokai class last summer. Programs like these are important because from Nakayoshi I not only had fun but it was also my only source of education about Japanese culture. This is a prime example of how important it is to educate the youth so that they can continue to remain involved in the community as they grow older.

Week 2: Health and Human Services, Days 3 & 4

On Wednesday we met with Curt Fukuda who told us a little about his experience with interviewing as he is completing his book about the history of Japantown. He gave us a little background of what he learned through his research and through talking to the older generations. What stuck out to me is how he described what makes San Jose Japantown unique from Los Angeles and San Francisco, a topic that ties in more to last week’s. Curt expressed how San Jose’s Japantown “has an incredibly rich history that you won’t get from looking at it,” and how this living, family-operated neighborhood is what has been preserving this community and keeping it strong.

Next we had the chance to talk to Richard Konda the executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, an individual who is deeply involved in the community. At the ALA, they work with direct legal services, domestic violence, housing, community education, and police education to name a few. When asked about what social service issues are facing the Nikkei in our community, he spoke about the 2^nd generation health care, immigrant issues, and the understanding of cultural responsibilities. As the Nisei being to age, health care has begun to become a major issue. Also many immigrants, not just the Japanese, have difficulty understanding some of their legal responsibilities, such as if they get in a car accident, being scared of the situation and driving away is against the law. One story that Richard told us that particularly made an impression on me was about Cau Bich Tran who was shot and killed by a San Jose Police Office in front of her family on July 13^th, 2003. Although Tran did have a somewhat unstable past and posed no threat to the officers being under 5’ tall and weighing less than 100 pounds. The officer that shot her felt threatened because Tran was holding a Vietnamese vegetable peeler and could not speak English. The police had come in response to a neighbor’s call and within seconds of their arrival, she was shot and killed. This incident shows how certain cultural differences can result in misunderstandings and wrongful deaths. The ALA works to try and prevent situations like this. We also asked Richard what difference he sees in being a Japanese American highly involved in City Council. He replied saying the he sees himself as more of an Asian American rather than specifically Japanese and they can sometimes use this fact to their advantage when dealing with issues related to the Asian American community.

Lastly, we drove over to City Hall to speak with Robert Lopez and Wayne Chen of the Housing Department. The two of them work on policy development and specifically the affordable housing programs in San Jose. The main thing that I got from talking with them was that they use affording housing to strengthen and build a community. A lot of people have the “not in my backyard” stigma, believing that these affordable housing communities will be like the projects and residents do not want a building made to house poor people in their neighborhoods. However, by looking at these upscale housing complexes we can see that it is not the case. The buildings offer community centers, pools, and one is even designed specifically for senior living. They are also modernly designed and by looking at the pictures, they look like they would be extremely expensive to live in. Maybe in the future they will be able to plan affordable housing complexes designed for college students or recent graduates with low income.

On Thursday we had our first Intern Day up in San Francisco where we got to spend time with the other interns up there. It started off with a meeting where we decided that we will be selling curry and rice and Hawaiian Sun at the Nihonmachi Street Fair in August as a fundraiser for the program. We also had the chance to talk with Kaz Maniwa, an attorney at law in San Francisco’s Japantown. He spoke to us a little about the situation with the Japantown Center Mall and big corporations who are trying to make more money. Kaz also showed us his collection of pictures with famous people he has met such as sumo wrestlers and political leaders. He is most proud however of his 1 million dollar Turkish bill that he has framed. Although it is only work 97 cents in the United States, he can still say he is a Turkish millionaire. We then had a presentation with Kenji Taguma of the Nichi Bei Times. It was interesting to see how this newspaper transformed over the years into fully printed copies in English. It was also funny to see that Kenji knew someone who knew pretty much each and every one of us interns. For example, his nieces when to high school with me and we played basketball together. I’m beginning to see more and more of how small of a world the JA community is and I'm excited to see what he has to say in his article about our interns. We ended the intern day with a workshop led by Aya Ino. We learned about direct service programs, education, self-help, advocacy, and direct action and looked at how the organizations we have worked with fall under each of these categories along with which groups of people they serve (JA youth, seniors, families, new immigrants, non-JA, etc.) From this exercise we learned that although we have several direct service and education programs available, we are lacking in the advocacy and self-help areas. As a future leader, we can improve this by empowering others and supporting certain issues that are important to our community.