26-30 April 2000
Nikkei 2000 Conference
San Francisco CA, USA

Nihonmachi, SF The Nikkei 2000 Conference was a follow-up to the Ties That Bind Conference two years ago in Los Angeles CA. TTB initiated a generationally diverse dialogue about the identity, diversity, values and survival of the Nikkei community in the 21st century.

For N2K, over 300 Nikkei-jin from California and across the United States, as well as representatives from Canada, Peru and Brazil all gathered in San Francisco's Nihonmachi (Japantown) to discuss the theme "Empowering our community in the 21st century." As a Japanese Canadian, it was my first in-person interaction with a large number of Japanese Americans.

Things didn't start off well: on registering, I found the organizers had misspelled my name (left an "a" out of "Tadaaki") and switched my surname and given name. Mainstream society does this all the time, but I didn't expect it to happen in a Nikkei setting. Then I was directed to the "SuhKOOruh" (Sakura*) Room.
* Sakura = "cherry" in Japanese; correctly pronounced "SAkura"

Japanese language ability has been all but lost in North America's established Nikkei communities, contributing to a sense of alienation felt by newer immigrants from Japan:

  • Clash Within A Culture
    Assimilation, lack of heritage language ability, ignorance of customs, assumptions, lack of respect and understanding on both sides, inferiority/superiority complexes leads to conflict that might be better called "A Clash BETWEEN Cultures"

This was a working conference, meant to identify and begin to implement ways to ensure a thriving Nikkei community in the 21st century and beyond. People at the conference were assigned to breakout groups of 10-12 people. The makeup of the breakout groups was purposely diverse, which made them a good experience -- I met a lot of people I wouldn't have had a chance to speak with otherwise. The less-threatening environment meant everyone had a chance to voice their experiences and opinion. Every group discussed the following questions:

  1. Who is the Nikkei community?
  2. What is the Nikkei community?
  3. Why have a Nikkei community?
  4. What are the assets of the Nikkei community?
  5. What will the Nikkei community look like in 2020?
  6. What does the Nikkei community need to get there?

1. Who is the Nikkei community?

There was a good deal of discussion on issues to which I would have said "atarimae" ("naturally", "of course"). But not everybody felt that way at first, so I suppose the time wasn't completely wasted:

  • Should the term "nikkei" be used for the JA community?
    "Nikkei" is a contraction of "NIppon" (Japan) and "KEItou" (lineage) -- "of Japanese ancestry". A Nikkei person is anyone with Japanese in their background -- nisei, sansei, yonsei, hapa, ijuusha, etc. Being a word from the Japanese language, "nikkei" is part our heritage, and most everybody agreed it should be used. One of the few people opposed was a 60-year-old nisei woman. I wondered if she was one of the interned Japanese Americans who became ultra-American after the War, denying their Japaneseness, speaking only English. She couldn't speak Japanese, and it became apparent that she didn't know what "nikkei" means. "It's what They [the Japanese] call us," she complained. Maybe she thought it was a derogatory term.
  • Should the Nikkei community be more inclusive and open to diversity?
    Through aging, intermarriage and dispersion, the JA community as traditionally defined is projected to shrink by 60-80% over the next 10 years. A company faced with a similar market situation would either go out of business or change its marketing strategy. The Nikkei community must recognize that it has become more diverse and behave accordingly, or "go out of business".

Global Nikkei

There was the beginning of a recognition among the general JA population that there are people of Japanese ancestry outside the USA, from whom JAs can learn a thing or two:

  • Canada: Japanese Canadians have had an intermarriage rate of 97% for some time now, and therefore have plenty of experience with hapa issues and notions of inclusiveness. Instead of referring to "outmarriage" of young Nikkei-jin, why cannot the non-Nikkei spouse be said to "marry into" the Nikkei community? Instead of calling the multiracial children "half"s, why not call them "double" to reflect their wider ethnic heritage?

    Also, JCs are a small population dispersed over a wide geographic area, so they have experience with networking over great distances

  • South America: Very energetic young Nikkei-jin from Peru and Brazil were invited speakers. There was an audible gasp of surprise in the audience at the mention of the fact that there are more Nikkei-jin in Brazil than the USA.

    The Peruvian and Brazilian representatives both mentioned the "dekasegi" phenomenon -- young people going to Japan as migrant workers -- and how it threatens the viability of their communities. One might say that in a way the same thing is happening in North America. Young JAs/JCs don't go abroad, but their availability to the community is limited by jobs in mainstream society that either take them away geographically, or take up too much of their time. As a result of greater racial tolerance and higher education, being in the community isn't their only option anymore.

"No-sei" (or "No-say")

There was the recognition of young Nikkei who don't fit into the "issei, nisei, sansei" classification and feel they don't have any influence in the community. The term was coined in San Francisco during a recent consultation about the revitalization of Nihonmachi, the SF Japan Town. Those in their 20-30s felt that they had no voice: no say in the way things were done. They also felt that they did not fit into the historical generational categories, so they wanted to shed that confining framework.

The feeling is not unique to the U.S. -- the speakers from Peru and Brazil expressed similar sentiments, with more passion. "Young people can do more than move chairs!"

The No-sei / No Say label could also be applied to postwar immigrants from Japan: they don't fit into the issei, nisei or sansei categories either, and adding "shin-" ("new") doesn't quite reflect the situation if one has been here for 30 years. Their feeling of lack of influence is due to the lack of Japanese language ability in today's JA community and the insularity of established Nikkei communities.

The "intergenerational transfer of power" is probably only an issue in Nikkei communities where there is a surplus of people power. In places with fewer Nikkei-jin (e.g. almost any place in Canada), you see permutations of the same faces in the different community organizations, getting older every year. Any new person who even hints at being interested in community affairs is quickly labelled an "Oh-sei" or "Oh say", as in, "Oh say, would you be able to ...?" ;-)

A case in point: this 30-something Japanese Canadian:

2. What is the Nikkei community?

Those from the remaining Japantowns in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles tended to think concretely, citing a sense of place related to bricks-and-mortar in a fixed geographic location. But even in SF, SJ and LA, Japanese Americans do not live in Japantown anymore, the result of urban renewal and "suburban flight".

These days, a virtual community makes sense for a population like North America's Nikkei-jin -- it allows dispersed, busy people to connect over long distances whenever they can or want to.

Having grown up in a place where J-town was my family's house (Edmonton, Alberta), it was interesting for me to meet and observe JAs who spent their formative years in a large Nikkei community. Our psyches are quite different.

3. Why have a Nikkei community?

"Cultural preservation" was people's Number One reason to try to sustain a Nikkei community. Also mentioned was "advocacy and activism", in that racism, more subtle than in years past, still defines the JA experience.

4. What are the assets of the Nikkei community?

A breakout group I participated in at N2K went through a capsule evolution of the attitude of Nikkei-jin toward their heritage. One of our tasks was to list the assets of the Nikkei community. The nisei wrote the traditional Japanese values "gaman" ("put up with it"-ness), "enryo" (restraint), "haji" ([avoiding] shame) on the board. The sansei and yonsei crossed those out, calling them hindrances, and wrote American qualities like "assertiveness" and "speaking out". The ijuusha (post-war immigrants) pointed out that both behavior sets had value, when applied in the appropriate setting.

The Japanese American Citizens League got moved back and forth between the "asset" and "hindrance" columns of the community asset inventory. The younger people viewed it as "my dad's" or "my grandfather's" organization, tired and irrelevant. Eventually it was deemed an asset, since it is one of the few JA organizations with a national communication network.

5. What will the Nikkei community look like in 2020?

The "wish list" naturally included "inclusive", "vital" and "financially stable". In my breakout group, I put forward "more bilingual (Japanese & English)", the hope that the community will have more Japanese language ability than the present situation. The rest of my group were English-speaking nisei and sansei from the established San Francisco community, so my idea floated like a lead balloon.

But in smaller Nikkei communities (like in Canada), this is beginning to happen already, as the small but steady trickle of postwar immigrants from Japan starts to equal the number of (active) people in the existing community. Some meetings are actually conducted in Japanese, and the shoe is on the other foot for the English-speaking Nikkei-jin.

6. What does the Nikkei community need to get there?

The needs related mostly to information, knowledge and communication:

  • Leadership skills in young Nikkei-jin. Programs like those offered by San Francisco's Japanese Community Youth Council were cited.
  • Fundraising knowhow
  • Greater familiarity with the political process at all levels of government. Elected representatives who spoke at N2K indicated the benefits of a pan-Asian approach when dealing with politicians.
  • More coordination and cooperation between groups within a local community, between local communities, between regions and between countries. This implies the need for:

    • A communication infrastructure between Nikkei organizations and individuals. The "Ties Talk" and "Ties" e-mail lists are the beginning of such a network.
    • Better knowledge management in the global Nikkei community. The start of a central knowledge repository is Nikkei Nexus, the online resource hosted by the National Association of Japanese Canadians (this was an opportunity to promote the new URL: nikkeinexus.com).

    plus

  • "Do-ers": N2K participants were issued a challenge by Claudio Sassaki (that's how he spells his name, not "Sasaki") from a youth organization in Brazil when he asked the following question:

    "There are three kinds of people:

    • People who do things
    • People who watch while others do things
    • People who ask, 'What happened?'

    Which kind are you?"

* * *

N2K registration included a bento lunch on two of the days. At noon, everybody would go over to the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California, pick up a bento, and find a place at the tables set up in the gymnasium. It was like a family meal. Food is the most persistent -- and sometimes only -- Japanese cultural element among North American Nikkei, so nobody had to answer questions like, "What is this?" or "How do you eat this?". We could focus on eating and talking. This was another way to meet people at N2K.

I found myself sitting across from an older sansei man. I asked him whether he had ever been to Japan. He said, "Yes, my first time over the government paid my way." How did he arrange that? Teaching English? Business liaison? Visiting artist? Sports exchange?

It turns out he was a Korean War veteran!

* * *

Another N2K lunchtime story:

A sansei in his early 40s told me about a joint birthday party he recently hosted for his son and his sister's daughter, who are about the same age. He married another JA; his sister married "out". Their mother sent the birthday presents in the same box, without indicating which gift was for which grandchild. His sister handed out the presents, saying to his son, "You should have this happi coat, you are more Japanese than [my daughter]".

Nikkei community organizations can implement whatever inclusionary measures they want, but a sense of belonging to the community must begin in the home.

* * *

I was able to get together with fellow subscribers to the Ties Talk e-mail list: Shizue Seigel (National Japanese American Historical Society) from San Francisco, Bill Watanabe ( Little Tokyo Service Center) from Los Angeles, and Takamichi Ariga ( National Association of Japanese Canadians) from Toronto.


Shiz, me, Bill and Tak at the National Japanese American Historical Society
office. Behind us is one of the quilts of the travelling exhibit from Colorado,
Fabric of Strength & Diversity: The Quilts of Japanese American Women. The idea of bringing this exhibit to San Francisco started on Ties Talk, an example of how a virtual Nikkei community can support the traditional physical community.

* * *

Politics

With so many potential supporters in one place at one time, a couple of interest groups took the opportunity to publicize their causes:

  • Campaign to Keep The JA Creed off the JA National Memorial
    A monument to remember the WW2 Internment of Japanese Americans is under construction in Washington D.C. The JA Creed is a quote that has been approved by the National Parks Service for inclusion on the monument, but some people are opposed to this. From what I can tell, it is not so much the quote itself that they find offensive as the person who said it. Read more at their website: JA Voice

  • Campaign For Justice
    During World War Two, the United States interned not only its own citizens of Japanese ancestry, but also Nikkei-jin from other countries in Central and South America. The Campaign For Justice is fighting for redress for those Latin American Nikkei-jin who were brought to internment camps in the States. They don't have a website (they should have attended the pre-conference panel discussion that dealt with political empowerment through use of the Internet), but some background information is in the Ties Talk Message Archive's Latin American Nikkei thread.

* * *

The N2K organizers arranged for evening entertainment:

  • San Francisco Taiko Dojo
    This was the first taiko school in North America, formed by Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka in 1968. He brought his youth group to welcome people to the conference with a high-energy set of Japanese drumming and more kiai than I have ever heard!
  • Anthony Brown
    We had a chance to see this Grammy-nominated musician up close at the welcome reception. As his loud four-man jazz combo played, I looked around the room at all the Japanese faces and tried to imagine I was in Japan -- but couldn't. Even though their English voices were drowned out by the music, their body language was North American! One sansei who saw me from afar told me he thought I was a Japanese national.
  • When You're Smiling: The Conspiracy of Silence in the Japanese American Community
    This 1999 documentary by Janice D. Tanaka is one of the few explorations of the effects of the Internment on the sansei generation. Their nisei parents had cut ties to Japanese language, religion and culture after camp. The result was emotional and familial distance, as well as serious identity crisis.

* * *

I was introduced to Reverend Paul Nagano, director of the Council For Pacific Asian Theology in Richmond CA. He is a descendant of Manzo Nagano, the first Japanese immigrant to Canada.

* * *

One of the local young JAs, Hamilton Niwa, was kind enough to take the South Americans and Canadians on a nighttime tour of San Francisco. We got acquainted in the van, speaking English, Japanese and Spanish -- alternately and mixed together! Henry Arima from Brazil asked for everybody's Western astrological sign. I asked everyone whether they knew what their blood type is. Few knew, nor did they know why that information would be important. In Japan, blood type is often the second thing other people want to know about you, after your name. Evidently this interest has not made it over to Japanese communities on this side of the Pacific.

* * *

N2K wasn't without its problems:

  • Things tended to be California-centric. Most of the attendees were from the only remaining Japantowns, those in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. But Nikkei-jin live in more places than that and have unique experiences to share.
  • I had a feeling the Japanese-speaking part of the community was given lip service. There were a few Japanese-only pre-conference symposia, but there was no provision for translation in the plenary sessions or breakout groups of the main conference.

* * *

N2K was affirming, educational, and at times frustrating. Overall, it was enjoyable and inspiring. A lot of dedicated people in many places are working hard to make good things happen in their communities. The next opportunities to get together with such a large group of Nikkei-jin will be Japanese American Citizen's League National Convention, 27 June-02 July 2000 in Monterey CA, and XI COPANI, the 11th Conference of Panamerican Nikkei 25-28 July 2001 in New York NY.

On the plane bound for Oregon, it was back to a predominantly white world that still doesn't know a lot about Japan, Japanese and Japanese Americans. Overheard from the airplane galley:

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: "Is miso soup soy based?"

Questions? Comments?

Read the comments of other N2K participants in the Ties Talk Message Archive

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