A Look Back at the Hawai'i JA Community in 2002
Nichi Bei Times, January 2003
One might be tempted to reflect on 2002 as a year of tragedy and sadness for the Japanese American community in Hawai'i.
Prominent Nikkei leaders have passed on. Other Nikkei politicians were found guilty of wrongdoing. The community stands to lose one of its cultural home bases. And commemorations of the past seem to outweigh the celebrations of the future.
Ganbare, a fundamental attitude of the Issei and Nisei who paved the way for emerging generations of Japanese Americans, seems to manifest itself only in the conversations of ethnic studies classes or museums.
In Hawai'i, we say, "if can, can… if no can, no can," meaning "if it can be done, then it will be done… if it can't be done, don't worry about it."
Kay den. Da Two Japanee Bruddahs like tell JAs in Hawai'i: "Can." And you readers might be able to kokua (help) too.
Patsy Mink
We think Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink would have said the same. Mink passed away on September 28, after battling viral pneumonia. The first woman of color elected to Congress, the first Asian American woman to practice law in Hawai'i and the first Asian American woman to be elected to Hawai'i's Territorial House, Mink broke color and gender barriers and made sure that she would prevent those walls from being rebuilt for future generations.
The 1972 federal legislation co-authored by Mink to improve opportunities for women and girls in athletics and academics, Title IX, is now named after her. In the late 1960s, she was a courageous opponent of the Vietnam War. She also helped craft significant pieces of legislation to preserve the environment and champion the causes of women, children, minorities and the poor.
Less known is her involvement as a Congresswoman in a 1971 legal battle against the federal government that would put to the test a 1966 law mandating public access to government records. Mink filed suit with 32 other Members of Congress to compel disclosure of nuclear testing reports under the new Freedom of Information Act.
The United States Senator from Hawai'i, Daniel Akaka said that "the case gained tremendous historical significance when the U.S. Supreme Court cited it as precedent for the release of the Watergate tapes."
Mink was reelected posthumously in the November General Election, and was succeeded in a Special Election by Democrat Ed Case, who serves the remainder of Mink's current term, until January 4, when another special election will determine the replacement for Mink's new two-year term. Case faces Democrat Matt Matsunaga, the son of former U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga, Republican Barbara Marumoto, sister of Japantown's Allen Okamoto, and more than 40 other candidates in that race.
Mink's family, friends and supporters encourage donations to the Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Fund for Low Income Women and Children at P.O. Box 479, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96809.
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i
Also seeking donations is the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, which after years of troubled fundraising is racing against a December 31 deadline to raise $9 million or risk foreclosure of the building and property.
The eight-year-old center, which has a dojo, museum, teahouse, banquet facilities and offices, serves a similar function and purpose as the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California on Sutter Street in San Francisco's Japantown. Spearheaded by the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce, the center was created to serve the needs of the Nikkei community, but has been financially troubled for most of its existence, in large part, due to the declining Hawai'i economy.
The center is an attractive complex in Moili'ili, a Honolulu neighborhood near Manoa Valley, home to the flagship campus of the University of Hawai'i (and also to Waiola Shave Ice, home of da bes' shave ice).
The authentic Japanese teahouse has three tea rooms for practicing Japanese tea ceremonies and also includes an open air rooftop garden. The teahouse was made possible through the efforts of Urasenke Grand Tea Master Soshitsu Sen XV. In the ground floor of the adjoining structure is the Kenshikan Dojo, used heavily for kendo, karate and aikido practices. The maple wood athletic floor with a recessed tatami platform is complete with storage, lockers, and shower facilities.
(Japanee Bruddah Keith used to spend a lot of time at the center and frequently stopped by the dojo to watch the kendo practices. One student was particularly fascinating because, in addition to capably wielding the wooden katana, he had no legs.)
The historical gallery features an exhibit focusing on the values that influenced the Japanese in Hawai'i from their arrival over a century ago to their place in the community today. There's also a resource center with more than 5,000 books, personal papers, journals, photos, letters and poems of the Japanese in Hawai'i.For information about making a donation, call Walter Tagawa at (808) 737-4339, Ext. 224; or Dr. Albert Miyasato at (808) 595-4574. C hecks (with the notation "Save the Center") can be made payable to the "Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i" and mailed to the Committee to Save the Center, 3660 Waialae Avenue, Suite 301, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96816.
To date, the fundraising committee has raised more than $5 million of the $9 million it needs and on December 19, gained the support of Hawai'i Governor Linda Lingle, who donated money from her inauguration fund and added her name to the list of honorary chairs, which includes U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye and former Governor George Ariyoshi.
Governor Linda Lingle
Lingle, the first women elected governor, and the first Republican to hold that post since 1962, defeated Democrat Mazie Hirono in the November general election - another significant event for Hawai'i Nikkei in 2002.
The significance was not so much in the fact that a Japanese American lost the election, but that the political party losing the top spot was a party built on the backs of the ILWU and other organized labor groups and Japanese Americans, such as Inouye, Matsunaga and Ariyoshi.
After losing to Governor Ben Cayetano four years ago, Lingle rebuilt the Republican Party much the same way that labor and Nikkei rebuilt the Democratic Party after Hawai'i statehood in the 1950s and 1960s after a half-century of Republican domination in the territory.
Hawai'i voters began to view the Republican Party as the party of the people, fighting a Democratic establishment that seemed to increasingly serve the needs of the "old boy network." Prominent kama'aina Nikkei like former CNN anchor Dalton Tanonaka, who would have surprised people running as a Republican in past elections, sought the GOP nomination as Lieutenant Governor.
The tide had turned and Japanese American Democrats could no longer invoke their party's past success in bringing equal rights to ethnic minorities and working class people. Granted, Asian Americans like U.S. Senator Hiram Fong and former Congresswoman Pat Saiki (both Republicans) helped paved the way for ethnic minorities in Hawai'i to more fully embrace the Hawai'i Republican Party.
(By da way, no, we not going ask fo' donations to the Democratic Party now.)
Kikaida
And on a final and less serious note, 2002 marked the 30th anniversary of Kikaida, the cyborg superhero of a popular Japanese television show that ran in Hawai'i in the 1970s. "Kikaida-mania Festival 2002" ran in April and featured appearances by actor Ban Daisuke, who played Kikaida and his alter ego Jiro, as well as Ikeda Shunsuke, who played Kikaida-01 ("zero-one") and his alter ago, Ichiro.
Few kama'aina under 30 will know the Kikaida duo. But da Two Japanee Bruddahs do! We can sing da show song and imitate the heroes defeating villains like Gray Rhino King, Orange Ant, Blue Buffalo and Green Mantis. Oh, and no fo'get da evil Professor Gill.
You don't know what we stay talkin' about, eh? No worry, brah. Visit a Kikaida website: http://www.generationkikaida.com
Happy New Year to you!
Keith Kamisugi and Kyle Tatsumoto are da Two Japanee Bruddahs. E-mail them at wot@twojapaneebruddahs.com.
The
late Patsy T. Mink.
trailblazing Congresswoman
from Hawai`i