NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By J.K. Yamamoto— SAN JOSE — After more than two and a half years of preparation, the new Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) formally opened its doors to the public on Oct. 16.

Located on 5th Street near Jackson in Japantown, the building has an exterior design patterned after a Japanese farmhouse in recognition of the important role that Japanese Americans played in agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley. Inside is 6,400 square feet of space for exhibits and events.

For many years, the museum occupied the former home of the late Dr. Tokio Ishikawa, Japantown’s resident historian. To make way for the new building, the house was razed and an adjacent lot was acquired.

Noting that completion of construction had been delayed more than once, JAMsj President Aggie Idemoto said at the outdoor opening ceremony, “This has been a long-awaited, much anticipated day of celebration for us, and as a result of all of us coming together in the community, it’s happening ... We shared challenges along the way. But we learned lessons from our Issei immigrant forefathers about resilience and making the best of it. And we made it.”

She added that volunteers had worked “day and night, getting by with little sleep” to get everything ready for the opening.

Following a performance by San Jose Taiko, the blessing of the building was conducted by 93-year-old Rev. Haruko Ishiwata, head of Konko Church of San Jose, who waved a haraigushi (wooden stick with paper streamers attached). Her son, Rev. Byron Ishiwata, did the blessing for the groundbreaking in 2008 and also blessed the inside of the building the night before the opening. Idemoto explained that the purpose is “to prevent misfortune.”

Elected officials in attendance included San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed; City Council members Sam Liccardo (whose district includes Japantown), Ash Kalra and Nora Campos; Mountain View City Councilwoman Margaret Abe-Koga; and former Palo Alto City Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto.

Complimenting the museum board and staff on their efforts, Liccardo said, “This has been an incredibly widespread effort … 70 volunteers have been rolling up their sleeves to make this happen. This is a great reflection of what is uniquely wonderful about this community, that everybody jumps in. It is a great gift from all of you to all of us to have this wonderful testament our past and hopefully a great source of inspiration for our future.”

Although Silicon Valley is “genetically predisposed to always be looking to the future, to the next great technological wave,” Liccardo said, looking at the past is also important, “particularly in tough times like these, times we can really use some inspiration from those who came before us.”

He cited a part of his family history that was directly tied to JAMsj’s mission. “My grandfather lived for about 60 years here, about four blocks north of this site. My grandfather liked to tell a lot of stories about the past, about the immigration of his Italian family to the United States … But he never ever mentioned something about his past that I learned about from my father, which is that my grandfather worked in Topaz in Utah during World War II.

“He was a grocer here for many years here in San Jose, but he was managing food distribution in Utah. All my father knew was that my grandfather was somehow ordered to be there. It wasn’t clear exactly under what circumstances. But certainly we knew that it was a subject he didn’t want to discuss.

“I think so much about all the conversations I’ve had with so many children and grandchildren of Nisei who would comment about their mom or their grandfather and say they don’t like to talk about it … How wonderful it is that we are now giving voice to a certain pain that went voiceless for so many years, so that we can all appreciate the depth of that pain to learn from it, and most important to appreciate the extraordinary courage, perseverance of the community to be able to come through it and not simply endure but now here in San Jose to flourish.”

John Gill, president of the San Jose-Okayama Sister City Organization, brought a commendation to recognize “the incredible efforts of the many dedicated volunteers and supporters involved in the creation and development of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose ... (which) brings the past and present accomplishments and values of Japanese Americans to San Jose’s community awareness.” He added that many of those volunteers are also involved in the sister-city program.

Representing the third-oldest sister-city organization in the U.S., Gill said the San Jose-Okayama program was started more than 50 years ago to promote “genuine people-to-people educational effort.”  “It’s too bad we didn’t have something like this before World War II,” he commented.

Mayor Reed stated, “I’m here on behalf of a million people in San Jose to say congratulations on this tremendous museum, but more importantly to thank our Japanese American community ... because we are enormously proud of the contributions of the Japanese American community in the city of San Jose. You’re part of our history, you’re part of our heritage, and now we can all share this ... to make sure that our children and our grandchildren know about the enormous contributions that you’ve made.”

Other special guests included Nancy Araki from the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles; Irvine artist Chizuko Judy Sugita DeQueiroz, whose watercolor exhibit “Camp Days” is on view at JAMsj; and Kathryn and Karen Korematsu, the wife and daughter of the late civil rights leader Fred Korematsu.

Birthday Boy

Jimi Yamaichi, the museum’s co-founder, curator, historian and construction manager, was also the guest of honor because his 88th birthday fell on Oct. 27. Idemoto said that this was not part of the original plan, but as the opening was postponed from spring to summer to fall, “we said, what better day and what better present to give him than to have both of these celebrations at the same time?”

Diane Matsuda, formerly of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, presented Yamaichi with the traditional red vest — 88 is an auspicious age in Japanese culture. On the back she had sewn the kanji for “Yamaichi.”

“Not only is he in his 80s, but he sometimes has a better memory than I do,” Idemoto remarked. “We have a gathering and we discuss things and later on we discuss it with the board, and I forget some of the details and he has to remind me. So whatever his brain exercise is, we’re going to start doing that.”

Ann Muto, a former JAMsj board member, read a congratulatory poem that referenced another 88-year-old artist, Katsuchika Hokusai, painter of the famous “Eagle in a Snowstorm.”

Yamaichi’s oldest son, George, introduced himself, his sister Denise, his brother Steve, and their spouses and children. Yamaichi’s daughter Janice was unable to attend.

Jo Ann Yamani, an attorney on Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s staff, said that the congresswoman and Rep. Mike Honda were able to get a federal appropriation that helped the museum project. “But what most people don’t know is that Congresswoman Lofgren holds Jimi in such high esteem … In honor of his 88th birthday, she crafted a resolution, but in addition she also wrote a short personal note to him.”

Lofgren wrote, “The community owes so much to you from your service to the elderly, festivals and museums, and much more. Your efforts make us better and stronger.”

Joe Yasutake, JAMsj vice president, said, “We’re so lucky that he’s part of our museum. He’s visionary, he’s everything to the museum. So that’s why we wanted to celebrate his birthday today in front of everybody.”

Saying, “We finally found something that we hope will be of some meaning to him,” Yasutake presented Yamaichi with the original rendering of the new museum by Bill Chambers.

“Many many people have crossed paths with me on many projects, helped me on many projects, to come to this point, said Yamaichi, “but there is only one person that was with me all the way for 61 years, my wife, Eiko.”

“Happy Birthday” was sung by Shannon Haley of Children’s Musical Theater, a Mitty High School student whose grandfather, Terry Terakawa, is a JAMsj board member. The audience then joined in. A cake was brought out and Yamaichi blew out the candles.

Instead of a ribbon-cutting, barbed wires were cut at the main entrance to open the museum to visitors. “Each one represents the three generations incarcerated in camp,” Idemoto explained. “My grandmother, Obaachan, my parents, Mom and Dad, and I were all in Poston. So this is Issei, Nisei, Sansei … The tags you see (hanging on the wires) represent the 10 camps. So it’s very symbolic.”

In addition to Yamaichi and Reed, taking part in the wire-cutting were project directors Pam Yoshida of MBA Architects and Evan Yoshino of Applegate Johnson, and Consul General of Japan Hiroshi Inomata.

“Come and visit us many times over,” Idemoto said as people lined up to enter the museum. “You probably have stories or artifacts to share with us too. So we’ll continue to work with you to enhance what we have as an offering here at the museum.”

The exhibits covered such topics as the arrival of the Issei in America, the establishment of San Jose Japantown in the 1890s, the internment (including a replica of camp barracks), the Nisei units that served in World War II, and resistance to the internment. There is also a museum store.

The museum is located at 535 N. 5th St. Museum hours are Thursday through Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. Office hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12 to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 general, $3 for seniors 65 and older and students with valid ID, and free for members and children under 12.

For more information, call (408) 294-3138 or visit www.jamsj.org.