NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By J.K. Yamamoto

On March 15, 2009, a chapter in both Japanese American and African American history closed with the passing of Richard Masato Aoki, a founding member of the Black Panther Party, at the age of 70.

A year later, East Bay residents and first-time filmmakers Ben Wang and Mike Cheng honored his memory with screenings of their documentary “AOKI” at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

Born in 1938 in San Leandro, Aoki was interned in Topaz, Utah at the age of 4. After camp, he was raised in West Oakland and Berkeley, graduated from Berkeley High School in 1957, joined the Army, and was honorably discharged from the Army Reserves in 1964. He attended Merritt College with Huey Newton (1942-1989) and Bobby Seale, co-founders of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

Kathleen Cleaver, the party’s spokesperson and one of the interviewees in the film, was referring to both the internment and police brutality in Oakland when she said that Aoki grew up seeing “people being subjected to unfair, racist domination by the state … He knew it was wrong. So he was quite willing to help his friends fight against this.” This help included providing guns to party members in his capacity as field marshal.

The film features several clips of Aoki speaking at campus and community gatherings. When asked what obstacles his organization had to overcome, he responded, “The police. They kept impeding our progress.”

Yuri Kochiyama, herself a well-known figure in the African American community and a friend of Malcolm X, said of Aoki, “He wasn’t the quiet type.”

At UC Berkeley, Aoki was one of the founders of the Asian American Political Alliance and of the Third World Liberation Front, a multiracial coalition of African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American groups that led a student strike for the establishment of ethnic studies.

Bryant Fong, a member of AAPA, quoted Aoki as telling students, “What do you think this campus is for, just for you to study or to actually interact with the world? … There are people dying out there, and what are you doing?”

Speaking to a Cal audience some 40 years after the strike, Aoki said, “Do you know where pepper gas first came from? They experimented on UC students. This is a research institution … They researched. ‘Let’s drop this pepper gas on those minorities, and see if it will do any good.’ ” He also recalled that support for the strike became unanimous when even white students were indiscriminately beaten by riot police.

With a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s in social welfare, Aoki worked in the Peralta Community College system as an educator, counselor and administrator for 25 years.

Student Project

The film, which was made during the last five years of Aoki’s life, began as a student project. “We met Richard in 2002,” explained Wang. “Mike and I were students at UC Davis and were part of an organization called Third World Forum … We contacted Harvey Dong, owner of Eastwind Books in Berkeley, and we were able to set up an interview with Richard (with the goal of) working on an article for the student newspaper.”

But that first interview lasted hours as Aoki discussed “his experience in the Black Panther Party and the Asian American movement as well as his take on a lot of current issues that we were interested in,” said Wang. It became clear that one newspaper article would not be enough.

Cheng said that he has learned a lot about political activism in the late ’60s and early ’70s. “There’s an Asian American zine called Giant Robot, and a friend of mine had a copy and the issue he had was called ‘Yellow Power Movement,’ and in it there was an article about Richard. So that was the first time I ever heard about Richard and I thought it was a pretty unique story. But … it never occurred to me to try to find him or set up an interview or anything until Ben did it.

“As far as the Panthers go, growing up in the East Bay you hear about them. There was that ‘Panther’ movie that came out when I was in junior high, in 1995, by Mario Van Peebles. Just little bits and pieces, but I didn’t know a lot about the Panthers until I started reading more about them later on.”

Wang added, “For me it was kind of a shock to learn that there was somebody like Richard who was involved in the Panther Party, so that definitely sparked my interest in wanting to do what we could to share his story with others through the documentary.”

The only problem was that the two students had never made a film before. Cheng noted, “We kind of learned as we went. Ben definitely took the lead in terms of figuring out what kind of camera to get, how to use the film editing software. So I think we actually started filming in 2005 … We probably finished filming around 2007 or 2008 ... We also both had full-time jobs and we were involved in different political organizations.”

The filmmakers knew that they had to finish the project as soon as possible. Aoki suffered a stroke in December 2005, and his condition worsened in 2007 and 2008.

“One of the big events that we covered in the film was the 40th reunion of the Black Panther Party (in 2006),” said Wang. “That year Richard was recovering from his stroke, so in his rehabilitation that was one of his main motivations, to be able to attend the Black Panther Party event. So that’s how we begin and close the film.”

Footage from the event shows a jubilant Aoki with his friends gathering on the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse.

“His health was one of the reasons why we did a screening of a very rough cut of the film in 2008 … We weren’t sure how much longer he was going to be with us and we wanted to make sure he got to see at least a rough cut of what we were doing in case he didn’t live to see the final version,” Cheng said.

Following the well-attended screening at the Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland, Aoki gave the film a thumbs-up. “He met with us after and said he thought we did a really accurate portrayal of him,” said Cheng. “So that helped Ben and myself in terms of finalizing the film … It really meant a lot to me to know that he approved of what we did.”

“AOKI” had its official premiere in November 2009 at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland with many of the interviewees in attendance. “Pretty much everybody in the film has given us really positive feedback, which is always nice,” Cheng said.

Campus Screenings

In addition to SFIAAFF screenings in San Francisco and San Jose, the film has been shown at Northwestern University in Illinois, CSU East Bay, UC Berkeley, Amherst College in Massachusetts and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. It goes next to the Chicago Asian American Film Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film Center on April 8 and has been accepted by the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (April 29-May 8).

When students see the documentary, “they can definitely relate,” said Cheng. “One of the things about Richard was — I think it comes across in the film — he could be very proper and formal, but he was also really funny, really laid back when you got to know him. Especially around youth, he was always able to relax and relate.

“A lot of the kids that we’ve shown the film to, they see themselves in him. I think Ben and I used to too, when we saw him as a role model that we wanted to interview. They hear about his story, they hear about growing up in West Oakland, they hear about what his thoughts were, why he made the decisions he did. I think it inspires a lot of kids.”

Wang added, “It’s one of the main purposes that we made the film, to be able to spark some of that same interest and motivation that we were able to experience meeting Richard.” He described the target audience as “20-something Asian Americans who are maybe similar to us when we first met Richard.”

True to His Beliefs

Cheng summed up Aoki’s legacy by saying, “I think he stayed true to his beliefs, but I think he also adjusted with the times and realized that it’s not the 1960s anymore, things are different and he needs a different approach. In the film he talks about the fact that it’s time for a Black Panther Party-type organization, but it can’t come back the way it was back then.”

An example of Aoki’s consistency was his support of a hunger strike by UC Berkeley students in 1999, Cheng said.

“We wanted to emphasize Richard’s commitment and dedication and loyalty as really admirable qualities that he had, particularly in terms of wanting to have some continuity between generations, addressing some of these social issues that are still relevant today,” said Wang. “Besides what Richard did in 1968 or 1969, to us what was really inspiring was here was the elder who really invested his time in sharing his knowledge to his dying day with the younger generation.”

Cheng also sees Aoki as “a great example of solidarity among different groups, particularly people of color … Richard definitely bridged those gaps. I think that’s another inspiration for me … I’ve always felt like communication and solidarity between different groups is a great way to at least begin to address issues that face us all.”

Wang has been inspired to continue making documentaries. “I’m taking a class right now. Nothing concrete is in the works right now, but it’s definitely sparked an interest.”

For updates on screenings or to order a DVD, visit http://aokifilm.com.

“I do believe in mass action. There are other methods of getting what one wants for the community, but ultimately it comes down to power. You don’t have any power, you don’t have anything.” — Richard Aoki