Developing Second-Generation Voices:
Women in the Pre-War Nisei Writers GroupBy Valerie J. Matsumoto
In the prewar Japanese American community, Nisei women were active andinfluential participants in all spheres of creative expression, especially in literary circles.
In Los Angeles, the Rafu Shimpo and the Kashu Mainichi reflect Nisei women's multifaceted contributions to the ethnic press: they wrote passionate poetry and humorous
ditties, penned romantic and socialist realist fiction, reviewed new books and music,
composed analytical essays on literature, and aired their opinions in a plethora ofnewspaper columns. They debated the “Nisei problem” and the roles of women, waxed
lyrical over the beauty of nature, and lamented the trials of love. Women also channeledtheir energy into developing a network of second-generation literati. Leaders such as
poet Toyo Suyemoto and writer Mary Oyama Mittwer encouraged each other's literary
efforts while also challenging the Nisei literati to present more of their own experiences
as Japanese Americans. Today, I will discuss women’s participation in prewar Nisei
literary endeavors, focusing on the 1936 journal Gyo-Sho.
In 1934, Toyo Suyemoto assessed the promise of Nisei literary efforts. She wasthen a 19-year-old student at the Sacramento Junior College in central California. An
acclaimed poet from an early age, Suyemoto subsequently received a BA degree inEnglish and Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. She stated: “The second
generation Japanese, as a group, realize that in our complex environment, the youthfulliterati of our race have much to accomplish.

As yet, there has been only theforeshadowed evidence of greater things to come, for we are still in the embryonic stageof literary development. Our lot is by no means simple, for differentiation of thoughts

9and ideals lie between the first generation and our own, between our occidental
acquaintances and ourselves, necessitating an interpretation, written expression.”
Suyemoto believed that, in the process of gaining the maturity and experience necessary
for literary achievement, “The second generation literati are gradually building a world
entirely our own; constructing a structure belonging wholly to ourselves, simply bymastery of prose-writing and poetry.”
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a flood of poetry, essays, fiction, and letters bysecond-generation women and men contributed to this construction of a lively Nisei
world. They repeatedly exhorted each other to develop a “new and different” voice thatwould reflect their experiences and perspective. Denied access to mainstream publishingby racial barriers as well as by inexperience, they turned to outlets within the ethnic
community.
The ethnic press, which stretched along the West Coast from Los Angeles to
Seattle, offered a crucial forum for the development of Nisei writers, publishing theirfledgling efforts in literary sections that became regular features. The Kashu Mainichi in
Los Angeles became particularly notable as a literary showcase for the second generation,
including writers such as Mary Korenaga, Chiye Mori, Mary Oyama, Toyo Suyemoto,and Hisaye Yamamoto. Within a peer community facilitated by the English-language
sections, the Nisei struggled to define themselves in relation to both their parents’generation and the larger US society. In the process, they established an energetic
literary conversation that crossed the United States and spanned the Pacific Ocean.
Women took active and sometimes leading roles in literary networks. In 1940,
Current Life, the Magazine for the American Born Japanese ran an article on “Who’s

10Who in the Nisei Literary World,” profiling fifteen men and nine women, including Mary
Oyama, Lucile Morimoto, and Hisaye Yamamoto. They and many others publishedprolifically in the Japanese American newspapers, experimenting with form and content
in the process of developing their own voices. Some adopted a flippant, bold jazz style;
Hisaye Yamamoto poked fun at lyric convention as well as social convention inhumorous poems with Latin titles. Toyo Suyemoto limned her subjects in formal rhymedverse, stating: “…all that I can give to you/ Is simple speech of everyday…/ Words
stripped and stark like life and death/ Wherein you stand midway.” Writing in a variety
of styles on eclectic themes, women enthusiastically engaged in the effort to create a
Nisei voice, expressive of their ethnic, generational, and gendered experiences.
Driven by the conviction that they had a distinctive perspective to contribute to
the Japanese American community and to the larger society, the Nisei literati launched anumber of creative-writing journals in the 1930s. These included Reimei, edited by
Yasuo Sasaki in Utah, and Shukaku, a quarterly magazine published by the Southern
California poets, and Issei and Nisei organization. A Buddhist youth journal, Bhratri,also included creative writing. Similarly, the Los Angeles Nisei writers’ group began a
publication called Leaves as a vehicle for second-generation literature and art. Rather
than just showcasing local talent, they aimed to include Nisei from far and wide. As Carl
Kondo explained in 1935, “The literary club of Lil Tokio wants it understood that thepages of its magazine, ‘Leaves’ is open to all writers regardless of distance.” Themembers, he said, “do not wish it to be merely a club organ but to have a real purpose,such as bringing the Japanese psychology forth for the American people to understand.”11

In 1936, the Nisei writers’ group moved to upgrade Leaves by merging it with
Gyo-Sho, another quarterly publication.

Gyo-Sho, edited by Eddie Shimano andsponsored by the English Club at Cornell College, made its debut in June 1936. When
Gyo-Sho was published, a party was held in Los Angeles in honor of Eddie Shimano; theinterethnic mix of guests included Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, andEuropean Americans.
The cover and title of Gyo-Sho signaled the transnational vision of the editor, aNisei from Seattle, Washington. On the cover, designed by Shimano, was a linoleum cutof a Japanese temple bell, with the title at the top, emblazoned in kanji that were echoednear the bottom by the corresponding romaji. Shimano explained that, like a temple bell
struck to herald the start of a new day, Gyo-Sho—meaning “dawn bell”—was intended to“announce to the world a new day, symbolizing the awakening of the Nisei.”He

declared, “And like the reverberations of the temple bell, it will be heard universally,high birth or low, European ancestry or Asiatic.”
Striking the familiar note of the cultural bridge, Shimano expressed hope that the
Nisei, whom he called an “interstitial cultural group,” would someday “bridge the chasm
between the cultures of the East and the West.” Mindful of the challenges JapaneseAmericans faced, he wrote: “Struggling against economic, social, and racial problems,seeking self-expression in a language alien to their parents but a generation removed,
called foreigners by their Caucasian fellow-men, the Nisei are earnestly striving for ameans of expressing their unique Japanese-American individualities.” Shimano did notelaborate on the nature of these unique individualities, but he seems to have believed they
were rooted in Japanese cultural traditions inherited from the Issei, including an aesthetic

12

sense and an “awareness of cosmic forces,” perhaps a reference to Shinto beliefs. In
Shimano’s words, the mission of Gyo-Sho was to help the Nisei “to attain fullarticulateness in self-expression and thereby to contribute to American culture the artistic
simplicity and the symbolism of the Orient.”
Although Shimano did not draw any connection or comparison, his goals
somewhat paralleled those of the guiding lights of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, later
also called the New Negro Movement. As Patricia Liggins Hill states, in 1920 W.E.B.
DuBois issued perhaps the first call for “a renaissance of American Negro literature,”
writing, “the material about us in the strange heart rendering race tangles us in riches
beyond dreams, and only we can tell the tale and sing the song from the heart.” Although
Eddie Shimano did not clearly define what might be unique about Nisei experiences, hefelt that the second generation had something significant to contribute to American
culture.

The “new day” and Nisei awakening that he anticipated call to mind theemergence of the “New Negro” and a dynamic spirit of self-expression heralded by Alain
Locke, an influential critic in the African American arts movement. In 1925, Lockeasserted that the African American was shifting to a new status as “a collaborator andparticipant in American civilization,” and he believed that these artistic contributions
would lead to recognition and acceptance. Likewise, Shimano hoped that the gifts of
Nisei creativity would reach a wide, appreciative audience beyond the ethnic community.
The vehicle of Shimano’s ambitions was a 24-page journal presenting the poems,
fiction, and short prose of ten Nisei, with the addition of a translated Japanese story. Sixof the ten writers were women: Mary Oyama, Toyo Suyemoto, Amy Tomita, Teru
Izumida, Mary Korenaga, and Ellen Thun, a Korean American writer. Of the four short13

stories included, three were written by women who explored a range of themes: the civic
duty of the second generation, the struggle of a misunderstood artist, and dynamics
among women in a Japanese family. In these three stories, young women protagonists
grappled with differences between how they were perceived by others and how they
identified themselves. Of course this was an issue of keen concern to the Nisei. Today I
will discuss two of these stories which are also notable for addressing issues of women’s
duty, as citizens and as family members.
Mary Oyama produced the one piece in Gyo-Sho that explicitly addressed racial
dynamics from the point of view of a Japanese American character. A young Nisei
woman’s first trip to the voting booth marked her “Coming of Age” in Oyama’s shortstory of the same title. This work could be read as a how-to guideline, coaxing nervous
Nisei to participate in the electoral process; it also suggested how interracial relations
framed the political actions of second-generation youth. From the outset, the protagonist
Sumiko thinks about how the white people at the polls may perceive her; she expects thatthey will misidentify her as younger than her age and as Chinese, because “They always
did.” The author contrasts how Sumiko identifies herself: “How were they to know that
Sumiko wasn’t even Japanese?” Although Sumiko is an American, she worries about not
being recognized as such: “Wonder what they’ll think—a ‘Jap’ girl coming to help electthe governor of the state?” Sumiko has heard that in some localities, “young voters ofJapanese extraction were subjected to a lot of unnecessary cross examination.”
Nisei readers might draw reassurance from the difference between Sumiko’s
anxieties and her actual reception at the polls: Two Jewish children campaigning nearby
cheerfully urge her to support their candidate; a matronly poll worker smiles and matter-14

of-factly hands her a ballot. Even though no one can see her in the voting booth, Sumiko
still feels self-conscious about how she will be perceived as a citizen. She deliberates
before each name, lest the poll workers think that she had “voted without any judgment
or wisdom on the matter…” Swayed by an issue of continuing concern to present-day
southern Californians, Sumiko also votes for the Jewish children’s candidate because “headvocates the saving of our beaches for the public and not for private real estatecompanies.” Finished at last, she marches away, satisfied that she has discharged “theimportant duty of a good American citizen.” The happy ending of this story hinged noton the outcome of the election, but on Sumiko’s experience of having her American
identity validated by participation in the political process.
Mary Korenaga’s story, titled “Chiyono,” was set in rural Japan, and focused on
the realm of family relations, particularly the ties among women. For Korenaga, this wasan imagined setting, since she did not visit Japan until after World War II. However, hers
was an informed imagination--a family member has speculated that this story may havegrown out of Korenaga’s relationship with her grandmother, who shared with Mary her
experiences in Japan. The protagonist of “Chiyono” is introduced to the reader as aheartsick young woman working angrily and efficiently in a rice paddy. The story
delineates the conflicting family obligations that Chiyono must weigh and also thenonverbal communication between her and the sister-in-law with whom she is at odds.
Chiyono has just returned from three weeks spent caring for an ill older sister who had
requested her help.

The presumably older brother with whom Chiyono lives gave

permission, but his wife excoriates Chiyono for neglecting her duty to them, exclaimingthat the ailing sister is married and therefore the responsibility of the family into which15she has married. The sister-in-law views Chiyono not as a supportive sister but as a“shameless hussy!” Deeply upset, Chiyono responds silently by going out to weed therice and working like an automaton, not even stopping for lunch. Later, her sister-in-law
also sends a message without direct speech: Chiyono’s small nephew arrives with alunch basket filled with her favorite foods. Chiyono “knew and accepted the muteappeal.” The apology is magnified by the news that the sister-in-law is making sushi fordinner and afterward the whole family will attend a shibai. Overjoyed by the prospect ofthese special treats, Chiyono forgets her grievance. Both the nephew’s words and his
mother’s gestures convey acknowledgment of her labor for their family.
Korenaga’s story reflected the Gyo-Sho aim of welcoming a diverse audience—the editor and author clearly anticipated the needs of readers unfamiliar with the Japanese
language. When Japanese words such as “Obachan,” “shibai,” and “osushi” appeared,
they were followed by parenthetical explanations. Nowhere else in Gyo-Sho—except for
the title—do Japanese words appear.
Despite the ambitions Eddie Shimano voiced in his foreword, one would be hardpressed to determine what might be uniquely Japanese American in most of the Gyo-Sho
writings. The featured poems explored various shades of romantic disillusionment andphilosophical musings, none of them addressing experiences specific to the Nisei, except
for Teru Izumida’s mention of Japanese dance. It would be difficult to ascertain whether
this selection mainly reflected Shimano’s tastes, or whether it was representative of thesubmissions he received. Without the contributions by Mary Korenaga and Mary Oyama,
Gyo-Sho might have resembled a mainstream American college literary publication.

16

In the assessment of reviewer Carl Kondo, the first issue of Gyo-Sho was aworthy start, but “the writings of the representative group of Nisei authors and poets
express a stirring which has yet to see the light of the promised dawn.” Kondo focusedhis critique on what he perceived as the general absence of a Nisei voice: With a few
exceptions, he felt that “The others speak in occidental voices, no two the same, yet one
in viewpoint. They do not see the American scene as other races do; what they see istinged with the color of what they, themselves, are. The product is unsatisfactory when it
is remembered that the efforts of the writers were to voice the surging flow of theirgeneration, the Nisei.” As exceptions to this “occidentalized” tone, Kondo cited Teru
Izumida’s poem about dance and Eiji Tanabe’s translation of a Japanese story. He
singled out Mary Oyama’s piece “Coming of Age,” in which he saw the beginning of a“new approach to literature typically Nisei.” Such writing, he believed, would portraythe struggles and environment of the second generation without bias and “narrate what isordinary and American, yet Nisei because it will be saturated in the psychology of the
Nisei.”
Although some of the themes of the Nisei literary movement resonated with theimpetus and issues of the Harlem Renaissance, there were vast differences. The JapaneseAmerican endeavor was far younger and smaller, lacking patronage, institutional
infrastructure, and established senior leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois. The Nisei’s efforts
to create their own literary publications such as Gyo-Sho fizzled out in the unpropitious
climate of the Great Depression. World War II certainly cut short the early flowering of
their creative work, including the promising San Francisco magazine edited by James
Omura, Current Life, the Magazine for the American Born Japanese.

17Gender dynamics constituted another key difference.

The Nisei literary

movement appears to have been less male-dominated than the Harlem Renaissance—
women such as Mary Oyama Mittwer, Toyo Suyemoto, and Chiye Mori played activeroles as artists, leaders, and organizers. Perhaps the best-known Nisei fiction writers
today are, in fact, two southern California women, Hisaye Yamamoto and Wakako
Yamauchi, who have been friends since they met in the Poston camp during World War
II.
The Nisei, in their effort to develop a Japanese American approach to literature,
drew encouragement from the accomplishments of fellow Japanese Americans. For
example, the ethnic press took note when Seattle Nisei Setsuko Kashiwagi sold a novel
about Japanese American family life in the future to a Philadelphia press (1934), andKimi Gengo’s poetry collection To One Who Mourns at the Death of the Emperor was
published in New York City in 1935. Kashiwagi and Gengo were two of the few
Japanese Americans who succeeded in publishing books in the prewar period.
The Nisei writers enjoyed a camaraderie forged from a shared passion for creative
expression and a strong sense of ethnic and generational identification; their networks
spanned geographical distances, meeting within the pages of the English-language
sections of the Japanese American newspapers. In 1934, for example, Larry Tajiri noted
the scope of the writers featured in the Kashu Mainichi’s literary section: Welly Shibata
wrote from Osaka, while Aiko Tashiro was in Karuizawa; Tooru Kanazawa had moved to
Alaska; Yasuo Sasaki was studying medicine and sending poems from Cincinnati, Ohio;
Mary Korenaga wrote from Provo, Utah; James Omura was in San Francisco; and Toyo
Suyemoto lived in Sacramento, California.

18

Women writers eagerly read each other’s work and provided warm support. Lily
Yanai, in a 1938 Kashu Mainichi column “Telephooie,” thanked writer Ayako Noguchi
for a gift of orchids, sent perhaps in honor of her restarting the column. Yanai also
complimented Noguchi on her column “La Hash Exclusive,” which she said (taking
Noguchi’s food metaphor) was her “favorite dish” on the Rafu Shimpo menu. Toyo
Suyemoto remarked on the encouragement she received from the more senior writers
such as Mary Oyama, Ellen Thun, Larry Tajiri, and Yasuo Sasaki. Similarly, Hisaye
Yamamoto was influenced and heartened by the Nisei creative writing that appeared in
the ethnic press. Reading their references to each other, playful and admiring, conveys
their sense of community. Despite occasional squabbles, and no end of brickbats fromcritics, they were comrades united by the conviction that they had embarked on a worthy
and exciting enterprise.
New themes entered their writing as wartime tensions rose in the United States.
Somber images shadowed their imaginings. In 1940, in the annual New Year’s edition of
the Kashu Mainichi, in a poem Hisaye Yamamoto asked the “question”:“how can I write of brother loveof laughter of children in the streetof pale shoots in the brown of bare earth
how can I speak of casual thingsof the icy cleanness of fresh fallen snowof Christmas come wrapped in red ribbon
how can I sing glad song and smileat the soft dusky warmth of a blue, blue songor exult in the coolness of smooth rainwhen brothers golden like the sunand brothers with pale white skinhate blindly across the cruelty of steel
when children hide in darkened cellar
or flee uncomprehending in sobbing sorrow

19when cold rain beats down unfound onesrotting in inglorious muddy deathwith frightened eyes…”
The tone of Nisei literature shifted as war abroad and political expediency at home madeJapanese Americans increasingly vulnerable.
CONCLUSION
The nascent Japanese American press provided a crucial forum for Nisei efforts;
few were ever able to reach a wider audience. Within its pages they experimented with awide array of forms, reflecting the influence of high art and popular culture. In theweekend literary sections, social-realist fiction rubbed elbows with romance, sonnets,
haiku, and free verse. Although most of their dreams of public acclaim went unfulfilled,
both their assessments of the realities of life and the possibilities they imagined reveal
much about the ways in which second-generation Americans sought to define themselves
before World War II. The literary sections of the ethnic press also reveal the dynamicroles women played in the effort to develop both a Nisei voice and Nisei literary
networks.

20

Curriculum Vita
VALERIE J. MATSUMOTO
Department of History
Department of Asian American Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
405 Hilgard Avenue
3336 Rolfe Hall, Box 957225
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1473
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7225
Work: (310) 825-4601; 825-4508(310) 267-5592
EDUCATION
Ph.D., U.S. History, Stanford University, 1985.
M.A., U.S. History, Stanford University, 1980.
B.A., U.S. History, Arizona State University, summa cum laude, 1978.
HONORSUCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, 2007.
Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Teaching, UCLA Asian American
Studies Graduate Student Association, 2007.
Toshio and Doris Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA Asian American
Studies Center, 2006.
Organization of American Historians-Japanese Association for American Studies Japan
Residency, Tokyo University, Komaba Campus, 1999.
John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation research award, 1998-99.
Clark Professor, UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies and the William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1993-94.
TEACHING
Professor, Asian American history, U.S. women’s history, twentieth-century
U.S. history, University of California, Los Angeles, 2009 to the present. (Associate
Professor at UCLA, 1993-2009; Assistant Professor at UCLA, 1987-1993.)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Arizona, 1986-87.
PUBLICATIONS“Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn and What Comes Naturally,” Frontiers: A Journal of
Women’s Studies, forthcoming.
“Renegades, Pioneers, and Visionaries: Asian American Women Artists in California,
1890s-1960s,” Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970, eds. Mark D.
Johnson and Gordon Chang (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008).
“Teaching Asian American History and Foodways,” Amerasia Journal 32:2 (2006):75-8.
“Bernice Zamora,” Latinas in the United States: An Historical Encyclopedia, eds. Vicki
L. Ruiz and Virginia Sanchez Korrol (Indiana University Press, 2006).
“Nisei Daughters’ Courtship and Romance in Los Angeles before World War II,” Asian
American Youth Culture, eds. M. Zhou and J. Lee (NY: Routledge, 2004), pp.83-99.
“Japanese American Girls’ Clubs in Los Angeles during the 1920s and 1930s,”
Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: An Historical Anthology, eds. Shirley
Hune and Gail M. Nomura (NY: New York University Press, 2003), pp.172-87.
Guest editor, Amerasia Journal 26:1 special issue, “Histories and Historians in the
Making” (2000).

21

“Los Angeles: Postwar Snapshots,” REgenerations Oral History Project: Rebuilding
Japanese American Families, Communities, and Civil Rights, edited by the JapaneseAmerican National Museum et al (Los Angeles: JANM, 2000), pp.xxix-xli.
Over the Edge: Remapping the American West, co-edited with Blake Allmendinger(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
“Nisei Women and the Creation of Urban Nisei Culture in the 1930s,” Over the Edge:
Remapping the American West, pp.291-306.
“Reflections on Oral History: Research in a Japanese American Community,” Feminist
Dilemmas in Fieldwork, ed. Diane Wolf (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), pp.160-9.
“Redefining Expectations: Nisei Women in the 1930s,” California History (Spring1994):45-53, 88.
Farming the Home Place: A Japanese American Community in California, 1919-1982 (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1993).
“Desperately Seeking ‘Deirdre’: Gender Roles, Multicultural Relations, and Nisei Women
Writers of the 1930s,” Frontiers 12, No.1 (1991):19-32.
“Two Deserts,” Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American
Women, ed. Asian Women United of California (Boston: Beacon Press, 1990); also
published in The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American Women’s Anthology, eds. Shirley
Geok-lin Lim et al (Corvallis, Oregon: Calyx Books, 1989).
“Japanese American Women during World War II,” Frontiers 8, No.1 (1984):6-14.
Reprinted in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women’s History,eds. Ellen DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz (NY: Routledge, 1990, 1994, 2000).
PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS (RECENT)“Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn and What Comes Naturally,” American Historical
Association, January 2010.
“Rice and Rings: Nisei Women, Courtship and Marriage in the Early Postwar Period,”
The Legacy of Japanese Women / Past, Present & Future: U.S.-Japan Women’s
Dialogue, a symposium sponsored by the Consul General of Japan and the National
Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco, CA, March 22, 2008,“Celebrating the Seamless Art and Life of Ruth Asawa,” M.H. De Young Art Museum,
San Francisco, California, January 6, 2007.
“Seeking ‘Deirdre’ -- and Finding Her in the Diary of Mary Oyama Mittwer, 1934-8,”
Visionaries in the Academy: Women of Color at UCLA, faculty lecture series,
Young Research Library, November 17, 2005.
“Fashion and Ritual in the Development of an Urban Nisei World: Japanese American
Women in Los Angeles, 1920s-30s,” Berkshire Conference of Women’s History,
Claremont, California, June 2005.
“Japanese American Internment during World War II” and “Women on the Home Front,”
History Links: Teaching American History summer institute, Rutherford B Hayes
Center, Fremont, Ohio, June 16-17, 2005.
“Using Oral History to Unearth Japanese American History,” Japanese Americans in
Arizona Oral History Project, Phoenix, Arizona, November 8, 2003.
“Researching Asian American Women’s History,” Resourceful Women: Researchingand Interpreting American Women’s History, a Library of Congress Symposium,
Washington, D.C., June 20, 2003.

22

An Exhibition of Japanese American Women Through Social Networks
By Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director of the National Japanese American
Historical Society.
Tanaka sensei, Yamamoto sensei, Kwansei Gakuin University, minasama- de
Ohiyo gozaimasu.
Tada ima goshokai ni azukarimashita
TONAI, ROSALYN desu.
Konoyouna sekide aisatsu dekiru koto wo
Taihen kouei ni o moimasu
This is a great honor to be presenting today.
Taihen moushiwake arimasen, nihongo ga
Amari tokui dewanai node,
Koko kara wa

eigo-nite shi-tsu-re-itashimasu

It is a great honor for me to be here today. You’ll have to excuse me, since I haveam unable to speak in Japanese having not lived in Japan for over 40 years, I’llbe presenting in English.
My talk today is about Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women’s
Story through Exhibition
I consider myself a practitioner in the area of exhibition planning, organizationand development.
I’d like to share with you my observations and experience in presenting theJapanese American women’s story through exhibition.
Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1885 to 1990, happened
over 20 years ago, yet it still has its effect on social networking today.
I was so pleased to see the special Nikkei women’s exhibit at the Yokohama
Overseas Migration Museum. Many of the women scholars here today, hadworked tirelessly on its scholarship, photographs, artifacts, and stories that were
so well presented. I understand Empress Michiko will have an opportunity to see
the exhibit soon. I’m sure she’ll be very impressed with the diversity of ordinary
women’s stories presented.
An exhibition can be one of the best ways to present relatively unknown stories
to the public and to achieve multiple goals.It presents original academic
scholarship, facilitates the discovery of rare artifacts and archival materials, and23

initiates the collection of oral histories. In the realm of public engagement, an
exhibition raises awareness, empowers people, and creates long-term
relationships both institutionally and professionally. Ultimately, it fosters along-term impact and which can sustain social change.
We achieved this, not always by design, but through a process of social
networking and organizing. These are the same essential ingredients used,especially when the story of Japanese American women are under represented
in mainstream institutions.
I began working at the National Japanese American Historical Society in
September 1987. I was a graduate student in nonprofit administration at the
University of San Francisco. Prior to that I had graduated from UC Berkeley,
majoring in Social Welfare and worked in the Asian American community on
Asian immigrants and refugees issues, namely job training and mental healthneeds assessment. But what I learned from the activists-turned-practitioners was
an upholding of value of diversity among all Asians. Every story was important,especially those communities whose voices were underrepresented in themainstream.
Dr. Clifford Uyeda, who was himself a “change agent” and John Tateishi who
also led the successful redress campaign within the Japanese American Citizens
League (JACL). Together with Tom Kawaguchi, a distinguished veteran of WorldWar II (of the 442nd and Military Intelligence Service,) who helped bring thestory of Japanese American soldiers to the Smithsonian’s A More Perfect Union:
Japanese Americans and the US Constitution, all wanted me to stay, as part oftheir long-term succession plan. They suggested that I work on a women’s
exhibit, with which I had no experience. They assembled a group ofwell-educated, accomplished Japanese American women in the San Francisco
Bay Area, both Nisei and Sansei.
Many of them were from the Women’s Concerns Committee of the JACL, who
had organized themselves to bring up gender related issues through the ranks of
the JACL. Morale in the community at the time was running high, because of thenational media attention of the Smithsonian’s exhibit, and redress was gaining
momentum in Congress and in the Courts.
Some critical pieces fell into place to get us on track with the exhibition‘sdevelopment:
1. We secured a museum venue. The Oakland Museum of California.
2. We secured funding. A matching grant from the California Council of the
Humanities, a branch of National Endowment for the Humanities.
3. We secured good leadership, with institutional support.
So how did this all come together? Social Networks.
The Oakland Museum of California had just hired Carey Caldwell as their Senior

24

Curator of History. She had come from establishing a Suquamish Tribal Museum
in the Pacific Northwest working with Native American elders andanthropologists. She had established personal relationships with JapaneseAmericans on Bainbridge Island. Her dentist and local leader was Frank Kitamoto
a former internee and the young boy in the famous iconic photo of the motherand children leaving Bainbridge Island.
I followed up with Carey Caldwell and her boss, Chief Curator Tom Frye,well-known in the museum world. A site visit to our offices was arranged. Later, I
learned that the Museum was developing collaborations with other ethnic
communities such as the African Americans-African American Historical
Association in Oakland, as they were grappling with issues of diversity within themuseum world. Our exhibit followed theirs, reflecting the Bay Area’s rich anddiverse ethnic heritage.
How we got funding? The Humanities Council wanted to fund this project as it
illuminated the story of internment experience through a unique perspective, fromthe little known history of women. We stacked the proposal with experts in thefield. Professors Valerie Matsumoto, UCLA, James Hirabayashi, SFState
University, Jerold Takahashi, UC Berkeley, Carey Caldwell and Tom Frye fromthe Oakland Museum. Also professional designers like Jonathan Hirabayashi and
Janice Kawamoto joined the team.
Most importantly, the leadership evolved out of an existing network of womenwith former commissioner Anne Saito Howden convening the first meetings, thenlater Chizu Iiyama and Alice Nakahata taking the helm as co-chairs of the
Womens Exhibit Committee. The two worked together on the Womens Concerns
Committee of JACL and had a cadre of feminists working through JACL to push
for womens issues: health care, elder care, gender rights. Subcommittees got
organized. We had Niseis with organizing and administrative experience like
Nikki Noriko Sawada Bridges, writer and wife of the legendary union leader Harry
Bridges, writer Mei Nakano who wrote the accompanying book: JapaneseAmerican Women Three generations, Daisy Satoda who worked on Oral
Histories at NJAHS, redress activist Kiku Funabiki, Naoko Ito-quilter, Dr. Reiko
True, former director of SF Mental Health Department, Katherine Reyes andFlorence Hongo, Japanese American Curriculum Project (AACP).
Sanseis: Gayle Nishikawa, Kathleen Hirooka and Pat Abe, and Lynne Horiuchicurator of Turning Leaves.
CONTENT.
Whose story was this?
Who was the audience?
We invited the professors to help address the content issues. A lively discussion
ensued. It seemed to line up along gender, men vs. women, but that is because
many of our women were feminists or activists. Prostitutes and runaway wives-25

issue raised concerns among the men-folk including historical evidence ofdomestic violence. Many of the men did not want to be portrayed that way.
There was a long explanation about why we should be discouraged from doingso.
We asked: Who was this audience for? The broader public? For our community?
We agreed we needed to validate the experience and lives of ordinary women.
Back in 1987, there was a lack of historical materials on Japanese American
women; few books, studies, let alone scholars existed on the subject. It wasevident and presented a challenge.
Recognizing this, the committee organized teams through California whichquickly expanded nationwide to conduct oral histories. Within nine months, somesixty oral histories were collected from Issei, Nisei, Sansei, urban, ruralcommunities, well-known and ordinary women, some even anonymously.
These recordings and transcripts revealed a past rich with stories never told,
routines of daily life forgotten and feelings well hidden. Through these oral
histories the collective story of Japanese American women was pieced together.
Mei Nakano, stepped in to write a book to include many of these interviews she
conducted and others collected through oral history. Her publication: JapaneseAmerican Women: Three Generations: 1890 to 1990 would be used inclassrooms for Asian American Studies.
Exhibit collections proved to be another challenge with many prized possessions
once owned by JA lost or destroyed during WWII. An area-wide call went out andsoon, we can a nice collection of pre-WWII, wartime and postwar era artifacts.
This was an unusual exhibit in that it was produced, and curated primarily bycommittee.
The interpretative program and materials were rich and extensive which included
an exhibition video, classroom guide, a book, school program, docent program,
public programs, film screenings, literary talks and book signing, presentations
on camp, dance performances, art & quilt exhibitions
A record number of 30,000 people attended the exhibition which ran for threemonths. Facial tissues were requested in the gallery because the visitors were
often emotionally overpowered by the poignant stories revealed. Chanceencounters, serendipitous some after 50 years occurred.
The show was so successful that the Museum suggested that we tour it. While I
was honored by the success. I was somewhat about hesitant about thisopportunity. Strength & Diversity was like giving birth. It took quite a lot ofstrength and endurance.The exhibit’s “gestation” was 2 years. One could imagine
being under pressure of not two mothers’ expectations, but under 40 mothers!

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“Little did we know that we would undertake a personal journey into our varied
and sometimes unknown pasts and arrive at a better understanding about
ourselves as Japanese American women with a deeper appreciation for ourmothers.“
We decided to proceed… because we needed to capture more local stories.
Strength & Diversity toured to Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York,
Nevada, and California through the Smithsonian Institution.
It received awards from the American Assoc. for State and Local History 1991
and 1992 from the Smithsonian Institution Award of Excellence for
new Scholarship and the discovery of original artifacts.
NJAHS developed many more groundbreaking exhibitions such as LATENT
AUGUST, the Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1994, and Diamonds in the
Rough: Japanese Americans in Baseball, which toured to the Baseball Halls ofFame in the US and Japan in 1997 & 1999. We are currently working on thedevelopment of the MIS Historic Learning Center a preservation and adaptive
reuse project, using the same formula for success.
Long-lasting, systemic.
First. The women went on to greater scholarship… to see and meet the growing
number of Japanese American scholars from Japan both men and women is justamazing in the last 20 years. Other women from the committee went on to form
nonprofit organizations, work on human rights, peace redress issues, advanced
their careers. We continue to work on issues related to historic preservation.
What was learned?
Never underestimate the power that you hold and the strength within yourself
and friends that you make. The chance encounters, the new relationships andinterconnections we have are quite powerful and we can move mountains.
This journey has underscored the need to create museums and educational
learning centers, such as the one we are working on with the National Park
Service at the Presidio of San Francisco so that these historic places of learning,
so that the lessons of the Japanese American experiences can be told to theworld.
It has certainly heightened my awareness of how a movement can make change
and how we can become a part of a greater whole. We dedicate ourselves topreserving history--sharing the stories the very way that we understand them tobe from the Issei, Nisei..To deliver a clear message--to ensure a more peacefuland just future…
During this Thanksgiving season, I must acknowledge Dr. Satsuki Ina who
introduced me to this group of energetic women scholars who were able to meetthe pioneers of this JA women scholars consortium Sensei Professor Ikuyo
Tanaka and Professor Masako Iino and many of you who are here to day. You
need to commend yourselves, pursuing your careers, for following your passions,27

in addition to raising your children, taking care of your family, husbands,
partners…
I thank the number of supportive men, like my mentors, Clifford and Tom, andhusband who supported us with funding, organizational support, andunquestioning faith in our ideas.

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