PRESS ANNOUNCEMENTFor Immediate Release
Contact:
Naomi Funahashi, Symposium Coordinator,nfunahashi@jcccnc.org
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California
1840 Sutter Street z San Francisco, CA 94115
415.567.5505 z www.jcccnc.org

Preserving California’s Japantowns Symposium –“Documenting Our Communities, History, Culture,Stories, & Sites” Workshop
SAN FRANCISCO (June 2, 2006) – Preserving California's Japantowns, the firststatewide project to document historic resources from the numerous pre-World War II
Japantowns, will be presented at the “Preserving California’s Japantowns Symposium” tobe held on June 9th at the Miyako Hotel in San Francisco. Historians and culturalplanners, Gail Dubrow and Donna Graves, will lead efforts to document historic buildings
and landscapes, broaden public awareness and encourage the preservation of places
and memories significant to historic Japanese American communities across California.
Preserving California’s Japantowns is sponsored by the California Japanese American
Community Leadership Council (CJACLC) with funding provided by the California Civil
Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP).

In various Japanese American directories from the early 1940’s and historic archival
sources, over 100 Japanese American communities are cited. In consultation with anexpert advisory committee, a list of 43 communities has been selected for the project
research. Ensuring that regional and distinctive economic characteristics and culturalfeatures associated with diverse Japantowns are represented, the following communities
have been identified:

Alameda; Bakersfield; Berkeley; Brawley; Cortez; El Centro; Florin;
Fowler; Fresno; Gardena; Gilroy; Glendale; Guadalupe; Isleton;
Livingston; Lodi; Lompoc; Long Beach; Marysville; Monterey; Mountain
View; Oakland; Oxnard; Pasadena; Sebastopol/Petaluma; Riverside;
Sacramento; Salinas; San Diego; San Mateo; San Pedro; Santa Ana;
Santa Barbara; Santa Maria; Santa Monica; Sawtelle; Stockton; Terminal
Island; Vacaville; Venice; Visalia; Walnut Grove; WatsonvilleGathering Nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) memories, especially fromthose who experienced these pre-WWII communities, and connecting them to the fullrange of California’s Japantowns is an urgent task, and a central purpose of Preserving
California’s Japantowns.

Donna Graves and Gail Dubrow are co-authors of Sento at Sixth and Main: Preserving
Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage, a defining critical publication on thepreservation of ethnic communities. “This work rediscovered early Japanese American
culture and presents an indisputable case for the preservation of ten key landmarks in
California and Washington,” states Alan Nishio, chairperson of California Japantowns
Preservation Committee of CJACLC.

Donna Graves has nearly twenty years experience developing public history projects
throughout California that document and interpret our state’s diverse history. Most
recently, she served as Project Director for the City of Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter
Memorial, and worked with the City and National Park Service to initiate, plan andimplement the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, which
includes an interpretive exhibit about the experience of local Japanese Americans andItalian Americans.

For the past two decades, Gail Dubrow has led numerous projects documenting historicsites and buildings for the National Park Service as well as state and local government.
These projects have included a Draft National Study of Japanese American Cultural
Resources, a study documenting the Historic Context for the Protection of Asian/Pacific
American Resources in Washington State, and a Plan for the Protection of Asian/Pacific
American Heritage in King County, Washington. More recently, her work has focused on
the preservation of cultural resources in historic Japantowns, including a community
charrette, "Restoring a Sense of Place in Seattle's Nihonmachi," and contributions toCarey & Company's recent study of San Jose's Japantown.

Graves and Dubrow will provide an overview of Preserving California’s Japantowns aspart of the CCLPEP 2006 Project presentations. For the afternoon workshop entitled“Documenting Our Communities, History, Culture, Stories, & Sites”, Preserving
California’s Japantowns team, Graves, Dubrow, and project manager Jill Shiraki, will
facilitate a roundtable discussion to share methodologies and tools for documenting
community history, culture, stories, and sites. Interested individuals, community
representatives, and coordinators of related community projects are encouraged toattend. For those interested in participating in the workshop, please contact ProjectManager Jill Shiraki at (510) 277-2164 or pcj@californiajapantowns.org
In collaboration with “Birth of A Community: 100th Anniversary of San Francisco’sJapantown”, a project of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of NorthernCalifornia, California Japantowns, an interactive website to engage new audiences andeducate visitors on the historic legacies of Japantown communities across the state andthe vibrant communities of the three remaining Japantowns in California, is being
developed. To preview the first phase of the website, visit www.californiajapantowns.org

The Preserving California’s Japantowns Symposium is organized by the Japanese
Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) in partnership with theCalifornia Japanese American Community Leadership Council (CJACLC) and the supportof the California Cultural & Historical Endowment, California Preservation Foundation, theNational Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Nichi Bei Times.

Join us in engaging our communities to learn about the cultural and historic preservationof our Japantowns. Symposium fees are $40 general registration (by June 5), and $10
student/senior registration. Registration fees include a continental breakfast, box lunch,and buffet reception.

For general information or questions, contact Naomi Funahashi at
nfunahashi@jcccnc.org or (415) 567-5505. For registration, call JCCCNC at (415) 5675505 or visit www.californiajapantowns.org.

About JCCCNC
Envisioned by the Japanese American community, JCCCNC will be an everlasting
foundation of our Japanese American ancestry, cultural heritage, histories and traditions.
The JCCCNC strives to meet the evolving needs of the Japanese American community
through programs, affordable services and administrative support and facilities for otherlocal service organizations. The JCCCNC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community center
based in San Francisco.

About CJACLC
California Japanese American Community Leadership Council (CJACLC) is the leadingstate organization helping to preserve and bring new recognition to the three remaininghistoric Japantowns in California, located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose.

CJACLC was established in 1998 through a grant from the Sumitomo Global Foundation
to organize and coordinate statewide issues concerning the Japanese Americancommunity. CJACLC is the sponsoring organizations for Preserving California
Japantowns.

About CCLPEPThe California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) was created in 1999
as the result of the passage of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Act (AB1914and AB1915) sponsored by Assemblymember Mike Honda. The legislation creates theCalifornia Civil Liberties Public Education Program, CCLPEP. Its purpose is to provide
competitive grants for public educational activities and the development of educational
materials to ensure that the events surrounding the exclusion, forced removal andincarceration of civilians and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry will beremembered and so that causes and circumstances of this and similar events may beilluminated and understood. The CCLPEP has funded $5.5 million over the past six
years in more than 160 projects. For more information about the CCLPEP, visit
www.library.ca.gov/cclpep.
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