By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Contributor
As a Japanese American, born and raised in the United States,
Minoru Tonai says he’s always felt treated like a stranger. A
director of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, he
hopes that one day Japanese Americans’ rich culture will be
realized as one of the many that make up the overall culture of
America.
Located in downtown Los Angeles in the heart of Little Tokyo,
the JACCC was founded in 1980 and has now grown to be the largest
Asian American cultural center in the United States. Their original
mission was to present and preserve the various forms of Japanese
art and to encourage American understanding of Japanese culture,
but now the center does much more than that.
Bryan Yamami, who is the grants and programs administrator at
the center, believes that there is still a strong need for the
JACCC, even in this day and age where racial lines are becoming
more transparent than in the past.
“The JACCC’s ongoing mission is to present,
perpetuate and transmit Japanese American culture to diverse
audiences,” Yamami said. “I think in an ideal world the
JACCC would not need to exist because American presenters and
museums would be presenting diverse works from all communities and
cultures, but it will never happen.”
The Center operates year round, co-sponsoring events such as the
Nisei Week Japanese Festival ““ the largest Japanese festival
in the country ““ gallery exhibitions, dance shows, and taiko
drumming concerts such as “Sangokushi: The Legend of the
Three Kingdoms” which will be shown this spring. You can find
an exhibit on just about anything that has to do with Asian
American culture at the JACCC.
The center has a remarkable array of facilities, which it uses
for these various activities. There is the Japanese American
Theatre which hosts JACCC’s theatrical productions, the
Doizaki Gallery which exhibits the artwork of various
Asian-American artists, as well as the JACCC Plaza, the location of
the Nisei Festival.
In addition to these venues, the JACCC also consists of the
Franklin D. Murphy Library, whose books focus on Japanese American
history, culture, life and much more. There is also the beautiful
James Irvine Garden which has won the National Landscape Award of
the American Association of Nursery.
Yamami feels that the JACCC is important because it helps both
Japanese American artists as well as educates the community.
“We, for awhile, need the JACCC to be that guiding force
to support artists in our community who wouldn’t get
presented otherwise and to help support and cultivate those artists
as well,” he said.
To cultivate these up-and-coming artists, the JACCC hosts many
different hands-on workshops which are free of charge on arts such
as Japanese classical dance and percussion, as well as contemporary
music, theater and dance. Recently initiated is the Summer Taiko
Institute which is a thorough week-long training program in taiko,
a form of drumming, where drummers can interact with master taiko
drummers.
The JACCC isn’t just limited in its perspective and
outreach to Asian Americans, however. Not only have they been the
host of events surrounding other cultures such as “El Teatro
Campesino” and “Djimbe West African Dancers and
Drummers,” but also one of the main purposes of the center is
to promote understanding of their rich culture by others.
Kymberly Aoki, community programs associate and coordinator of
the center’s Children’s Day Festival which will be
having it’s 18th year anniversary this coming weekend,
believes that the center can be a learning experience for everyone.
Aoki said that schools frequently visit the center when learning
about Japan and Japanese culture.
“I think it’s valuable for everyone,” she
said. “I think it’s more valuable to people of my
generation just because I think through time we’ve lost a lot
of contact with things Japanese. It helps to remind you where
you’re coming from.”
“A place like this offers culture in a different aspect,
in a different environment,” she continued. “It has
universal appeal, I think.”
As Tonai puts it, the center is indispensable in its ability to
provide Japanese Americans, as well as Asian Americans a haven from
the plights of everyday society. He also mentioned that the center
is useful as a cultural ambassador between Asians and those of
different ethnic backgrounds.
“The reason I was involved (in the center) is because I
feel that when an Asian is out in the public, (people) look at you
as being a foreigner,” he said about his experience with
prejudice.
“(People) asked me things like “˜When did you come to
the United States?’ and “˜Oh my, When did you learn to
speak such good English,'” he said. “So, my
feeling has been, had been then and is still now, that as the
general American public becomes more familiar with Japanese
culture, then you become less of a stranger. You become
acceptable.”
Minoru is just one of many who help to make the center what it
is today and to ensure that it stays true to its original goal of
creating a haven for Asian Americans to find refuge from a world
they can’t help but sometimes feel isolated from.
COMMUNITY: The JACCC is located at 244 S. San Pedro St. in
downtown Los Angeles. For information on available volunteer
programs at the JACCC, contact Chris Aihara at (213) 628-2725 x115
or visit www.jaccc.org.