Over the next few months, JAMsj will be posting “Nikkei in San Jose”, a blog series by volunteer and writer, Judith Ichisaka. Through research and interviews, Judith explores the diversity of the Japanese diaspora here within San Jose, both through a historical and personal lens.
Nikkei in San Jose: Meet judith
Just after World War II ended, Japanese American former internees picked up where they left off in their hometowns, including San Jose. To this day, San Jose Betsuin and Wesley Methodist have been the neighborhood’s religious anchors, and one can still recognize longtime restaurants like Gombei and Kazoo. Once the former internees retired and new generations of Japanese Americans started taking over in the first two decades of the 21st century, San Jose Japantown was no longer catering to just the founding Issei and Nisei. As Sansei and Yonsei became old enough to run small businesses and franchises, some original establishments like Dobashi Market have turned into Nijiya Market, and others have been replaced with a new dance studio or a trendy crepe shop. As new apartment buildings and businesses appeared, so has the customer base, making the present-day Japantown more diverse than ever.
It is with books, museum archives, and interviews that protectively preserve the memories and reminders of the Issei and Nisei experience that we can continue educating new generations about the original immigrant journey and the wartime experience, as well as documenting the ever-evolving personal identity as we move further into the 21st century and beyond.
This blog series for the Japanese American Museum aims to share a glimpse of the vast Japanese diaspora experiences and identities formed with influences outside the United States and Japan, and how these factors add to the diversity we know as San Jose Japantown.
Judith and her mother in Narita in 1981.
Judith’s Story
I grew up in a small town south of San Jose in a quiet neighborhood with very few Asians. My connection with Japanese culture was mainly through my parents, who were both born and raised in Japan. My strong sense of “Japanese” identity formed quickly as I spent many summers with my maternal grandparents and close relatives in Japan. I was bilingual from the start, and as a young adult, I gained an unforgettable experience as a Japanese Language teacher with the San Jose Betsuin, teaching English in Japan, and a short stint translating manuals for the US Air Force based at Yokota AFB near Tokyo.
However, my strong sense of “American” identity as a Japanese American is equally deeply rooted, given my formal education was in the United States, and I’m considered Yonsei because my great-grandparents immigrated to the US via Canada in 1907. I have family members who, similar to others in our community, were active U.S. soldiers in the 442nd, Korean War and in Vietnam. We have also been closely connected with the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and of course, San Jose, where we continuously participated in festivals and supported local businesses in those communities.
After a few years of working in Silicon Valley and finishing my Masters in Comparative Literature, I uprooted once again to Vancouver, Canada in 2007 – completely unaware at the time that exactly 100 years before, my great-grandparents married in Victoria, British Columbia. During my first month of living in Vancouver, I did not have a strong network besides my then Canadian boyfriend (now husband) and some work colleagues, so naturally, I reached out to the local Japanese Canadian community. I joined the Vancouver Kendo Dojo and volunteered as a writer for RicePaper, an Asian-Canadian magazine.
And that’s where my eyes really opened.
From this personal experience, it wasn’t in Japan that I felt like a “gaijin” (“outsider”) - the most culture shock I had was actually in Canada. My own identity as “Nikkei” was challenged on the grounds that not every North American Japanese knew and experienced the same thing. As obvious as that may sound, the reality was that Japanese Canadian history was never taught during my formative years in school in the United States, and so I just assumed that Japanese Canadians have enjoyed the same rights and freedoms as any other Japanese American right after the war.
But I quickly noticed that there wasn’t a single Canadian city with a “Japantown”. The center of Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian community was not a church, but rather the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, located in the adjacent suburb of Burnaby. Many Japanese Canadians I met had family dispersed in other parts of the country, such as in Winnipeg or Toronto, and most of the Nisei or Sansei Japanese Canadians that I encountered did not speak a word of Japanese. This was just the tip of the iceberg; I had to learn about the Japanese Canadian experience from square one, and found myself feeling fascinated, devastated, and empathetic while hearing each person’s narratives and recollections of their unique journey during the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Judith with colleagues in Vancouver.
Written for JAMsj by Judith Ichisaka
“Nikkei in San Jose” posts will be published on the 15th and 30th of each month. Sign up for the JAMsj eNews or follow us on social media for notifications when new posts are published!