Year 2022 is going to be a busy one for Aaron Ushiro. As a member of the JAMsj Board of Directors, he will be leading the project to renovate the Kawakami House. And as an architect, he also has a brand-new day job. The JAMsj Blog sat down with him to learn about him and what’s happening with the Kawakami House Project this year and beyond.
Aaron in front of the Kawakami House
Q. Please tell us a little about yourself.
A. I'm originally from the Hawaii town of Wailuku in Maui and I came to California when I was 17 years old. I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where I majored in architecture, with a minor in construction management. My career has moved me all around California, starting in Southern California where I worked for an architect that did educational work, building schools, and school district offices. Then I worked for a general contractor as a field engineer to learn how a project is built and worked on restoring the historical US Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Then I worked on building envelope and restoration projects in the Bay Area where our team was hired by homeowners and Architects to fix problems in a building or to prevent something from going wrong as they were being built. That was really fun.
Next, I wanted to expand my skillset and learn what it takes to represent the owner. So, I became the Senior Architect at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. I worked there for 7 years and the last project I worked on was designing and building the new Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) facility. It's a fire station dedicated to airport emergency operations. The facility at the Mineta San Jose International Airport was originally built in the 1960s and it was falling apart. It's been three years in the making and is just about to officially open. Every time I talk to the firefighters they are glowing and I can tell that they love the new facility.
Q. It sounds like you have a lot of experience in restoration and that you have the perfect background to lead the Kawakami House Project. How did you become involved with JAMsj?
A.It was around 2013 when I was representing the airport. There were a lot of events that involved Norman Mineta and as I was getting notified of these events. I felt that the Japanese American community should be present when Norm comes back home. So, I called Michael (Sera, JAMsj President) and told him that I'd like to get more of the community involved. Michael brought in the representatives from the community and that’s how I got to know him.
I started volunteering at the board meetings and listened to get a feel of who we're working with and what we represent. I had a good job at the airport, but it lacked that sense of community. Beyond doing my job here in San Jose, I didn't feel like I was part of San Jose. I felt like I just lived here – almost like a visitor. Something was missing. And so, when Michael asked me to do this, I felt like I'm making a difference. I can use my skill set to help an organization with a vision greater than myself.
And then Michael introduced me to the Kawakami House project and asked me how we could get it started.
Q. And how did you embark on this project?
A. First, we did a lot of research and investigation on the background of the house. Historical Reports, thesis’, and interviewing past volunteers/board members were intricate in getting the home’s story. What we found is this home represents the struggles and tenacity of the Japanese Americans as their family members were incarcerated at Heart Mountain Wyoming War Relocation Authority, represented in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and became naturalized citizens after years of living in the United States.
We then interviewed the Kawakami Family, the son, and niece of George Kawakami. George was the first son to be born in the United States and had US citizenship. His father, Kohachi, bought the house in George’s name when he was one year old. At the time, Alien Land Laws prevented non-citizens from owning property. This presented the only way to gain property rights at the time. The son, Raymond Kawakami, sent me this naturalization certificate of Kohachi Kawakami, and this was what hit me right in the heart. Just a few years before he passed away, he was granted citizenship. So, the very thing that prevented him from buying the house, he was finally given before the end of his life. Unfortunately, his wife passed away before that, so she couldn't see that.
Kohachi Kawakami's naturalization certificate
We have a pretty good handle of what that house used to be and what it represented. And now that it's in the possession of JAMsj, we needed to figure out what we want to do with it. We asked everybody to get together and had a brainstorming session with the volunteers, the Board, and Advisory Board. What kind of functions? What kind of spaces do you want to see? How do you want to use it?
And what we came up with was that everybody wanted to call it a “storytelling space” where people could tell their immigration story, whether it's Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean – the whole spectrum of the Asian American experience.
And then there's another thought that we wanted to get to and that was to serve as a community hub. There are some community groups that don't have a meeting space. We could provide that opportunity for them to use it for their meetings. And then lastly, we have to keep operating as a museum and we have expenses. So, what if this could be used for corporate retreats and then we can generate revenue from it, so we can support the actual museum and have a mixture of experiences.
So those are the three purposes that we are looking into, and we are going to move forward with that in the rehabilitation design. Not only do we need to rehabilitate the exterior, but there's a lot of work to be done in the interior. Data systems, mechanical, electrical systems, plumbing systems – they all have to be upgraded. Once we have all the infrastructure upgrades, then we know that it can support all those different functions we talked about.
Q. So where are we at now?
A. So, it's in a very early stage, but amazingly, we've had some very generous donations within the past few months. We had a $100,000 donation towards the house and then another donor gave us $350,000 that we can use for this project. This allows us to start the actual design. We hope to get that started in April, and then we'll probably finish towards the end of 2022.
The next step would be to start a capital campaign program, which will be led by our fund development managers. It's a big endeavor, but you have to start with a big vision. The good news is that the initial donations will help us show what we are trying to do and that will help with raising more money. We can show them the rendering and drawings which I think will spark interest.
Q. Can you tell us about your new job?
A. At the end of January, I started as a Commodity Manager for Apple Real Estate and Development. My job responsibilities will involve the design, fabrication, and procurement of specific building finishes for Apple Stores worldwide. I’m excited to embark on this new opportunity.
By Norri Kageki
You can read a previous article on the Kawakami House Project at the following link.