Japanese American Culture in the Bay Area

The Keller Family Venture Grant gave me the opportunity to research the current Japanese American Culture in San Francisco and San Jose where Japanese American Culture is prominent. I intend to focus on the personal effects of Topaz, a Japanese internment camp where my grandparents were incarcerated in, as well as learning the history of the JA experience and seeing how it affects the present. As I am of Japanese descent, I intended to and did creative writing on my complicated connection to these sites each day.

Methodology

Before departing on this project, read a lot of Japanese American Literature and curated a list of questions/prompts to write about.

On the first day, I visited the Japanese Tea Garden and as I picked my way around the koi pond, I stopped periodically to creative write on the garden imagery.

On the second day, I traveled by commuter train to San Jose, where I visited the Japantown in San Jose and the Japanese American Museum. The museum offered a really insightful history on art created in the Japanese internment camps and a lovely display of Hinamatsuri. Here I wrote on the hour and a half commute to and from San Jose.

On the third day, I attended a college class at The Japanese Cultural and Community Center of North California and went to Japantown. There I talked to a lot of the people attending the class and experienced the busyness of San Francisco Japantown. Later in the evening, I wrote about what the experience of Japantown and the class felt like.

My Writing Prompts

• What is Japanese American Culture?

• How have the Internment Camps affected Japan town and Japanese American Culture?

• How does the Japanese American experience change as a biracial person?

• How does one process the uncovering and disjuncture from an ethnicity/heritage?

• What comes after a loss of rights and where how does culture adapt to larger shifts?

Upon Completion

After the completion of my project, I wrote an article and painted a picture in Cipher, the creative nonfiction magazine at CC, titled, "A Conversation with the Earth" that is part of the Miss You Issue. This piece strings together pieces of my writing from this Venture Grant and the watercolor painting depicts a bridge in the Japanese Tea Gardens.

Throughout this project, I was able to get a stronger grasp on what sites Japanese American culture inhabits in San Francisco and San Jose. This was a strong starting point and gave me a clearer sense on what I am interested in further pursuing - what Japanese American culture is to others in the Japanese American community. Looking and experiencing famous landmarks helped me gather a sense about what static sites have remained in the Bay Area, and I want to look further into the social and more community based scene in the Bay Area.