When two masters, associated with reunions, tours and pilgrimages, dreamt about an "until we meet again" get-together for Nisei in Northern and Central California, the low-key promotion they launched in June attracted a tremendous response - beyond what was expected.
The original hotel site became inadequate and pre-registered interest was overwhelming. The switch to the Sacramento Doubletree was like scoring a touchdown. "We couldn't carry this off in San Francisco," admitted one partygoer, "with a $90 registration covering two dinners." And attendees made their own hotel reservations at $99 single/double occupancy per night.
Final tally of the first Multi-Camp Get-Together, for (but not necessarily) evacuees from Amache, Poston, Topaz and Tule Lake, was 430 - 56 percent women. An eyeball guess figured most of us were in our 80s, though Sansei and Yonsei stood in line for the Sunday night buffet mixer.
The oldest attendee present was finally determined to be Dr. Masako Kusayanagi Miura, 92, (Manzanar/Topaz). Stanley Kanzaki (Topaz) from New York was declared the one who had traveled the farthest.
Retired preacher Rev. George Nishikawa (Tule Lake/Topaz) of Sacramento expressed the invocation at the Sayonara dinner. Kiyo Sato Nunneley (Poston) and Ruby Matsubara (Tule Lake) handled the Sunday and Monday welcome phase, respectively.
Songs from Camp days, including "Shina no Yoru," were rendered at the buffet dinner by the Music Makers Henry Mizushima and Peter Shima. Singalong sheets from Paul Ito and Joe Fujioka had the house warbling tunes at the Sayonara, such as "I'm Looking over a Four Leaf Clover," "Sentimental Journey," and "Auld Lang Syne."
Table-hopping was par for the night. At our table was George Oki, pioneering Sacramento Nisei horticulturist who was accepted as a member of the California Association of Nurserymen, then an all-white professional group in the 1950s, and later elected its president.
Our happy reunion included JACLers from Sacramento - Chewy Ito, Tom Fujimoto, Tom Okubo and Kikuji Ryugo; from Palo Alto - Chuck Kubokawa (Topaz); and from Salinas - Fred Oshima, George and Janice Higashi. We caught up with longtime Calif. State University trustee Dr. John Kashiwabara from Long Beach, Bob Iwasaki from Los Angeles, Marvin and Miya Uratsu from Richmond, prewar San Franciscan Koji Kawaguchi (Topaz) and Paula Shimizu, an early Junior JACL activist.
Seeing Sacramento with Gene
There were 20 of us taking the Sacramento city tour led by Gene Itogawa (Tule Lake), a retiree from the state recreation and park agency, whom I first met in 1969 when then Governor Reagan dedicated Okei's gravesite as a state historic landmark. Thus, I knew we had the best guide around.
Gene began with a bit of Sacramento Issei history. The first Japanese in the city was believed to be Manjiro (John Mung in early American history), who was rescued off an islet in the mid-Pacific in 1841 by Capt. William Whitfield, an American whaler. American Heritage, December '56, titled the Manjiro story as "The Man Who Discovered America."
Befriended by Whitfield, Manjiro lived for nine years in Fairhaven, Mass. He learned English at the one-room schoolhouse (still standing as a tour spot of the Manjiro Trail) and navigation at sea. He wanted to return to Japan, a country still isolated by a policy warranting death to Japanese who leave and try to return. Which explains his presence in Sacramento during the Gold Rush. He found a nugget "almost as large as an egg" that paid his passage back to Japan.
Initially arrested on setting foot in Japan (it was the law then), the authorities found he knew English and Western customs. Eventually, he translated for Japanese officials President Fillmore's letter addressed to the Mikado, which Commodore Perry had presented in 1853. Perry returned the following year for the reply. And "the rest is history," as we all say.
The first tour stop was to view the Japanese American exhibit at the CSU Sacramento library, a campus bursting with multi-story buildings under construction. Eye-catching were the wood butsudan from the Florin Buddhist Temple, a hand-sewn vest featuring a tiger, and walking canes crafted and adorned with ornate Japanese art.
As the bus passed Nihonmachi, an area that existed until state capital redevelopment in 1954, Gene pointed out its last remnants: Sacramento JACL Office and the Nisei VFW Hall.
Our second stop in Old Sacramento was at the amazing California State Railroad Museum, filled with shiny old and recent locomotives, Pullman, dining and mail cars all under one roof. Museum docent Mas Hatano of Loomis related Chinese workers had blasted tunnels and laid the tracks from Sacramento to the Great Salt Lake in the late 1860s. But he also added that nearly 15,000 Japanese also worked for railroads in the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the 20th century.
This "Get-Together," a self-supporting low-cost affair with fun and memories, can be replicated no matter where.
This column was previously published in the November 17, 2006 issue.
Print This Article-
Email This Article