Common Ground: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations

By Lane Ryo Hirabayashi and James A. Hirabayashi

Los Angeles's Japanese American National Museum, established in 1992, remains the only museum in the United States expressly dedicated to sharing the story of Americans of Japanese ancestry. The National Museum is a unique institution that operates in collaboration with other institutions, museums, researchers, audiences, and funders. In this collection of seventeen essays, anthropologists, art historians, museum curators, writers, designers, and historians provide case studies exploring collaboration with community-oriented partners in order to document, interpret, and present their histories and experiences and provide a new understanding of what museums can and should be in the United States.

Current scholarship in museum studies is generally limited to interpretations by scholars and curators. Common Ground brings descriptive data to the intellectual canon and illustrates how museum institutions must be transformed and recreated to suit the needs of the twenty-first century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Release date: Dec 15, 2004
• ISBN: 9780870818608

Book preview

Common Ground

Common Ground

THE JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM

AND THE CULTURE OF COLLABORATIONS

Akemi Kikumura-Yano, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, and James A. Hirabayashi

© 2005 by the University Press of Colorado

Published by the University Press of Colorado

5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C

Boulder, Colorado 80303

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of American University Presses.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National

Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI

Z39.48-1992

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Common ground : the Japanese American National Museum and the culture of collaborations /

[edited by] Akemi Kikumura-Yano, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, James A. Hirabayashi.

       p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 0-87081-778-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87081-779-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  1. Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.) 2. Japanese Americans—Cultural

assimilation. 3. Japanese Americans—History. 4. Japanese Americans—California—History. 5.

California—Cultural policy. 6. United States—Cultural policy. I. Kikumura-Yano, Akemi, 1944– II. Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo. III. Hirabayashi, James A.

   F870.J3J27 2005

   973’.04956’07479494—dc22

                                                                                                                      2004013664

14  13   12   11   10   09   08   07   06   05             10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

Developed with the assistance of a grant from the Nippon Foundation.

Contents

Preface

IN COMMON GROUND: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations we share with the reader the evolving history of the Japanese American National Museum (National Museum) in Los Angeles as told by curators, scholars, designers, community activists, educators, and members of affiliated institutions who delve into the process of engaging and collaborating with communities in documenting, interpreting, presenting, and sharing their histories and experiences. Only a small sampling of projects is represented here among the ambitious slate of exhibitions, public programs, and media, research, and oral history projects that have informed and enriched the definitions and narratives of American history, art, and culture.

The main title of this volume is borrowed from the museum’s core exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community. The exhibition and this book share more in common than the title. The two productions address an overarching theme that speaks to the process of community building in the past and for future generations. The words culture and collaborations in our subtitle deserve special comment, since they are integrally linked to the process of community building addressed by individual contributors to this anthology. The word culture signifies the practices and processes developed cooperatively, by communities, over a period of time. At the same time, it is evident that cultural styles and values can also be a source of difference, division, even conflict; and so it is among potential collaborators in the museum field. The word collaborate is formed from the Latin roots col, or together, along with laborare, or work. Thus, although our title alludes to a fundamental commitment to work together, we are invoking something more than the idea of autonomous individuals agreeing to engage in a joint enterprise.

Although the initial focus of the National Museum was to record Japanese American experiences from the insider’s point of view, the frame of reference was quickly broadened to include the intragroup diversity within the Japanese American community, as well as the interactions with Europeans, Africans, Latinos/Latinas, and Native Americans that have shaped our experiences and perspectives. How does one community go about collaborating with others, especially when there are differences and divisions within each? How can effective collaborations occur when worldviews and interactive styles differ? And how can collaborations be effected between organizations that have different levels of funding, resources, staff, and expertise?

We do not pretend to resolve these questions in this volume, but they are critical, so we raise them with the hope that in future publications we can introduce and address them more fully. What we do claim to present here is evidence that a commitment to an ethnic-specific endeavor need not be provincial, particular, or separatist. Rather, holistic interpretations and understanding of the national and international fabric (ecumene) can emerge from the specifics of a racial-ethnic group’s experiences.

We are grateful for the support of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors, Chief Executive Officer and President Irene Hirano, and the exceptional staff of the Japanese American National Museum. We also thank the Nippon Foundation for its generous support of the International Nikkei Research Project, the source point for this book. We deeply appreciate the efforts of our initial copyeditor, Joan York, and the work of Robyn Hamada-Gilmore, administrative coordinator at the National Museum, who helped prepare the final manuscript.

AKEMI KIKUMURA-YANO

LANE RYO HIRABAYASHI

JAMES A. HIRABAYASHI

Common Ground

Irene Y. Hirano

Introduction

COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY

THE OPENING OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM (National Museum) in May 1992 was significant not only for the 850,000 Japanese Americans in the United States but for Americans of every ethnicity. The National Museum shares with visitors a unique cultural experience while serving as a sober reminder that one part of that history—the World War II incarceration—must never happen again. By placing the Japanese American experience within the context of America’s history and by working to improve the understanding and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity, the National Museum has striven to serve and enrich a global audience.

What does it mean to be a national and an international museum? What does it mean to be a community-based institution? These are questions the National Museum leaders and staff continually consider in all of their work. Although based in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, the National Museum has uniquely presented an extensive schedule of collaborative programs around the country, extending its work from Hawai‘i to New York. It has also striven to connect the Japanese American experience with national institutions and leaders.

0.1 The Pavilion and Historic Building of the Japanese American National Museum at dusk. Photograph by Marvin Rand, Japanese American National Museum.

The National Museum’s long-awaited opening on April 30, 1992, did not take place as planned. Civil unrest broke out in Los Angeles the preceding night following the verdict in the Rodney King trials. A smaller private opening was held, since many guests had already arrived in Los Angeles for the weekend’s events. A public opening was held ten days later that included an announcement that the National Museum would work with community institutions to promote human understanding through education. The public opening illuminated the fact that although the Japanese American National Museum focused on the experience of a particular ethnic group, its stories could be poignant and revealing for many other groups—a lesson brought home at the public ceremony by an African American man, Gregory Alan Williams, who had saved the life of a Japanese American, Takao Hirata, just ten days earlier during the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest. Although it interprets the past, the National Museum is also committed to building bridges among ethnic and cultural groups for the future. It is committed to bringing together people in the telling of their stories.

The National Museum continually seeks to redefine the meaning of the word museum. Its programming offers more than a passive experience in which visitors simply observe. The deep connection with the Japanese American community reinforces a sense of involvement. From volunteer docents who help bring stories alive through their personal experiences to the thousands of donated artifacts, photographs, films, and other materials, the National Museum embodies an intensely personal experience of historical events.

EARLY HISTORY: A COMING TOGETHER

The Japanese American National Museum is the only national institution in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry. The founding of the National Museum represented high hopes, achievements, and persistence. Like the story of generations of Japanese Americans, it is a story of tenacity.

In 1982 two distinct groups—businesspersons in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo and a group of highly decorated World War II veterans—simultaneously began to explore the concept of a museum about Japanese Americans. Bruce T. Kaji, a real estate developer and banker in Little Tokyo, proposed incorporating a museum into a planned Little Tokyo residential complex. Meanwhile, the veterans sponsored a Japanese American soldier exhibition at a Los Angeles museum. The veterans soon began to search for a permanent exhibition site.

Headed by a Korean American, Colonel Young O. Kim, and a Japanese American, Y. B. Mamiya, the World War II veterans approached Kaji. The two groups joined forces, and in 1985 the Japanese American National Museum was officially incorporated as a private, nonprofit institution. This coming together of these two constituencies represented the first major milestone in the National Museum’s development. Rather than compete against each other, the two groups set their sights higher by agreeing to a partnership to further their mutual goals.

The founders were motivated by a common vision: to ensure that Japanese Americans’ heritage and cultural identity were preserved. With the passing of the first-generation immigrants, Issei, the first-person history was disappearing. The second generation, Nisei, realized that their children and grandchildren—the Sansei and Yonsei—were often unaware of the hardships and successes of earlier generations. Additionally, many of the artifacts, photographs, written records, and other materials documenting their lives had been lost or destroyed during the World War II incarceration. Those that remained often lay forgotten in attics or were in danger of being thrown away.

BUILDING CREDIBILITY: A PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP

The first major task was to establish public credibility. In those early years, volunteers tirelessly sought backing from community leaders, community organizations, the city of Los Angeles, and the California State Legislature. In 1985 state senator Art Torres, a Hispanic American, obtained state funding of $750,000 from the legislature. Senator Torres’s willingness to support this start-up effort was the second major milestone in the National Museum’s development.

The state funds were matched by a grant of $1 million from the Community Redevelopment Agency of the city of Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles also provided a home for the new institution by leasing the historic former Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple for $1 a year. Support from these two important government sectors was pivotal to establishing the organization’s credibility so the National Museum could become a reality.

Built by Japanese immigrants in 1925, the Nishi Hongwanji was the first Buddhist temple constructed in Los Angeles. The temple served as a practical multipurpose center for worship, social and community activities, and rental space. A hub of life in Little Tokyo, the building was later used to store the belongings of Japanese Americans ordered into World War II concentration camps. The building eventually fell into serious disrepair and in 1969 was sold to the city of Los Angeles. It was slated to be torn down for future redevelopment, but plans subsequently changed and the city supported its use as the National Museum’s first site. The building, along with twelve other structures on East First Street, was declared part of a historic district and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places. The former temple building was itself named a historic-cultural monument by the city of Los Angeles.

NATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE

One hallmark of the Japanese American National Museum has been the strength of its human resources: its leadership, staff, and volunteers.

The volunteer board hired a small core staff: Project Coordinator Nancy Araki, hired in 1985, and Akemi Kikumura-Yano, hired to curate the inaugural exhibition in 1987. I was hired in 1988 as the executive director and president and joined these two key individuals who continue to provide staff leadership today. James Hirabayashi, retired dean of Ethnic Studies at California State University at San Francisco, was recruited in 1989 to work with Kikumura-Yano and other scholars to provide a strong scholarly foundation for the development of future programs. These and other key staff members recruited in the early period forged a strong working relationship with an evolving Board of Trustees.

In addition to hiring a professional staff, the board sought fund-raising advice. Netzel and Associates was retained as fund-raising counsel and conducted the search for the executive director. Paul Netzel provided invaluable support in the initial organizational development, the fund-raising plan, and leadership recruitment strategies. The retention of a professional development firm and the hiring of professional staff early in the museum’s development represented a third major milestone. The Board of Trustees recognized that to move from a volunteer organization to a credible institution, a full-time staff with professional expertise was essential. The National Museum continued to retain fund-raising counsel throughout its first and second campaigns, as well as in the establishment of its current endowment campaign.

In 1989 and 1990 the Board of Trustees searched for Japanese American leaders and supporters from throughout the country. The founding board recognized that if the Japanese American National Museum was to become truly national, its leadership had to reflect every major region of the country. It also recognized that long-term success would be dependent on a strong local volunteer base.

In 1990, Henry Ota, a highly respected attorney in Los Angeles, succeeded Kaji, who had effectively led the institution since its founding in 1985 as founding president and chair of the Board of Trustees. Kaji remains an active and inspiring leader of the board, supporting each new leader and cheering every development of the institution. Cofounders Kim and Mamiya similarly encouraged the expansion and transformation of the board. This spirit of sharing was another major step in the National Museum’s evolution. Kaji, Kim, Mamiya, and the other cofounders encouraged the institution’s national evolution and growing local base of support.

Trustee William Ouchi, a professor and the author of Theory Z who is recognized for his management and leadership expertise, guided the National Museum’s leadership through the next transformation. The Board of Trustees undertook steps to raise the National Museum’s visibility and to strengthen its connections throughout the United States. First, the Board of Trustees voted to transform itself into a national entity. Second, a distinguished Board of Governors, created in 1988 and chaired by Hawai‘i senators Daniel K. Inouye and the late Spark Matsunaga, was enlarged. Today, the National Board of Governors is an active seventy-five-person body reflecting a diverse leadership. Senator Inouye remains a hard-working and dedicated chairman of the board.

Another important step in this transition was the creation of the President’s Volunteer Council, formed to coordinate and provide leadership for local volunteers. When the Board of Trustees voted to expand and reconstruct itself into a national entity, several local trustees moved to the newly created President’s Volunteer Council, enabling new trustees to be appointed from around the country. The founding President’s Volunteer Council included Dr. Ronald Akashi, Fred Y. Hoshiyama, David Hyun, Kay Inose, Brian Kaneko, Young O. Kim, Paul Sumi, the late Miki Tanimura, and Minoru Tonai. The President’s Volunteer Council remains a strong and active leadership body that directs the 300-plus on-site volunteers who provide daily support to the National Museum’s work.

These individuals were joined by an extraordinary volunteer leadership corps that included individuals such as Masako Koga Murakami, who worked endlessly to recruit and build a volunteer corps of hundreds of individuals who devote thousands of hours to the National Museum. Dr. Takashi Makinodan, University of California at Los Angeles, and Lloyd Inui, California State University at Long Beach, provided substantial leadership toward building a 100-person National Scholarly Advisory Council. The council brought together the foremost scholars, researchers, educators, and writers on the Japanese American experience. Over the years, individual members of the council have worked closely with program staff to ensure the highest standards of scholarship.

The early and sustained involvement of volunteers and scholars has been essential to the National Museum’s foundation. Moreover, these developments brought two significant individuals to the institution to serve as cochairs for the Phase I Campaign. This transition of leadership and the recruitment of key national leaders represented the next major milestone in the National Museum’s history.

Siegfred Kagawa, an insurance executive in Hawai‘i, and Noby Yamakoshi, an entrepreneur who built a large direct marketing catalog business in Chicago, crisscrossed the country to raise funds and recruit new volunteer leadership. Other trustees, including Manabi Hirasaki, a major strawberry grower in Oxnard, collectively logged tens of thousands of miles over the next few years—visiting Hawai‘i, Illinois, New York, Texas, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and every major section of the National Museum’s home state of California. The trustees traveled at their own expense, meeting with Japanese American business and community leaders, attending receptions, and speaking at community meetings. Other national trustees who contributed significantly to this growth included Francis Y. Sogi (an attorney in New York), Yosh Uchida (a businessman in San Jose), Elaine Yamagata (a retired business executive in Texas), Margaret Oda (a state educator in Hawai‘i), William H. (Mo) Marumoto (a search-firm executive in Washington, D.C.), and George Azumano (owner of a large travel agency in Portland). These individuals and others helped the National Museum develop roots in regional Japanese American communities and enabled the nurturing of strong ties with members and supporters throughout the country. By developing partnerships with local communities, the National Museum believed it could fulfill its mandate to become a national institution. Exhibition projects developed with communities in Hawai‘i, Oregon, New York, northern California, and Washington, D.C., were led by national trustees. These individuals enabled the National Museum to become a catalyst, empowering individuals and communities to tell their own stories through their own objects, images, words, and voices in effective ways.

EXPANSION

In 1994, two years after its public opening, the National Museum seized a significant opportunity. The original development plan had called for the National Museum’s Phase II expansion to be located in a small footprint to the north of the Historic Building on land owned by the city of Los Angeles. However, when the city canceled the redevelopment plan for the area adjacent to the National Museum, the Board of Trustees requested the newly available site at the corner of Alameda and First Streets. With strong leadership from Mayor Richard Riordan, his chief of staff and former National Museum trustee William Ouchi, and Los Angeles City Council member Rita Walters, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the new site request. This move substantially enhanced the National Museum’s plans for expansion.

INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL REACH

In its early years of development, many individuals suggested that the National Museum approach Japanese companies and wealthy individuals living in Japan. Japan’s economy in the 1970s and early 1980s was robust, and building a Japanese American National Museum with funding from Japan seemed logical. One prominent trustee and a noted leader in the Japanese American community, George Aratani—founder and chairman of two successful American companies, Mikasa and Kenwood—strongly advised the Board of Trustees that the Japanese American National Museum had to be built first with the support of Japanese Americans in the United States. The National Museum needed to demonstrate that Japanese Americans believed this was an important endeavor and would come together to support its creation. He advised that future support from American and Japanese corporations would follow if the institution first worked to build the foundation. He urged the board not to seek funds from Japanese companies in its early fund-raising efforts but to focus on seeking financial support from the Japanese American community.

This advice proved invaluable in guiding the institution from being nationally based to becoming internationally recognized and supported. But why should the National Museum go outside the United States for support? Why should Japanese companies support a Japanese American institution? Although the mission of the Japanese American National Museum was to reach across all fifty states, its leadership wanted to reach a global audience in the future. World War II had forced Japanese Americans to prove their loyalty to America and sever ties with their homeland, with the result that many Nisei (second generation) and Sansei (third generation) had little or no interest in Japan following the war. However, key museum leaders believed the relationship between Japanese Americans and Japan should and could change. They believed the Japanese American National Museum could become an important future link to strengthen the bridge between the United States and Japan.

The second important step in this evolution was the endorsement and support of the late Akio Morita, chairman of the Sony Corporation. Morita was a longtime friend of campaign cochair Sig Kagawa, and their ties were very much a part of the Japanese American relationship with Japan. Sig Kagawa’s uncle, Yoshinobu Kagawa, had served as an attorney and adviser for Morita and the Sony Corporation in the infancy of its development in the United States. At a National Museum dinner in October 1993, Morita said:

Japanese Americans have played a significant and historic role in teaching Japan and the Japanese people about things American. There are many in Japan, people like myself, who owe a tremendous debt to Americans of Japanese ancestry for helping to teach us what America is all about—the customs, the rules, the spirit that is America. I believe that it is important to know, remember, and honor this gift of knowledge that has been given so freely. This is why I believe that Japanese people should take an active role in supporting the Japanese American community in the United States.¹

Morita accepted the National Museum’s request to serve as chairman of the Japan Campaign for the Japanese American National Museum, an essential component of its Phase II Campaign. Morita championed the National Museum’s request for approval by the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) to grant the museum tax exemption for a multiyear campaign among Japanese companies in Japan. The Sony Corporation generously contributed a full-time staff person in Japan, Takahisa Aida, and an office to manage the Japan Campaign. Under Morita’s leadership, with Aida’s dedicated efforts and the connections between Japan and several National Museum leaders, the Japan Campaign raised $9.5 million for the Phase II Campaign.

Most important, the Phase II Campaign strengthened ties between Japanese Americans and the people of Japan. This relationship, which began with the first-generation immigrants from Japan to the United States in the 1800s, had been severely impacted by World War II.