Return to the Valley

Funding for a return to the valley was provided by the California Civil Liberties public education program Community Foundation of Silicon Valley donor advised accounts and the Henry charitable foundation. I remember sitting down in April of 1942. And writing. My. Thoughts. And one of those all that I had was that no matter what happened. Would be. The best of it. And cry over all disasters. Just the same. And you know that made a difference. I get to go into camp until. They kick this around the kids is all about how. Bitter. You know every negative. No it is better to light a candle. And to curse the dog. It's a typical Saturday game between the zebras and tigers. A scene that could be taking

place anywhere in America. But take another look at the faces of the players and those of the parents in the stands. They're your neighbors your friends even your students. They are Americans of Japanese ancestry more than a half century ago all the grandparents of these children journeyed back to the Santa Clara and Salinas valleys and Central Coast region. Many had just been released after being confined for three years in imprisonment camp. They lost everything. Their homes farms businesses but not their personal dignity and not their human spirit. Join me for a look back at this region before the days of high tech. When Japanese-Americans returned to what was once their home not to resume their lives but to start all over again. The Santa Clara Valley nestled between rolling foothills of the southern end of the San

Francisco Bay has drawn many groups of settlers over the years. They old established communities and settlements and helped to change this valley of the Hearts Delight of the now world renowned Silicon Valley. Not so long ago this landscape was a place of Bountiful farms orchards and ranches. And this agriculture is what drew hundreds of Japanese immigrants here in the 1890s. The valley also serves as a gateway to other regions as the. Madrid soon found their way to farming jobs in Salinas in Watsonville and to fishing and fish processing in Monterey. They were called the Ysaye or the first generation. They were mostly single men who came to work in manual labor. Almost all arrived with the goal of making their fortunes here and returning to Japan to live in comfort. But over time despite the often back breaking labor the Ysaye pioneers began to view America as a whole

the land where they could escape the rigid class structure of Japan. We have demurred and 1915. Oh I heard of the order of a phrase. You know the new thing you see you know that I don't see a person dying due to I didn't think of the redundant high school. Well I don't have a marriage. However you have right here and there and. Many eventually married picture brides arranged marriages with young women from Japan whom they only knew through photographs sent by relatives. More are to come up with a cover. Photo of the phone. Or more of pictures.

No hope for a home. As the years pass permanent communities were built and the birth of children establish the Nisei or second generation generation that began to develop a distinctly Japanese American identity. By the 1920s there were many small settlements of Japanese throughout the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Coast. The largest need hold or Japan Town was located in San Jose. Some of that you say has finally saved enough money to open small stores laundries boarding houses and restaurants. In Monterey. Several Ysaye were able to purchase their own boats while others opened the sea cannery. The only Japanese own sardine canning operation. The Japanese-American community weathered the difficult times of the Great Depression. I

grew older was the main source of income for the Ysaye and their growing families often working marginal land sharecroppers and laborers everything from vegetables to cut flowers and 95 percent of the state's strawberry growth the Ysaye became the backbone of California's agricultural industry. California alien land laws designed to limit the growth of Japanese old lands and farms prevented the b.s. from becoming naturalized American citizens and from owning property. The use proxy Lisa's family trusts and incorporation to hold onto their land until their American born children reached 21 years of age and title could be transferred. By the 1940s. The hard work of the Ysaye was beginning to pay off. They invested in the future of the Nisei by saving for their children's education and encourage them to go to college. Many families were doing well enough to own homes

cars and the pride of the farmers. A new track. Life was hard but full of promise for a bright future. Be somebody 7 1941 a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and the Air Force is a big empire of Japan. War hysteria spread throughout the United States but was particularly prevalent on the West Coast where a large proportion of the Japanese American population resided less than three months after Pearl Harbor President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9 0 6 6 on February 19

one thousand forty two. The order authorized the forced removal of one hundred twenty thousand persons of Japanese ancestry two thirds of them American citizens away from the coastal states of Washington Oregon and California and also Arizona. They were moved to Tenn imprisonment camps surrounded by barbed wire and guards with guns located in desolate isolated parts of the western and southern United States. Or.

They have now announced that the coast is reopened to yank us from January 15th of 1945. And so this is the leave taking of the evacuees going back to their homes and naturally those who had home to go back to were the first ones were able to leave Topaz and they're leaving Topaz and dispassion then are going to go to the gate and see people often look like you're crying sad because after all the people that are leaving they're happy to leave. And so they were happy to wish them we'll good luck. And the biggest thing. That we have shots taken at that time and then we stayed overnight and thought League City and then got back to San Francisco.

I remember upon leaving the camp posting too. And we were and I was en route to Michigan My sister and I we had stopped to have lunch and song then as soon as we walked through that door they screamed out that we don't serve the Japs. And of course you know we felt horrible and we wanted to cry. We just walked out with our heads down. It was very very depressing. For many families coming home was not easy. Those who returned to the west coast found the changed America. California. After the war was very hostile to the US. Japanese America returning there. And in every very tough for us and. Right after the war will buy homes. It was almost impossible to get a good job. I'm hear stories like the veterans coming back from the war. They were

kicked out of a barbershop. But the message is what is you know that's very mean you know. When my husband came home from the Army he was using the car and he was running out of gas so. He. Pulled up to the station and. The. Boy that was working there says well you might as well just take off because my boss says don't sell. And yaps. And husband says well you better call the cops because I'm not going to move he says. I just come back from service overseas and I left the brother and Francis says I'm not going. So finally after a. Big to do that he forgot his. Tank filled. That's hard to explain to our young people how or what it was like 60 years ago. The condition of those people you know like people that are in their 20s and 30s now are saying oh how could that happen to you. Civil rights you have

a right to speak up and all that. But in those days if I. If you did speak out you'd probably be taken away by the authorities. That's just the way it was. There were a number of these Night Rider attacks and Joe took out his house. A car door by the night riders through believe it was a Molotov cocktail to set the house on fire and then when the Sens ran out just to put out the fire they were shot upon. What happened to the decade as was the exception. But many families did come back to find their homes and farms vandalized during their absence. A number of van came to me to see the government agency to try to recover their property. I did bring food again then but the government refused to relinquish whatever jewelry or treasures they had taken from the Jet people.

Everything was gone there wasn't there wasn't a bill in the standing or any other farm equipment just a patch of weeds. My mother was heartbroken that all those little little treasures her hope chest that they were all gone and this is what she did well and on till she passed on. For decades the families had depended on the strength of the Ysaye to guide them but the camp experience left many of the Ysaye old tired and disheartened unable to resist then the rigors of rebuilding the community has been over 30 years struggling to make a go of it. Harry's got his farm line. And start all over again. It was shall we plant which will do that with other farm equipment as that was a quite a chore I think was the undertaking for him financially haunting him that much money left him back. So he took to drink a

lot drank a lot. Think the very life of the 670 passed away was a series that didn't have any place to go after the closing of the camp. So they brought them here to send say to the colony house when they were stuck in there. Rules are rules and when there are no roads through living room or someone would look around. And there it is is one of the senders. Situation ever so. Well the Japanese people being they don't show their feelings they're not emotional like some people. My mother might cry and everything but they don't panic. Not like some people do it and to wring their hands and everything they just worry and hold it back quietly. But at whatever stress they were going through they dealt with it somehow.

Ysaye with your parents did not communicate with the niece they had their children. Most matters are kept private to themselves if they have a problem they would never come to us and discuss it then so a lot of things they kept to themselves but I know that. They were unable to do a lot of things that they would have liked to have done. So. It was just I think a loss of stability maybe they were surviving but. You know they just didn't have the means to go do a lot more things that they'd like to do in term and really hurt them more than we realize the Nisei always talk about of being hurt by the internment but there I think they say really they suffer just as much. Well people mention about bitterness and then like my dad and the other he

ses and all of them then. They say if you. Have this bitterness that's the foremost thing on your mind and you can't go on. You have to. You have to go on with life and if you hold that bitterness you wake up in the morning with that sleep with it. And so. That bitterness that it had to. Be. It's is there but it can't overtake you. By that time like my dad he was retired. He was nearing 80. And so both of the older generation were in their 70s and 80s and they're ready to retire. He was philosophic from the very beginning even during the time of the evacuation. At that time back in 42 he said we should take the evacuation as a great adventure. That's what he said. A lot of it to me. My philosophy is. It is better to light a candle that because to them. You

accentuate the positive. See. That's important and it worked. In my case it worked. I think Japanese people as a whole are survivors. You have to go on somewhere. Their heart is that was. Many families were struggling to reestablish themselves economically and the Ysaye displaced by the camp experience began to step aside as their needs eight children took over the rebuilding of their community. The result was a major and lasting change in the family structure and added to. The meetings were different Greta. We had we had to be a first generation of fathers and mothers we had to do. Good to have a home. And then we had to take care of our own children and educate them so we had to family to take care of. It was it was hard but good to look back to it I

think it was the blessing. It was kind of fun too that my uncle and dad our families stayed together for. After camp until. You know. The 15 years or so. So it was about 10 years that we stayed together. As a unit and extended family. Kind of probably supporting each other. Some people would claim that they're still bitter about having been uprooted and all that but I tell them that yes we did go through all our anguish and. Anger and mistreatment and all the discrimination Persian to Sanaa but. In the end for me. Had it not been for the war. And evacuation I would not have met him. So to me that was the best thing that ever happened. That I met him when he got married. I met in June he came yes in camp and then determine that

funniness assembly Santa and I always kept one eye on her all the time. And I guess I kept the other eye on you. Well I had to trust her there. Yeah there I. In the post-war period the range of Japanese American women also changed. They began to find a sense of equality previously unheard of. Before the war they say the father was the head of the house. I mean it just about in every home the father was the. Boss. But after evacuation and then coming back. The men couldn't find a job though especially the fathers and so usually the mothers went out and they took over and I think that's where the matter got started. And then there.

But. Then hold back as we did earlier as. At one time. A woman and lost. Talk. Back on. A man. To man I. Now have to sit back and less. Saying. Well what would the mothers do if they're going to fall apart when you know a lot of people the fathers are taken away. My goodness you know you would you really have to be tough. Mike Armstrong got yours and he had to do everything on you. There were quite a few ladies that cool. By then. Before that they usually have to stay home and raise the family in the hall. But about the time I went to work there were quite a few of my friends there were working elsewhere. Maybe that was our civil rights. Equal now. We were willing to just sit. Back. Put in my two cents.

We're. In mom and dad's house fully passed away they were brought up. But in our case. We're trying to do 50/50 so to speak. You know I think that made a difference to how the kids are brought up. Actually things have changed so much. Like I always used to joke and about well yeah she had to walk five steps behind me and all that but you know all that had that tradition and all gone and my wife they say she raised the kids and all and as if anything good came out came from her. The thing she always vent to the kids I was the boss but the kids really know who the boss. Despite incidents of discrimination and hostility some communities welcomed the Japanese-Americans and helped them to resettle. We shot back and we had to start over again and

thankfully we had our own home and dampened Siskel so we would to get back into. Regular life again. So it was not that it was like everybody else. It was difficult time you know but that time we were young they were not our age now who are in our of the 30s or 40s still young Leo reopen the Safa store in July the 15th or 1946 on Fillmore Street which is two blocks further away. There's a station still run by a white couple. And when they walked in there or do we got to see and do it. I think it gave me something. But you see that was the kind of treatment we got you see and then I went to the wholesaler to Baltimore drygoods store an old dude got to see me and they said Golly you know I got to go back into business again. If you would like to help you you see again I keep on saying I had so

many good experiences that I can't remember the bad experience that I had. We had such good friends and neighbors. Our good friend Mr. jeweler. He farmed our land all the time we were gone and the money he made or the profits he got from the farm in the land. I don't know positively but I give him credit for rather than sending the money to my father he must of made payments on our rent and so by the time we got back the land was paid for in town knew we had a very good doctor Dr.. Oscar Marshall. Who had a lot of Japanese patients and his wife were her words. She was a quite active politically and she helped the Japanese that were coming back in our ways that she could. Have. An affair with for people like that. I don't think we could have made it.

Many properties were abandoned homes and farms were saved here a shocking warming family and had purchased a house in the Japan the billion at the 1939 World's Fair in San Francisco. Was farming and doing well at that time and in several other families. Part of the pavilion and then came home with a truck. When they full of hope full of doors and windows. We had about seven or eight families living here and then they were the one that ordered up the house. And they left in May June that year. Came back to California and. For the

taller of him. I heard the. Workers thought it was some kind of another temple or something. So that it was scared to come again. To the garden. Nothing was disturbed. Families who returned to farming found that agriculture was becoming increasingly agribusiness. Or I would say that story book. Everybody was making money for didn't see until. You're sick you just took steady and sharecroppers. Granted I made more money bought wine there one day I may say the whole of the jewel stuff store they follow. You know you feel have Stefan de Cuba how it was he'd never had the farm so we don't know how it's a girl store OK.

The three and a half acres we had was we'd just before we saw the first week we just we were there to chop and chop and weeds and finally chop them all down we found what a straw for especially. When you're high school you want to put sports so my father said you know you have a choice you can play football if you want. But we. Should help here but you choose. Not what your choices are given that kind of. Description. Because you know that. Yes. You did there. In farming some stroppy farming is a very expensive proposition and. It's and. The money has to be upfront all the time so I know Dad spent an awful lot of time sometimes going to the bank trying to negotiate a loan again even though in some years it was very easy. But other years it was pretty lean and we could tell they were doing well because we get a new car. Yeah I know that 1951 and 54 were very good years

because we got brand new cars in those two years and then it was a long time after that. Mud in those days. All my neighbors are farming 15 acres of land and they're making a living. He you know when you get in here he can say see these small farmers had to give up their Ag a modest need for privacy and later on when the property value got in the higher he said he'll sell it. For you know he can quite make up. In Monterey circumstances were just as difficult. Fishermen who returned saw the depletion of fish an abalone stock starting to happen and those who had once owned their own boats had to swallow their pride and accept any available work. My husband had a job before we came back to my right for that. All right. That might be me. After the war very few Japanese Americans went back to fishing primarily because they didn't have boats to fish with. It was quite a bit different after you go into boat ran that

you didn't want to do work for someone else. There were a couple of successful fishermen who went back and one of them retired as a fisherman. Very successful. Frank and royal Monaca were part of only a handful of men who went back to fishing. Frank a seasoned skipper eventually owned a new boat the Western Explorer. He fished up and down the California coast and was able to provide much needed work for many men. But for the most part the Japanese American presence in the fishing industry was open. For. Many Japanese Americans were unable to return to the occupations they had before the war. It was almost impossible to raise the capital needed to return to large scale quarreling or fishing. Instead the majority of needs a struggled to find work in other fields. There was a lot of these criminals and there was. Discrimination. Not that they

were threatened as they just said no you know we're not hiring. I'm myself in the construction industry. And Connor had a strong opposition from Union because the union the. Roses know. That he's allowed McCartney Jr.. So coming back after the war in 46 knowing that I'm back again. Do you know how. This measure still the same one that was there before the war. On drugs since when. It was them. But again the union card and they just told me a simple term that. You just kicked butt out of here so we don't give enquirers to people like you so that's it. So finally around the fall of 46 If I see ot fire job community job. Then I will give you new hard going down cypress tree the sole job with all this but will you be my. Type of boats of under the gun. For job this is yours you got reduces. The

workforce so we need you right away so that. Changes the attitude of all the union people. So the virtually all the union open the pool everybody kind of broke the ice. The unions. I think had more to do with. Whether we can work and Caucasian shops or dealers or whatever. And I think the union just tried to keep this out. So I went and opened my own business CND auto service and so on I was I. It's just the belief I have that if you do good work. The word gets out and you've got the business. But you have to believe in yourself or. If you're not going to believe in yourself nobody else is going to do it for you. Well the son of the head of the army or.

We. Can look for a job at a nursery. I found out that. It would be easier to go to school road into. A neighborhood nursery so I took my G.I. Bill of Rights. Went to Los Angeles for MESMO. Screwed. Kind of a. Diesel. Engine. Well. I got back here and my brother above me was discharged about the same time and. We went to food machinery we were to. Leave his cannery we went to G. We went to IBM and all the big factories over here and Silicon Valley would not hurry Japanese-American. So we had no choice. So I joined my brother and started gardening I think Japanese on my command when did gardening become what took them girl on the farm. And I think again you know a lot of that. Glad. I did not.

But I'm not going to hang but being or. Just about. Both of them. But I'm and I think that what business there was no discrimination or anything and. And people needed gardeners and while I really didn't see myself farming for the rest of my life. I was sure there was something else out there for me but I didn't want to. Just end up farming although it's a good lie but I knew. That I wanted to get into something else. And so that was when I asked the neighbor if they need the place cleaned up and I said sure. And pretty soon. Word got around and I had about 10 homes up here that. We cleaned up and I would do a little landscaping. And that's how I really got into landscaping. I'm not much of a gardener. Did it because I had to be it was good good pretty.

We were able to. Keep busy but I was in the back of my mind I want to do something good and to be a burden. Well I was gardening for a frank and frank person maybe. You know I. Asked the maid and asked me if I knew of a Japanese-American that would like to work for all white company Hewlett-Packard. I said sure and I pointed my finger in my face and they accepted me. And that's how I got the job. I was the first. Japanese-American probably in Silicon Valley or any Maybe all up the peninsula. That had a professional job at the factory. And I was. Kind of. A guinea pig and therefore I had to. Stand up for myself I also had to stand up for all of rest of the Japanese-American that were going to get jobs at a.

Big factory. I kind of felt like I had a load on my back and for four years I felt that I was representing the Japanese-American and I work as hard as I could. And honestly if it were. The fact that we were given the opportunity. To show our. Strength and. Factory we're. Going to go do what you like to do and. I did. I feel pretty. Good. Chappy Americans. Finally got to a point where about one thousand fifty two three somewhere in there who are accepted do. Almost anything we want to do. Here. We moved to San Jose to open the store in July. Of 48. The customers at that time. Many of the older

generation Japanese Americans. And they didn't speak English as well. So they feel much more will come into our store and decide to work on the farm. Remember at that time kind of valley was still an agricultural community. And so we had customers come in to buy Levis and would use underwear and things of that sort. And later you know what happened. The big shopping centers came up in the 60s. So then we said well. You have to get tactics. So we decided to carry Japanese merchandise from Japan. And so that's how we became the Oriental store. And we had people coming in to shop for kimona and happy codes. And martial arts. And that's the bell. As the economy continued to change throughout the 1960s forming along the mainstay of the Japanese American community slowly came to an end in the

Santa Clara Valley. The burden for us was here a geisha because we are invaded that night. It's a family operated thing. And my little guys used to help me irrigate. OK well that's in the dark. And while the water of the flowing when they. Show me the North Star so we lay flat on our back and I pointed it out to me now you know where the North Star was. And out of a clear skies as Howard. You were on a farm he says you know too much work. And that did it. I was so disappointed you didn't want a car but I wasn't to deter his. Shall we say ambition home. Nine years old he didn't want to farm I guess he didn't want to farm. Jaime Rouer Yeah he did a lot of the time in the you know like you of the community but. This is this Vertigo book I think it's

significant that none of us are farmers I mean we all do other things and it's an obvious living. I mean the things that you learn from farming but I think you know most of course we're pretty anxious to leave the farm and go after a different career. Well 60 70 I would say a couple hundred acres OK but when I got to that 70 to 80 than in 88 when I retired yet a 5 500 acre job or the life that you get a barrier the cat. So when I retired I told my son I'm going to get out of farming. And I told my son you know how I gave you that college education till you got here or you know it got to a point where it was so expensive to raise strawberries that you know that's a lot of money cash. So they they sold the place. Some of them save the homes

only others. You know the wives would like a nice modern home where you don't blame them. And they were into other things be it landscape maintenance or so mom went into business. Fortunately I kind of people are very flexible. They don't they don't get upset because you can't farm anymore. They look for other things and they did real well on their new career. By the end of the 1960s the niece a generation had at last achieved economic stability. They were able to give their children the sound say everything that they themselves had been denied a nice home in the suburbs comfortable childhoods filled with school and sports activities college education and most importantly the freedom to choose any career path they wanted to pursue. And surprisingly in some areas throughout the region farming continues to exist and even flourish.

What I think of the U.S. farmers a lot of credit because here you know they came to a foreign country didn't know how to speak the language and most of them probably came here without any money and they then they started all the common labor to save their money to go out in more or less ran some ground and start finding themselves. What I'm worth acceptable if they were able to save enough money to put their kids through college and for them for the next generation to have a better lives and I was very fortunate that my family did the same thing for myself. Lucky for me that you know I enjoyed the agriculture business a lot of able to fall mind. My dad and uncles and my grandfather's footsteps and be in the agriculture industry here. The civil rights movement changed the lives of everyone including Japanese Americans. The ideals of the movement gave rise to a grassroots campaign that eventually led to the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

When my son was the oldest son lived in UCLA they were one of the group that. Started the reparations movement. For. Any other organization didn't think anything of it. But then they finally reached them through Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated or born in the imprisonment camps received a formal apology and a reparation payment of $20000 for many Ysaye. It came too late when deal let's say in the redress the younger generation the third generation went out there and fought the battle for us. Firstly see I will be first to admit it. I appreciate what they did how they went out there really fought the battle to get the Beatrice. Like Jimi I feel very very appreciative and thankful to these young generation for having pursued it and brought it all the way up to Washington you know and get approval so we would get it although

rightfully It would be our parents who should have got the money not us. But now that they've passed on that you know we were very fortunate to get that. Why there was a probe or whatever it is due for a judge who did Rule 0 0 in the song of the morning hymn book 200 does not appear in front of it and then do some work. Sure I guess we deserved it in a way because that was something that should never have been done. But for some families that just ruin their lives and how can you repay that. And how it's. A. Historical thing that I hope they'll never drop. They should always keep in mind because things like that just happen.

I think now we have better control of the government. In those days you really had no say and. You were just telling what to do and that's what you did. But I think now. The. Media would jump all over you if you tried to pull something like that. So there was some good came out of that. It's a good experience and a good learning lesson as far as the rights of citizens in this nation. Well I think that prejudice hate hysteria should not have any part in making decisions. There's more but needs to be done and hopefully this becomes the baseline just becomes a foundation for people to look at and say oh my mom says A nice thing for the president to sign a letter

apologizing that the home of the compensation was okayed. But it could never never repay the kinds of losses that Jeff's American had incurred. But it was symbolic. Why. And history is also being shared and passed all at summer school programs like Susan Meynell doctoral children not only learn traditional arts and crafts they also learn about the struggles of the east say anything and the hard won battle for freedom while. I fear that when to have time to really reflect about their life they need to think back to when their grandparents started and how they started and haul through their efforts they are people who are able to be where they are today. Remember that.

That was your offer. And Hamas read it and then you're on winning tonight. I used to get there you go to all the sort of. 30. Miles. Long. So. It's right there. I hope they are not the being and just gentle and being. Fair. And I knowing that. The eff with the upbringing that he had given them that they should be the good citizen. That turn on the lights. From wrong. Tool up home. The chaffing frame. Not to be present was getting old uncle. Or. Young people today enjoy a level of freedom more greater than their grandparents had. But their civil rights and civil liberties come at a very high cost paid by veterans who felt the need to prove they were American.

I never felt that I wasn't an American. Like growing up as one I I didn't know anything else. And the fact that. The military decided that. They had to kick everybody out of California or West Coast. But that was kind of brutal. But I had my own heart I felt that we had to serve in the service go to war. And when they allowed us to volunteer to go into. The 440 Second Life that was our way of. Showing us proving. We were the same as anybody else. Watsonville in the 1940s had only about 4000 residents yet and astounding number of young Japanese-Americans from the small town served in the armed forces during World War Two. The key Zuko JCL senior center proudly displayed an honor roll commemorating watch and bills veterans at the a good four years to gather the

names and I gathered two hundred one veterans from this local area. I was very by surprise that we had so many veterans from my little town. Well I think they stepped forward because we felt that we had to do something to prove our loyalty to this country. After all we were born here and we are America citizen. It was very unfair for just United States to classified US SAS and they beheaded him as a fraud trap board. So my feeling is that most of them went into service and they did their best to brood or to discuss. Their its interests and it was organized by my dad and I did something when. It was already called here you say senior center. You felt that to prove that. You say these were. Loyal to this country.

Before and you know. Why are. You want to turn to her. God bless America. Or the. Real thing. They think by saying it got us America. You want to keep that tradition going. And. You know her partnering them. For their loyalty and also our loyalty to this country. To the young people listen to. This. Car is better than the U.S. and a lot of hardship the way. Ahead also for getting to know a buyer I'd like to see. Passing it off so it doesn't die. Japanese American culture has survived and transformed itself.

Leaders of the current generation San Jose one of only three Japantown left in the country still remains a cultural center. Festivals like Holborn and other activity Japanese American culture alive for the younger generations. This festival provides a way of passing on our traditions. It's been celebrated here for about 50 years. All there in that time. Are the first generation Germans Americans all celebrated at the Sorbonne. And over the years they've taught their children the meaning. Of for this a festival that is very important to remember our history our past and to be able to pass a powerful wondrous. Lines. Our family comes to one facility here because the rest of the many things wrapped into one of their. Family reunions. It's arena with her friends and the whole community and it's a positive experience for kids because it exposes them to the other culture here so they wouldn't lose temple.

The celebration I remember so I did score remembers all family members who have passed away. It is an expression of gratitude and appreciation. But this too is a. Value that was passed on from the from the streamers to the house. And. Began to later on in the best of all just a time when. One time a year our chance to get out just to. Get back to our reconnection. It's a celebration really of all those memories of gratitude and appreciation for the many benefits that we see over the years. From humble beginnings as farm laborers to their forced removal and rupture in the community and family lives. Japanese Americans have made a home and a place for themselves in the United States.

Their story is about embracing an identity that is both influenced by the ideals of this country and they're Japanese-American. Grateful that I am living in the United States. It could be worse if I was home. And I am grateful for the. Heroics of the veterans of World War 2. There again were not for them. Their blood so forth. Cuts as it were as Patton says. We wouldn't be able to enjoy what we are living right now. Somebody said we would be on a boat looking for a place to land. Unfortunately we can stay here. That's it. Thank you. These children have not had to experience the same struggles as their grandparents. They have

not had to fight the difficult battle for civil rights and civil liberties. Today as Japanese Americans look back they remember reflect and commemorate those who suffered and persevere who gave their lives and who ultimately stood strong in the face of prejudice and discrimination. Their story has become part of the American legacy. I'm Ken Cashion. Funding for return to the valley was provided by the California Civil Liberties

public education community.