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Jeanette Arakawa - Part 2 of 2

Date: August 11, 2022
 Interviewer: Ellina Yin, Yvonne Kwan, Vickie Taketa, Connie Young Yu
 Interviewee: Jeanette Arakawa (1932 - 2023)

Jeanette Arakawa was born in San Francisco, California to Japanese immigrants. Between 1942 and 1945, during World War II, she was part of a diaspora that took her to Stockton, California, Rohwer, Arkansas, and Denver, Colorado. She returned to San Francisco in 1946. She is also the author of a fictional autobiography, The Little Exile, which recounts her young life as a subject of American concentration camps. Over the years, Jeanette's devotion to educational issues are exemplified by her role as a founding member of Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) and her advocacy in helping change the CA Education Code to ensure that the content in public school textbooks are evaluated to consider representations of race and gender.

Transcript of Jeanette Arakawa

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Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 0:00 >> 9:40

(Interviewer) In beginning of each chapter in your book, you pick a song. And we wanted to know what was it about music that you felt was important to include in in the whole book? And how did the music and art kind of influence or impact the making of your book?

Music was always an important part of my my life and not that I was proficient at it or anything, but I just it had meaning for me. And so you'll find that the songs that precede each chapter are songs of the time, but don't necessarily relate directly to the content. For example, the first chapter features Shirley Temple. She was my favorite character as she was everyone at that time through Shirley Temple dolls and Shirley Temple dresses and so if one expected something about Shirley Temple in the first chapter, they will find it because it was just by my feeling about the song and whatever the. And then what was kind of interesting to me was how patriotic I could be in the medley. Well, I, I just retrieved the medley a couple of days ago. One of the tech people in the in the building helped me to untangle it from from the Internet morass. And it was interesting for me to be listening to the to the songs again and what would strike you. What really struck me was the number of very patriotic songs, including I remember Pearl Harbor, and it it I was sorry that I had not worked harder to link the narrative of the book with the songs. But it's there. It's in my heart.

(Interviewer) And like I said, there is a lot of patriotic themes that are in that might be with the music or our industry at that time, producing those songs for people. Were there any other art influence, choices or things that inspired you, whether it was a movie or a story or a radio show? What other pieces of art were important to you and do you feel like influenced you?

I think those those songs represented what you were asking about because they were not an interpretation of or tweaking or of a song to match a chapter tie or vice versa.

(Interviewer) As a follow up question to Jeanette, you were saying that in retrospect, you you would have liked to have linked the songs to the content and what information do you feel that could be included into them, into the storyline? Had you done that?

Well, there were some that were occurred without any deliberation. But looking back, know, I thought that's pretty good. I the one that comes to mind is “Don't Fence Me In” and as it turned out, it was it was a song that was popular when we were in camp and it's just terribly appropriate.

(Interviewer) And what about the ones that you knew in retrospect, looking back, you realize it's they were patriotic.

They were patriotic. Whether they were obviously patriotic, like, oh, let's remember Pearl Harbor and You're a Grand Old Flag is one of the problems that existed in camp was was the the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance as a routine. And when I was a third grader, which is which is when Pearl Harbor occurred, we were old enough to begin to realize what we were saying and what what was recited in the Pledge of Allegiance and what was the truth for us.

(Interviewer) And were there any other pieces of media that was very influential, like the comic books or other things that you read at that time?

I think they were they were the superheroes and and the society is revisiting a lot of superheroes like Billy Batson and how he converts into Captain Marvel. Do you know the story? Well Billy Batson finds this secret tunnel and so the powers that be teach him about them when he says Shazam really best and becomes Captain Marvel and those were I guess fantasy stories which which gave us hope. Right.

(Interviewer) What other forms of of media like radio or will you listening to what others?

Before the war? We were most kids, if they lived close enough to a movie theater, attended the Saturday matinees, which usually featured two movies and a serial. And a cereal would be something like The Shadow, right? And and a feature film would be like, oh, Red Skelton movie, which was purely slapstick.

Actually, my memory is memories appeared to me like a movie. It's visual. I'm very visual. And so it's a the memories are are visual. And in order to write the book, I needed to translate the visual to the verbal. And so this is not a very good medium for me. I'd rather draw you a picture. Well, one of the things is that I did in very early in my life, I realized that there's a cultural difference between me and my friends because I didn't live in Japantown, and my my connection with the Japanese community was minimal. But when I was invited to my friend's house and for a lunch and she served rice with milk and sugar. That was a very strong image that made it into the book.

Timeframe 9:40 >> 16:44

(Interviewer) So I just wanted to talk to you about how you became involved with with AACI and what attracted you to, you know, its ideals and its activities? So could you talk about that time?

It was more like AACI was a trip. It was an attraction from sound egotistical. It was an attraction to AACI, to textbook evaluation. In a very short period of time, we we had mustered up a sizable following from a variety of community resources. And looking back on it, because I often wondered why Allan [Seid] was so enchanted in textbook evaluation, because his his focus was and public health or public health of East Asian immigrants, which was pretty far removed, textbooks. But this is my this is the vision those things are the attraction, though, of the fact that textbook evaluation had drawn so much interest and had we we were not just a group of Asian Americans, but we included the YWCA and first of all, the PTA and and support, the support was phenomenal. Phenomenal, because I was appointed a Human Relations chair for the City of Palo Alto, also called the PTA Council, which so it was the highest level of the PTA and and this involvement grew into support by the Palo Alto Unified School District. And Eimi and I, who were appointed to to create workshops for the teachers with regards to reviewing textbooks.

(Interviewer) I'd like to ask you, did Allan Seid approach you to to help form AACI?

Exactly as I mentioned earlier, I wondered what the attraction was for AACI in the textbook evaluation and is my conclusion that he was interested in the fact that we had been able to attract a large part of the community.

(Interviewer) So that you were very important in broadening AACI's agenda. And that year that you, you and Eimi [Okano] were when it was 1974. So it was just a year after AACI's incorporation. So you were really very already, you know, leading the movement.

(Interviewer) Well, we were appointed to the charter members of AACI.

Yes. Yes.

(Interviewer) So you had one very active son and was a teenager and your your mother, a wife, very involved with the community with many meetings to go to. And you're in various sports and of course, being a founding member of this new fledgling organization that became so, so very busy. How did you balance all of this?

I don't know.

(Interviewer) You had plenty of meetings in the evenings, and I know you enjoyed cooking.

I did.

(Interviewer) So when I came to your house, you made donburi for me and you told me how to do it, you know? So did you. You you did find a balance because you you did want to take care of your family and you did want to go to meetings. And you had commitments already. So could you talk about how you how your schedule was? How did you do it?

I didn't do it for very long because, oh, my. As as the years went by, the the level of involvement became more and more service sophisticated, and it was just a matter of adjusting to the time.

(Interviewer) And so during this very busy period, you found out you were expecting your second child and you already had a teenage boy. And it became. Was it a surprise to you?

Absolutely, yeah.

(Interviewer) And you were on a committee on textbooks during that time?

Yeah, I. I think I was I was.

Systems & Power Timeframe 16:44 >> 27:49

(Interviewer) As a follow up question, Jeanette, I think one of the things that young people might want to understand better is how does a woman with young children, how do they balance family life with activism in the community?

It's not easy as what it does, and there's enough stress in a relationship not adding another. But when just it becomes a learning experience.

(Interviewer) So where do you find the time and how do you fit in? You know, meetings and trips to supplement you.

You make sure you your significant other is very understanding.

(Interviewer) Your husband was very supportive of you.

Yeah. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to make those trips to Southern California and Sacramento.

(Interviewer) And did you feel that being a part of AACI during this time when you're involved with other committees, was this satisfying work for you? Did you feel that it was effective being involved with AACI?

I was not involved in the the medical aspect. AACI started as an educational promoting. That was his main focus because the the medical aspect has not yet matured.

(Interviewer) But I was thinking of the committee that it was a textbook committee with AACI is a textbook legal compliance committee. Then I think did you have to report to AACI the, you know, the progress that was being made.

You know, I don't think so. Or we were we were not a subsidiary of AACI was you're [asking]. One of the things that we haven't touched on was other activities that we were involved in besides AACI and textbooks. And I have I live in a neighborhood which had a community which was organized. There was a Green Meadow Association. And I think anybody who lived is not a condominium. But there was a condominium like the governing body. And I think that experience along those lines were extremely helpful.

(Interviewer) Can you can you talk about some of those issues.

In Green Meadow, there is this swimming pool and then a clubhouse and a lot of the activities involve meetings and infrastructure and experience that I think was important, contributed to our background in terms of becoming a part of a governing body, which, which AACI and textbook evaluation would require, learning how to manage each individual, that each homeowner that belong to the association was required to to contribute in some way. And I think those those skills were applicable to the formation AACI.

(Interviewer) So there was something else about the fact that you really had two phases of motherhood, which is so atypical. You said that your son, the oldest son, was a an only child. For how many years?

18

(Interviewer) 18 years. Okay. So you have an 18 year old. You have a teenager, and suddenly you're going to expect a baby.

Yeah.

(Interviewer) And you are starting all over again, getting the the crib, living the baby room. And it's just so it's like a very unusual experience for women.

You know? But I didn't think of it that way. It's just it's a part of my life. And so you you deal with it.

(Interviewer) Brought you great joy, didn't it?

It did.

(Interviewer) Jeanette I just wanted to also follow up. Yeah. It seems like you're active with the PTA textbook movement, homeowners’ associations. There's just so much going on. Was there ever a time when you just felt tired and you didn't want to do it anymore?

No, I just went for a walk and one event or invitation to went to the next and just sometimes it was more difficult than others. I was also involved in my temple, and particularly important year in 2019, and I was active in the organization of that and my husband passed away that year and that was hard.

I just wanted to say that we would not be here today if my husband were still alive. I miss my husband, but this has been a tremendous opportunity for us women [interviewers, camera crew, Jeanette, and Eimi Okano] and token men [videographer Howard Lui]. And I feel like this is my space and a space that I can readily share with other women, and something to look forward to.

Excuse me, Kiyo. But I think you know what I mean.

Eimi Okano: He would be the first person to support you too?

Yeah. He would? Yeah, I'd written all these years, but this. This would never have happened if he were alive.

(Interviewer) Were there any times in your activism that perhaps the voice of women or your voice was overpowered or silenced by that of men?

Oh, many times. Many times. Particularly in mixed groups. Not in all women's groups. But were…where men who was holding the gavel. And people that I've known very closely under other circumstances have demonstrated their use of power by demeaning me.

Well, I can. I don't see myself as being unique. I mean, it's just just the way it is. And just the way it was. And so it doesn't. There's no special feeling that covers it. I don't feel unique, exactly. It's been. It's been rough raising two boys so far apart, but nothing that I regret. There have been happy times and there have been not so happy times. And I've been lucky to have a supportive family and very supportive friends like Eimi [Okano].

Transformation & Change Timeframe 27:49 >> end

Actually, from the very beginning, I have not thought that I was an activist. So coming from that position, I find it difficult to help somebody create a concept which I have not been active in creating myself. I don't think I've ever, ever thought of what I've done as activism. I find it extremely difficult because I think there's a residue of guilt I have associated with my ethnic origins. And so, the guilt extends. So, the beginning of the book or maybe the end of the book. I confess to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And I was sort of carrying the burden of what Japan did to the United States. The is baggage that I carry. And so anything related to that baggage, I still carry. And even in circumstances where it has nothing to do with ethnic identity, I tend to put a label on it. And so that's a pitiful place I'm at. I still haven't let it go. I recently experienced something that was negative, and my son said, "Just let it go." And I guess it'll always be difficult for me to let it go, but I have to let it go.

(Interviewer) Why did you focus on the Ed Code, and what was the importance of that work that you were dedicated to for so many years?

Because I was rule bound, I tend to go by the rule. For our organization to start evaluating textbooks without any rationale. And there wasn't any rationale. There wasn’t any rationale.

(Interviewer) And so what rationale were you trying to establish?

[The] rationale that all textbooks, regardless of what their subject was, needs to reflect the ethnicity of our nation.

(Interviewer) So if I was to ask you that same question for why you went before the school board in Palo Alto, just recently, what rule were you trying to honor?

The rule of common sense and righteousness and honoring of someone who... You haven't mentioned why he was nominated. There was a renaming of a school in Palo Alto, and there were several candidates for it. And one of the candidates was a young man named Fred Yamamoto. And he was a student in Palo Alto when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. And he and his family along with similarly experienced people were evacuated. Why am I saying similarly? When the Japanese—people of Japanese ancestry—were removed from their home and incarcerated in camps that were built specifically for that purpose. His name came up and he and his family had been in a camp in Montana, I think. And there was an objection from the audience that Fred Yamamoto's was a general—Yamamoto in Japan who was particularly aggressive—and they didn't want a person with the same name serving as having the same name as a school in Palo Alto. And was he killed in battle? He was also killed in battle, and there's no recognition yet.

(Interviewer) What advice would you give to someone who is passionate about making change but doesn't know where to start?

Gee, that sounds like me. Sounds like me. [pause] I would go to San Jose State University and find out what they're doing about the history of Japanese Americans. And hone up your IT skills, take a class, tell others about it, and spread the word.