By Mary Uyematsu Kao

As I unglue myself from the TV screen watching the smoldering fires just outside of Little Tokyo, I bring you some brighter news of events that happened this spring. This spring journal is a collection of events that I would like to report on.

Descanso Gardens held a special weekend event on the Tuna Canyon Detention Center on March 7-9. The Tea House in the Japanese Garden housed the traveling exhibit of the Tuna Canyon Detention Center Coalition, with a speakers’ program on March 8.

The detention center, located just 5 miles away from Descanso, was where Fred Waichi Yoshimura was imprisoned. Yoshimura is part of Descanso Gardens’ history because while Fred was locked up, his wife Mitoko had to dispose of their San Gabriel Mission Nursery. Manchester Boddy, owner of Rancho del Descanso and publisher of The Los Angeles Daily News, was able to buy up all of the Yoshimuras’ 35,000 camellia stock for dirt cheap.

This, along with the 330,000 camellias Boddy bought from F. M. Uyematsu’s Star Nurseries, created the foundation of the world-reknowned camellia collection now at Descanso Gardens.

Speakers for the March 8 program included Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles Kenko Sone and Tuna Canyon descendants Sean Iwaoka and Donna Sugimoto. Iwaoka read a letter from Dr. Russell Endo, who researched Yoshimura’s detention at Tuna Canyon; Sugimoto spoke of learning about her grandfather’s detention while looking through his papers after he had passed.

Dr. Kendall Brown (CSU Long Beach) spoke on Japanese gardens and Arian Noorzai, Descanso Gardens’ camellia horticulturist, talked about the history of the camellias at Descanso.

The crowds at Descanso that hot weekend were record-breaking, assuring that many people viewed the Tuna Canyon Detention Center exhibit.

Moving on to May the 4th (Be with You) — Visual Communications’ Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival had a free program featuring pioneering Asian American films from the era of UCLA’s EthnoCommunications Film Program and the early days of V.C.

Josslyn Luckett’s just-released book, “Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A.,” and a panel of filmmakers treated us to a discussion of this historically groundbreaking but little-known time period. Renee Tajima-Pe?a moderated panelists Alan Kondo, Duane Kubo, Laura Ho, Bernard Nicholas, and Luckett.

Luckett’s book is described by Glen Mimura as “a brilliant, long-overdue account of UCLA’s legendary EthnoCommunications Program and the multiracial ‘New Los Angeles’ it radically envisioned between the insurrectionist fires of 1965 and 1992, in contrast to its more prestigious peers of New Hollywood.” Mimura is the author of “Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video” (2009).

For AAPI Heritage Month, I was invited to speak at Torrance and North high schools May 12 and 16, respectively, by Melissa Waller of the Torrance Unified School District — thanks to Maddox Chen’s film “Grandpa Cherry Blossom.” Ethnic studies freshmen students from Jennifer Baughfman’s class at Torrance High School and Joey Walker’s class at North High School saw the film, then asked questions after brief presentations from Maddox and myself.

And I was pleasantly surprised to receive a packet of handwritten thank-you notes from North High students and Melissa Walker. It is great to see that thank-you notes are part of the ethnic studies tradition that is being passed on, something that seems almost dead in this day and age.

Maddox joined the classroom talks via Zoom from New York City, where he was finishing up his sophomore year at NYU’s film school. He was a high school junior when he started work on “Grandpa Cherry Blossom,” completing it in his senior year at Mira Costa High School, site of Grandpa (F. M. Uyematsu) Cherry Blossom’s last 40 acres of his Manhattan Beach 120-acre estate.

“Grandpa Cherry Blossom” continues to make the rounds to far-reaching audiences, including as far as Milan, Italy last summer, and as part of the “Films of Remembrance on Demand” collection. Never in his wildest dreams did Grandpa think his story would be told to so many people. Continuing thanks to Maddox Chen for keeping this story alive. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK7jnNZbT3I)

O-Ji (OG) Gary Asamura’s 80th surprise birthday party was May 17— and talk about doing it right. . . . Gary’s two former wives, along with his current wife, son Lance, daughter Dawn, and a team of extended family and friends planned one for the books! Not only was Asian Persuasion right on the beat, treating us all to a great performance, but the crowd was chill and it was a great reunion of many old faces.

Five of the original seven founders of the Yellow Brotherhood were there: Gary, Art Ishii, Mike Goodlow, Laurence Lee, and Dave Yanagi; the other two founders, Ats Sasaki and Victor Shibata, are no longer with us in body but continue in spirit.

One special perk for me that evening was meeting Ms. Yasuko Maeda. She flagged me down and showed me the Rafu article that I wrote about Gary. It turns out that her kids and Gary’s kids grew up together.

Through her broken English, she managed to tell me that we lived on the same street. She said she usually only reads the Japanese section of The Rafu, but she crossed over to the English section for Gary’s article. It was a happy meeting for both of us.

And lastly, “Bronzeville: J-Town/Bronzeville Suite” was a evening of music and dance on May 23 at the East West Players theater. With music composed and produced by Dave Iwataki, we were treated to music and dance depicting Little Tokyo before the war, Bronzeville (1942-1944), and J-Town/Bronzeville after the war.

Narration introducing each time period and set gave us the historical context and little-known stories of what it was like. From the traditional Japanese sounds of shamisen, koto, flute and taiko by Matsutoyo Sato, Marisa Kosugi, Yuki Tasuda, Nori Tani, and Maceo, we transition to the jazz sounds of Theo Saunders, Jeff Littleton, Don Littleton, and Keith Fiddmont on piano, bass, drums, sax and flute.

Visually we watch Nicole Kimiko Kaichi Matsuoka and Miranda Emiko Kealey from Azuma Kotobuki Kai perform Japanese dance interspersed with Aaron Stokes and Shari Washington Rhone from the Jazz/Antiqua Dance Ensemble amplifying memories of Bronzeville.

An unforgettable battle of the flutes by Nori Tani and Keith Fiddmont was an evening highlight, along with the finale, “Kansha Shimasu,” which included special guests Atomic Nancy, Patti Howard, and Marisa Kosugi.

For those who wished to savor the evening with a post-panel on the meaning of Bronzeville in the present day, Miya Iwataki, Kennis Henry, and Kirk Silsbee gave their insights. Miya and Kennis are currently working on Black reparations together. Kennis represents N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) and Kirk is a journalist/jazz historian. Moderated by Alison De La Cruz.

The only thing I wished for to complete the evening would have been to hear musical genius Dave Iwataki speak.

The program was funded by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, and it was announced that there will be a summer performance of this program, so keep your eyes peeled.

Mary Uyematsu Kao is the author/photographer of “Rockin’ the Boat: Flashbacks of the 1970s Asian Movement” and formerly the publications coordinator of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (1987-2018). She received her MA from UCLA Asian American Studies in 2007. She welcomes comments, questions, and/or criticisms at [email protected].

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