Items from June Aochi Berk’s collection of memorabilia from the Nisei Week Festival, where she was chosen as Queen in 1954.
By JUNE AOCHI BERK
Thank You to the Nisei Week Foundation Board for the honor of being one of six Nisei Week Pioneer Spirit awardees for 2024.
I feel I have come full circle as I first danced in the first Nisei Week Parade in 1936, age 4, and was honored at age 21 to serve as 1954 Nisei Week Queen as part of the celebration of the 13thNisei Week Festival and now at age of 92, I am especially grateful to be one of six recipients of the 2024 84th Nisei Week Festival Pioneer Spirit Award.
But with this award, I am reminded of how many hard-working volunteers we have in our community, and how my life has been touched and even changed by each of these hard-working, quiet, unassuming men and women, of all ages, both Japanese Americans and also Shin-Issei, Shin-Nisei, who give so much of their time volunteering for the many organizations and programs here in our Little Tokyo community.
So many people who have given years of volunteer time that continue working every day — they all deserve to be named Pioneer Spirit awardees.
Some travel by train and buses in early morning hours to cook, serve and distribute hot lunches to shut-in seniors. For some of these seniors, this is their only touch with the outside world.
It has been my pleasure and my life-line to serve alongside the many volunteers at Koreisha Little Tokyo Nutrition Services in Little Tokyo Towers, and also at the Keiro Sakura Gardens in Boyle Heights, and at the Little Tokyo Koban, the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition, and also at the Japanese American National Museum.
Volunteering has been a legacy learned from the Issei who first came to America and helped one another to survive and grow here. From churches, to temples, to helping each other build their businesses and grow into the community we call Little Tokyo (Nihonmachi), it was the Issei who taught us the value of helping one another, in good times and hard times.
I remember growing up hearing how the Little Tokyo businesses started from just one man, Bungoro Morey, who opened the first Japanese-owned store in Little Tokyo (formerly called Frenchtown). Then other businesses grew here in Little Tokyo.
I remember the Asahi Shoe Store (Mr. Shimizu), Fugetsu-do (Mr. Kito), Okashiya and Umeya (Mr. Hamano), Narumi Sports (Mr. Narumi), Shofudo, Mikawaya, and so many more followed.
If someone was having a hard time, other businesses would help support and patronize that store or restaurant, a feeling of helping one another with their strength, gamanand hard work that grew Little Tokyo.
Then the Nisei came to Little Tokyo and said, “We need to grow this area more” and started Nisei Week to get more people to come down to Little Tokyo to shop and visit – to make it a gathering place for farmers to bring their families into town and meet friends at the local restaurants like Kawafuku, and popular Chinese restaurants on First Street that were places of celebrations and after-funeral get-togethers — San Kow Low (three stories), Nikko Low (two stories), Lem’s Café, Far East.
And we had kabuki at Yamato Hall — a place for performances of Japanese dance and theater, shiginand nagauta.All rehearsed in Little Tokyo hotel rooms above the stores on First Street. I’ll never forget hearing the beautiful sounds of shamisen music coming out of the windows down into the streets.
There was the Fuji-kan Japanese film theater, where we grew up watching benshiperform to silent movies, then the chanbara(sword fighting) samurai movies, and the fukumen,black-masked men who saved damsels in distress and poor townspeople from the bad yakuza men. And who could forget those scary obakeghost stories!
We grew up sitting in the movie theaters and trying to copy the characters after coming out of the theater. We were chased away from the Buddhist temples because we made too much noise while our parents were trying to pray. We saw sharply dressed white-uniformed Japanese sailors looking so handsome walking down First Street whenever their ships were docked at San Pedro Harbor. These are the memories of a happy childhood in Little Tokyo.
The Nisei Week Parade was a big annual event we always looked forward to. Dancing in the streets, in colorful kimono, under bright Japanese lanterns (chochin), stopping only to let the wooden street cars go through. Later, just before the war started, First Street got electric “P” cars. We still had to wait to dance while the “P” cars went through First Street.
But my favorite was the young pretty girl who wore white boots and a white uniform, throwing her baton up high to the sky and catching it behind her back. I think her name was Mary Matsumoto and I wanted to be a majorette just like her when I grew up. She was so pretty and she could really throw the baton up high into the sky! When we had to go to camp, I made my mother buy me white majorette boots, just like Mary Matsumoto.
I didn’t pay much attention to the Nisei Week Queen or her court, but I loved the Koyasan Boy Scout Troop playing and marching through the Little Tokyo streets. It was all so exciting.
My mother carried me on her back (ombustyle) when I was 4 years old, running to the next place to dance in the parade. She carried my kachi-kachi,my towel, my parasol and fans. It was a magical time.
Then we would practice Japanese dance (odori) and rehearse kabuki plays in hotel rooms on First Street, and perform at Yamato Hall, a theater in Little Tokyo.
My father, who arrived in America in 1899 at the age of 20, was a gidayuteacher. They sing and play the shamisen that accompanies the kabuki play on stage. They set the mood, the songs, and the acting of the theater players.
I joined the Shojo Kabuki All-Girls Kabuki Troupe, which performed in Los Angeles and other towns, and some even traveled to Hawaii to perform. Japanese theater was alive and well in Los Angeles until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
And this is all part of the Little Tokyo where I grew up. This was all made possible by the hard work of many volunteers who make Little Tokyo a place to live, work, play and visit.
I remember that Nisei Week and Little Tokyo had to close down during the war years. Many businessmen, Shinto and Buddhist priests were arrested and families suffered in silence along with leaders of our community. Little Tokyo grew dark in 1941.
Yet the strong Issei spirit (makenai de) returned after the war, the Nisei resumed leadership roles and resettlement began in Little Tokyo. Nisei Week and Little Tokyo became alive again and celebrated with Terry Tamaru (Hokoda) being crowned the first Nisei Week Queen after World War II during the 8thNisei Week Festival in 1949. She is now the proud great-grandmother of two beautiful kids.
Fugetsu-do celebrates their 121stanniversary this year. The temples and Buddhist churches are thriving again. There is so much to be grateful for. We owe so much to our Issei pioneers.