By MICHELLE TIO
Ken Minami and brothers Albert Saisho and Kenji Saisho co-founded the Nikkei Student Union, a Japanese American student organization, in the early 1980s. The three grew up in East Los Angeles, attending an all-Japanese K-12 school, high school, and college together.
While the Nikkei Student Union began at UCLA, it has now expanded, with 12 NSUs in Southern California alone.
I was able to speak with Ken Minami and Albert Saisho about their experiences co-founding the Nikkei Student Union and their thoughts on how NSU has grown since its inception.
Ken is currently a lawyer practicing in Marin County, and Albert is a doctor in Irvine.
Rafu: What year was the Nikkei Student Union founded, and what grade levels were you in?
Ken: In trying to recreate the timeline of the first year of NSU, we may have launched NSU during winter quarter 1981 when I was a junior and Albert was a senior. Albert and I were co-chairs of NSU for winter and spring quarters that year, and I may have taken more of a lead role in the 1981-82 academic year (my senior year). I believe Kenji became a co-chair with two others in 1982-83.
Rafu: What was the student population like at UCLA at the time? Did you have culture shock?
Ken: It wasn’t as much a culture shock going to UCLA, but in fact, it was probably more of “My God, there’s so many Japanese Americans here,” right? So many Asian people on campus at UCLA.
Rafu: Why was the Nikkei Student Union founded?
Albert: In terms of the UCLA campus, and it having a very strong Asian American student center, it was pretty glaringly obvious there was no Japanese American student group. We kind of questioned that. I think Roy [Nakano] said, you know, since you guys always question this, why don’t you start one?
Ken: Recognizing that there were all these other Japanese Americans there, it really emphasized that there was a need for this organization that could be representative of that population because it was sizable. There was so much going on in terms of Asian American and Japanese American organizational development, yet we didn’t have anything on campus other than the Asian sororities and fraternities.
The Asian Coalition served as the political voice for its member Asian American clubs on campus. The Asian Coalition represented Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean American clubs, but surprisingly, there was no Japanese American organization.
A key person that we met was Roy Nakano, who was the director of the Asian American Studies Center. I really think that he was sort of the behind-the-scenes impetus for the formation of NSU. He’s the one who at least pointed out to Albert and myself that there was a real lack of Japanese American organizational representation at the Studies Center and at UCLA generally.
And I think that’s when Albert really deserves the credit because he’s the one who took the bull by the horns, ran with the idea, and registered NSU — and that’s how this all started.
Rafu: Why did you get involved in founding the Nikkei Student Union?
Albert: We just felt that having a group that represented the Japanese American community at UCLA was important. We felt that the community was there, yet it didn’t really have a voice.
Personally, I feel more Japanese than even Japanese American because my parents are from Japan. With that, I wanted to instill a sense of Japanness or Japaneseness there, because I thought the cultural part of it was really important. I think that was a real big push for me. And I could sense that the community was changing, you know?
Rafu: What was the purpose of the NSU when you founded it?
Ken: In terms of trying to identify what our initial foundational purposes were, I think those were the four: community service, cultural awareness, community activism, and social. I don’t think at the time we articulated that way. It was just in hindsight now, with the benefit of time.
Albert: There was still discrimination. We wanted to make sure that the kids at the school felt a strong identity with what they were, rather than just kind of becoming part of the melting pot and losing their identity.
Rafu: What was your favorite memory from NSU?
Ken: We had a number of these pot-luck social events, and we would host it at our apartment or in West L.A. And I met my wife, whose best friend was an NSU member. My wife didn’t go to UCLA, but her friend did. So her friend brought her to one of our NSU social events, and that’s how I met my wife. We just had our 35th wedding anniversary this past year, and so I can give NSU credit for that.
Rafu: How did NSU impact you? What do you think of your legacies as the co-founders of NSU?
Albert: It changed my life. I think it made me more aware, and I’m glad that I became more conscious of being Japanese American and Asian American …
I was glad that we created the group. I’m glad that people have enjoyed being part of it, and have allowed it to grow — to become much bigger than what we had anticipated it to be. We were literally wondering if it was going to survive, you know?
Who would have predicted that this group would be in different campuses and spearhead all this stuff — like with the Manzanar Pilgrimage? They even have these performance groups now, like NSU Modern.
I’ve had patients, multiple generations of patients of mine, who are NSU graduates. And they’re telling me all this stuff, and I’m like, wow, I would have never imagined it to be that way.
It’s like I plant a seed, and a tree grows, and then all of a sudden it becomes a farm, and then it becomes a corporation.
All we can say is we’re proud of the kids who came afterwards to make it what it is.
Ken: As original founders, we could never envision the longevity of NSU and the growth that took place. I can’t take credit for any of what has happened in the last 44 years, but at least personally, I am just incredibly impressed with what has happened and proud of what NSU leadership has done with the organization over all these years.
I came across an article recapping the history of the NSU and all the different accomplishments that have taken place after our first year – the Culture Night, Week of Remembrance, Kodo Taiko, their annual basketball tournament, the Intercollegiate Nikkei Council, and the NSU Modern Dance Group. So a lot to be proud of – having played a small role in the history of NSU.
Rafu: What do you hope that current college students gain from NSU?
Ken: I think, ultimately, NSU exists to help support the students find their Nikkei self. A lot of what NSU offers, whether it’s on the cultural side, the social side, the activist side — is to really help the students find their identity, or find their place. And I think that’s where the balance of the original purposes really comes into play, so rather than just being one-dimensional, it helps create a more well-rounded view of what it means to be Japanese American, or Nikkei.
I don’t intend this to be too ethnocentric because NSU was formed to be inclusive. It was not to be just for Japanese Americans. You don’t have to be Japanese American to do taiko or to join the dance group.
I think from the very beginning, we always wanted to be open to all. In that sense, the goal may have been more than just finding your Japanese American identity. It was more to create a sense of community and family for the students on campus. And now with NSU’s multiple campuses, it creates community across campuses. And it creates that sense of family and the local Japanese American community because that to me is an important piece.
Albert: I hope that the NSU can provide them a good memory of college. Because I think when you’re in college, and you create friendships, some of those friendships are going to last you. I would think the students that are part of NSU are the kind of students you want to have as friends. And I think those friendships probably last.
And I hope that some of the events sponsored by NSU would solidify some of those cultural aspects. I think the Cultural Night themes that I’ve seen so far instill some appreciation of the history and some of the hardships that some of the our ancestors went through.
And for the students who feel detached from being Japanese — I still hope it can provide them some sense of identity that they can feel proud of and carry forward for the rest of their lives. I think if that can be accomplished now, that’d be great.