By Mary Uyematsu Kao
The end of January was a whirlwind trip to the Bay Area. I had three events over three days presenting the second edition of my book “Rockin’ the Boat.” It was a great shot of renewed energy meeting new and old friends — underscoring how we are all somehow interconnected in the JA community.
I co-published this second edition with Eastwind Books of Berkeley, one of the few independent bookstores that has survived into today’s economy. Sadly, Eastwind owners Harvey and Bea Dong had to give up their brick-and-mortar store on University Avenue in Berkeley, but they are alive and well online and in the community, hosting many book events. https://www.asiabookcenter.com
Eastwind Books partnered with J-Sei in Emeryville and National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) in San Francisco’s Nihonmachi for two community event presentations of “Rockin’ the Boat.” A third event was at Professor Harvey Dong’s class at UC Berkeley.
The first-edition book launch for “Rockin’ the Boat” was on Zoom during the pandemic lockdown (2020), so these were the only in-person books talks to occur.
J-Sei has a beautiful center from a renovated warehouse in the industrial section of Emeryville that neighbors Oakland and Berkeley. They serve the East Bay community with programs ranging from botanical printmaking to tai chi to mahjong to singing, ukulele — and so much more! An in-house senior food program, as well as hot-meal delivery to East Bay Japanese, Korean, Pacific Islander, Chinese, Filipino, and Hawaiian residents. They have a “giveinmay” program, which I encourage you to check out. www.giveinmay.org/organization/J-Sei
Saturday’s program at J-Sei was a truly uplifting event. I met Jane Tanamachi, a UCLA Theta sorority sister that I’d never met. She originally hails from Harbor City and we share many friends in common. She was my good-luck charm for feeling at home for a presentation and conversation with Shoshana Arai.
Victor Uno introduced himself, saying, “My mother was on the Nisei Women’s Panel”— which was my mother’s contribution to “Rockin’.” Victor’s mother, Kiku, was a standout Nisei advocate for the Asian American Movement. She was part of the movement’s delegation attending the Vancouver IndoChinese Women’s Conference in 1971, where U.S. and Canadian women met with women from Laos and Vietnam. These women were imprisoned and tortured in the infamous “tiger cages” for their activism against U.S. aggression in their countries.
Kiku was the only Nisei woman to speak at the Asians for Peace rally at the Biltmore Bowl, May 16, 1971. She was also the sister-in-law of Edison Uno, the first Nisei who called for reparations from the U.S. government for the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
My mother Elsie had organized the Nisei Women’s Panel as part of the first Asian women’s course of UCLA’s fledgling Asian American Studies Center. Elsie and Kiku knew each other from Doane College, Crete, Nebraska. Nebraska welcomed many Nisei who escaped the concentration camps to attend college. It was thanks to the Quakers’ American Friends Service Committee and their National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, which provided scholarships to many Nisei who never dreamed of going to college.
NJAHS has been around since 1980, and is “dedicated to the collection, preservation, authentic interpretation and sharing of historical information of the Japanese American experience.” NJAHS’ executive director is Rosalyn Tonai, niece of the late Min Tonai, who was well known in L.A. for his many community involvements.
NJAHS established the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center in the Presidio of San Francisco (2013) and has a well-developed resource, archive, and exhibit center. As a member-supported organization, they well deserve your support as a valuable community asset. And you can check out their online store for books and gifts. www.njahs.org/membership/
Sunday’s program at NJAHS included a community panel moderated by Emma Grover, with Keith Kojimoto, Kiana Hume, and Shoshana Arai. Emma is a community organizer of book talks, cultural events, and exhibitions, with over 60 public events under her belt. Keith and Shoshana both have long histories in the Bay Area Asian Movement. Shoshana is currently active with Tsuru for Solidarity.
Keith is the proud grandfather of Kiana, whose activism as a gender studies student at UC Davis contributed an important perspective from today’s youth generation. Kiana helped draw a younger crowd to hear our intergenerational panel. The Q&A had lively participation from the younger folks with what many of us older folks described as “really HARD questions to answer.”
At Monday’s talk at UC Berkeley, I mentioned how the ’70s Asian Movement discovered the Heart Mountain draft resisters through our disbelief that everyone went to camp like sheep. What a restoration of faith that there were resisters defying the draft while being incarcerated in concentration camps.
After class ended, a student introduced herself — the grand-niece of a Heart Mountain draft resister. She confirmed that the community’s shameful response to the draft resisters kept her great uncle’s history hidden in the family closet. She was sorry he had passed before she was able to know and talk to him about his experiences.
I also had the good fortune to meet Marion Kwan, who will be speaking to Professor Dong’s class in April. She was involved with the Civil Rights Movement in 1965-66 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and currently speaks about her history with the movement. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/290480?v=pdf
In all of my presentations, I talked about how the ’70s Asian Movement was inspired by socialism in the People’s Republic of China. And in my rewrite for the epilogue for the second edition, I talk about how my main take-away from the ’70s movement was U.S. imperialism and socialism. The battle between these two systems has overshadowed our whole lives, and continues to create the problems we face today at home and abroad.
At the first event at J-Sei, the very first person to speak during the Q&A said the most meaningful and memorable words that summed up our experience. She said, “Socialism has always remained in my heart.”
Mary Uyematsu Kao is the author/photographer of “Rockin’ the Boat: Flashbacks of the 1970s Asian Movement” (second edition, 2025) 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 uyematsu72@gmail.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.