The mere mention of Kagoshima Kenjinkai brings back a flood of memories.
I remember association dinners at San Kwo Low Chinese Restaurant on the second floor on First Street in Little Tokyo. We were kids who were brought to the dinners by our Issei parents who would never leave their children home with a baby sitter, it was not the thing to do. It was one of the few times in the year that we got to go out and enjoy dinner that was not home cooked. After consuming the meals as quickly as it was brought out, we would make the great escape and sneak down the stairs, spilling out onto the sidewalks of Little Tokyo. We played tag and hide and seek until it got too dark and too cold to play outside.
I remember the summer picnics at Elysian Park and at Legg Lake. We ran foot races and played games where everyone won something just for participating. We would win rolls of toilet paper, bars of soap, kitchen sponges and many other items that we could use around the house. Not having the luxury of drinking soda at home, the kids spent a lot of time sticking their hands into the aluminum tubs filled with icy cold water to fetch cans of all you can drink bubbly bliss. The raffle prizes consisted of rake heads, shovels, garden hoses, and bedding plants with the top prizes comprising of blowers, lawn mowers, chain saws and a television. With the general membership of the Kenjinkai consisting of gardeners and housewives, the prizes selected to be given out were more out of practicality.
I remember the annual spring Volleyball Tournaments at Westwood Park, the competition between all the different areas around Los Angeles and Orange County. West Los Angeles, Gardena and San Fernando would have multiple teams representing their areas. With two to three teams each, they would always have the advantage of placing their best players on the A team and play each other off in the finals. My Monterey Park team consisted of mostly middle aged housewives and seniors, sprinkled with two or three players under the age of 30. We never had a standing chance when those spikes came barreling over the net.
I remember our Sunday morning ritual of packing bentos and going to Rancho Park near Century City to watch the Kagoshima Kenjinkai baseball team play against other Japanese teams in the league. We sat out on the bleachers cheering on our team to victory every season. After every game, my mother would bring out the bento lunches and the whole team would join in and enjoy the onigiri and okazu that she had prepared early in the morning for everyone to share.
I remember the exchange students from Kagoshima that would home stay with our family for a few days during the summer months. My father would drop me off to get on the tour bus, along with the Japanese students to join them for the local tours of Los Angeles including Disneyland. He thought the students would appreciate someone closer to their age showing them around the amusement park instead of the seniors from the Kenjinkai. As we stood in the long lines waiting to get on the Matterhorn Bobsleds or Pirates of the Carribbean, we had the opportunity to exchange stories about life in our own countries.
The Kagoshima Kenjinkai was established in 1899, and the Fujinkai in 1909. This year they will be celebrating the 110th and 100th anniversary respectively. Back in the era when the Kenjinkai was established, the members came together out of necessity compared to the present social interaction that they enjoy.
Takeyuki Miyauchi was, and still is the association’s Historian. He kept records of every member who had joined since he took on the position of Historian in 1967. He had collected information on each member which included their name, address, date of birth and origin from Kagoshima. He compiled all the data into reports of how many members were from a specific town of Kagoshima down to the age of each member.
When he became the President of the Kenjinkai in 1983, he was concerned about the future of the Kenjinkai. 80% of the members were older than the age of 60. Without new members joining the association, he knew that the death of the association would be inevitable. There were few immigrants arriving from Kagoshima and the only way to grow the membership would be to reach out to the American born Nisei.
A meeting of all youths was called and the Kagoshima Junior Club was established. The members were all in High School at that time. Just like its parent association, they maintained their membership through social activities.
The Junior Club hosted beach parties at Santa Monica Beach, softball games in San Fernando Valley, dances in Venice and as the members acquired driver’s licenses, they drove out to Mammoth Mountain for ski trips. We volunteered our help at the picnics and volleyball tournaments hosted by the Kenjinkai. When the 1984 Summer Olympics was to take place in Los Angeles, the Junior Club helped the Japanese speaking seniors to complete ticket forms so that they could attend the games. The youths in the Junior Club were all shin-Nisei who attended Japanese Language schools making them all bilingual in Japanese and English. Some of us could be considered tri-lingual if you included Kagoshima-ben or dialect.
The Junior Club membership began to wane when the youths went off to college or after graduating college took on careers. The activities that the Junior Club offered were nothing different from what other community organizations could provide. It was more convenient to join a local Japanese American organization and participate in their activities than to drive across town participating in the Junior Club activities. Many of us married and went on to live our own individual lives.
As we started having families of our own, we again participated in the picnics with the invitations of the grandparents. Our children enjoyed the summer sun, running on the grass, collecting prizes and playing in the aluminum tubs filled with ice cold sodas.
In 1993, the dilemma of a dying Kenjinkai had not been resolved. Now, 80% of the population of the Kenjinkai membership was over the age of 70. Not only was the general membership shrinking in size, but the number of viable members young enough to run the organization and its events were also beginning to shrink. The members of the Youth Club, better know as the Seisonen-bu, of the Kenjinkai was all nearing the age of 50 years old. Mr. Miyauchi again sent out a request to English speaking children of the Kenjinkai membership. This time, only a handful of people showed up at the meeting.
We brainstormed on ideas of what it would take for us to want to join the Kenjinkai. After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that the only commonality was our Kagoshima heritage. We didn’t need the Kenjinkai for its social activities. We wanted to learn about the place where our heritage came from. We all knew general facts about Japan and could read history books written in English if we wanted to learn more about Japan. What we didn’t have, but desired was the knowledge of our roots in Kagoshima. We decided to change the vision and direction that Junior Club would take. It would be a club where we can gather and exchange our knowledge of Kagoshima. To reflect the new direction that the club would be taking, we all agreed to change the name of Junior Club to Kagoshima Heritage Club. A new board was elected to reorganize the club.
Events were placed on the annual calendar to take place in the Spring and the Autumn of each year. The events were now focused on giving our members opportunities to educate themselves about Kagoshima. Lectures included topics on Kagoshima history, famous people from Kagoshima, Kenjinkai history, Japanese Immigrants in America, Japanese Swords and much more. Outings included a trip to Santa Rosa where the first Kagoshima immigrant Kanae Nagasawa resided and established a vineyard, a trip to the Imperial Valley Pioneers Museum, a trip to Coast Nursery in Camarillo, a tour of the Japanese American National Museum and Little Tokyo. We held gatherings to enjoy Japanese bento under the Cherry Blossoms at Balboa Park, the way native Japanese would. We held workshops on how to create your family tree, cooking demonstrations on Satsuma cuisine and how to create your own Bonsai. We hosted an annual “Day at the Races” at Santa Anita Race Track to raise funds for scholarships.
The Heritage Club had the pleasure of partaking in the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Kenjinkai in 1999. We attended the gala reception and had opportunities to meet visiting dignitaries from Kagoshima. We shared the efforts to publish a hardbound commemorative book written in Japanese and English about the History of the Kagoshima Kenjinkai.
To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Heritage Club, a tour to Kagoshima took place in the spring of 2003. The tour group consisted of first timer’s to Japan, natives from Kagoshima, professionals, business owners, homemakers, retired seniors and school age children. As a group, we did some typical sightseeing, visiting gardens, participating in tea ceremonies and soaking in Onsens. A day out of the tour was set aside for each member of the group to visit their counterpart in Kagoshima. With the help of the Kenjinkai, contact was made with the Kagoshima Prefectural government and the “Brain Exchange” took place. Those involved with the local Chambers of Commerce in the states met with the members of the Kagoshima Chamber of Commerce. The school age children had an opportunity to visit and tour an elementary school. Every member had an opportunity to exchange information on a professional, cultural or personal level. Another day was set aside for each member to visit the town that their family originated from. We were received by either relatives or city officials. They drove us to gravesites where we were able to pay respect to our ancestors. They gave us tours around town and provided us with local hospitality. It was an unforgettable trip for each and every one of us.
A quarterly newsletter in English is published and distributed to the members and others interested in Kagoshima. The newsletter includes a message from the President, a calendar of events, and news about our members. The most popular section of the newsletter is the exclusive articles of interesting facts about Kagoshima written by the club historian and newsletter editor, Tim Asamen. Although members may not come out to participate in the semi-annual hosted events, many are interested in reading Tim’s articles. The newsletter is vital in increasing the Heritage Club’s membership. The newsletter is circulated not only in the Southern California area, but also nationally and even internationally.
Our present day membership of the Heritage Club is eclectic, including Nisei, Sansei, native Japanese, young professionals, retired seniors, college students and much more. As part of the campaign to increase the membership of the Kenjinkai, each high school scholarship recipient from the Kenjinkai receives free membership to the Heritage Club for five years. With that free membership, we hope to retain some of the young people in the association and keep the Kenjinkai alive.
The youths of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. I hope that through the ties to Heritage Club, a new generation will inherit the Kenjinkai and keep the legacy of our forefathers alive.
© 2009 Margaret Miyauchi-Leong
