Each July during Obon, Japanese Americans gather in the Nishi Hongwanji Temple gym to buy udon. Under the basketball hoops, they slurp noodles out of Styrofoam bowls before wandering back into the cooling night to dance Obon odori, pacing ovals in the parking lot, waving uchiwa, those round paper fans with the plastic skeletons that you can find, any time of year, in Japanese American houses and in the pockets of car doors.
Thursday night, around 400 people packed into the temple gym, mostly elderly, mostly wearing red—red shirts, red scarves, red hachimaki tied, warlike, around forehe…