San Diego TV Program Features Clara Breed

Hurray to the recent San Diego KGTV special program that featured Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! One of the highlights of the program was about Clara Breed, a San Diego Librarian (1906-1994). Let me applaud Rina Nakano who produced the program, having learned about hundreds of letters (she exquisitely called “letters of hope”) exchanged between the children of Japanese descent in the World War II internment camps and Clara Breed, then serving as the children’s librarian in San Diego. I hope Rina had a chance to visit the Japanese-American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles to see the original handwritten letters by the children. I went there myself in 1995, after Breed’s funeral. I had worked together with Clara Breed on the Planning Stage Committee of the Japanese Friendship Garden to be established inside Balboa Park. The committee was presided by Wil Hippen, Jr., Honorary Consul General of Japan. I represented my Japanese employer, and Clara was the voluntary substitute secretary of the committee. This was arranged by Liz Yamada, who sat on the committee along with Joe Yamada, her husband. I didn’t really know who Clara was at the time. I did notice that the minutes she wrote were superb and I voiced my appreciation.

I contacted Liz Yamada after reading Clara’s obituary, having learned about how a box full of children’s letters addressed to her have been donated to JANM. I immediately visited JANM and found the letters in the process of being scanned. I was able to copy some of them in the hope of writing about Clara Breed. I also contacted the Japanese-American Historical Society of San Diego (JAHSSD). Joyce League, then editor of JAHSSD “Footprint”, told me about a New York writer named Joanne Oppenheim who had started interviewing their members for a book. She advised me to wait for her book to be published.

To make a long story short, I read Joanne’s book, titled Dear Miss Breed, when it first came out and felt it my mission to translate it into Japanese. I wanted as many young Japanese children as possible to know that there was an American woman who gave “letters of immense help” and hope to the children who found themselves under adverse circumstances.

My translation had a print run of 6,000 copies in 2007 and I’m glad they reached all major metropolitan city libraries as well as libraries of major educational institutions in Japan.

Infamy

My son, who lives in New York, took the trouble to airfreight me Richard Reeves’ Infamy, a 340 page book newly published by Henry Holt & Co. The subtitle reads “The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II.” This is the first book Joanne Oppenheim’s Dear Miss Breed is quoted extensively. I was happy to find Clara Breed’s photo in the book. She was the children’s librarian at the San Diego Public Library, who met hundreds of young Japanese-Americans and during the internment years, she sent them letters, books, and gifts. I saw names and letters of many 'Breed’s children' - Louise Ogawa, Katherine Tasaki, Margaret Ishino, Fusa and Yukio Tsumagari, Ted Hirasaki, Hisako Watanabe. Now all these names will be remembered as unjustly incarcerated internees who endured and lived with grace despite the harsh circumstances during a sad period in American history.

I myself befriended Clara Breed when she served as volunteer secretary for the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden Planning Board (SDJFPB) without knowing her background at all. I was so shocked to see her obituary and found out who she was upon my return to Japan.

Sitting with me at the SDJFPB were Joe and Elizabeth Yamada, members of the 'Breed children' whom I contacted asking about some of the children’s letters that were sent to and saved by Clara Breed from Poston, Arizona. As per Elizabeth Yamada, they had been entrusted with the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles. I visited JANM from Japan and copied some handwritten letters. Elizabeth Yamada then introduced me to Ted Hirasaki and Ben Segawa in San Diego. At JANM, I met Babe Karasawa who was serving as a volunteer docent. Soon I heard from my San Diego friends that Joanne Oppenheim had started interviewing the 'Breed children' with the intent of writing a book, suggesting that I wait for her book.

Oppenheim's book was well worth waiting for and inspired me to translate it into Japanese. One of my motivations for the translation was to make Japanese children aware of historical events. Oppenheim added court testimonies so that voices of internists from cities other than San Diego could be included. She toiled to try to cover over 10 relocation camps by quoting 1) Mrs. Roosevelt's diaries and 2) nationwide court testimonies. I’m glad that today, most of the Japanese municipal libraries and junior and senior high school libraries carry my Dear Miss Breed translation as I so aimed.

As a professional historian, Richard Reeves documented numerous narrative stories from ten relocation centers, making this book a very comprehensive compilation to date for all camp sites in seven States – California, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado and Arkansas.

The following two stories from Infamy were particularly memorable to me.

The 1942 valedictorian of the University of California, Berkeley, Harvey Itano, was in the Sacramento Assembly Center on his graduation day. "Harvey cannot be with us today," said university president Robert Gordon Sproul. He continued, "His country has called him elsewhere," which was behind barbed wire (Page 81). I became acquainted with Dr. Itano, a La Jolla resident, with whom I played golf often. He was a great golfer.

By mid-summer Isamu Noguchi realized he was having a lot of trouble adjusting to life in the camp. He set up an Arts and Handcraft Center in Poston but no one came. He had a lot of trouble communicating with his fellow residents. "I am extremely despondent for lack of companionship," he wrote to John Collier in Washington, "The Nisei here are not of my own age and are of an entirely different background and interest." Noguchi's name is mentioned in Dear Miss Breed. Noguchi left Poston when the army allowed him leave. Isamu Noguchi was in Poston for 184 days. He wrote to his half sister Ailes "Please let my friends know that I am on my way. I feel like Rip Van Winkle" (Page 129).

Notes:
As the author wrote, the Japanese Americans in Hawaii were mostly exempt from being sent to internment camps except hundreds of them were closely watched by the FBI. Sand Island, a 5-acre island of coral in Honolulu, used to quarantine ships believed to carry contagious passengers in the nineteenth century, served as a location for a camp but the detainees were later sent to the 160-acre Honouliuli Camp in Oahu to join other German, Italian and Korean detainees. The Honouliuli Camp was designated earlier this year by President Obama as a National Park. It seems that each island had similar facilities of its own. The Big Island camp was at the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), which was located in the volcano area, according to my friend Ron Takata who lives there.

Revisiting Little Tokyo / Japanese American National Museum

On my recent trip to Little Tokyo branch library in Los Angeles, notices for two fund-raising campaigns were posted - one to build a Ryoma Sakamoto statute and the other to save Bunichi Kagawa's poem epitaph.

Ryoma Sakamoto (1836-1867), a legendary Meiji Restoration icon, who attempted to organize a peaceful revolution, but instead was assassinated, is one of the best loved historical figures of Japan today. Ryoma, a visionary Samurai, who deserted Tosa-Clan, conceived the first trading company and ocean support fleet, and believed all men are created equal (he was most likely familiar with the U.S. Declaration of Independence). Some people may think Ryoma's statue in Little Tokyo is not necessary. However, the planning committee sent its mission to Japan and toured cities where Ryoma's statues currently stand, including Sapporo, Kyoto, Nagasaki, and, of course, Kochi, where Ryoma was born. The mission returned with the tour report and had a meeting in late February. My guess is that the Association of Immigrants from Kochi Prefecture is deeply involved.

Bunichi Kagawa (1904 -1981) was a poet, essayist, and critic who started concentration camp magazines in the Japanese language during World War II. His friends, supporters, and Nanka Bungei (Southern California literature publishers) collectively, raised $20,000 and built the poem epitaph on his behalf in one corner of Honda Plaza in January 2006, but is now in danger of removal by the death of the land owner, leading to a possible title transfer. On March 11, a multi-faceted meeting was held, which included Bunichi's poem recitation, local Japanese American children's poems encouraging 311 Tohoku Quake/Tsunami victims, lecture by Prof. Kumei of Shirayuri University in Chofu, Tokyo who stressed the pioneering role of Kagawa in Japanese immigrant's literature.

Little Tokyo has another rare statue we Japanese can no longer see in Japan, of Kinjiro Ninomiya as a teen, carrying firewood on this back and reading a book, symbolizing the virtue of diligence. Ninomiya later became a prominent 19th century agricultural leader. There are also World War ll and Korean War Memorials in the San Pedro street Memorial Court.

I read that the Community Redevelopment Agency and the CC&R requires developers to assign and fulfill 1.25% for public art and statues like Kinjiro, Isamu Noguchi's stone sculpture, Friendship Knot, Astrononaut Onizuka's Memorial, which should fall within the guidelines and they should include maintenance costs. I heard Bunichi Kagawa's poem epitaph costs $100 per month for maintenance.

My daughter accompanied me to the Japanese American National Museum. We walked to Honda Plaza to see the Bunichi Kagawa's poem epitaph.

We found Kagawa's poem "The Sea Shines" printed on both sides – Japanese in front and the English translation by Masayuki Arai in the back.

The translation reads:

"My poverty saddens me at times
but at home they increase in number,
bit by bit.
(sung by Shizu Aida, aka Mrs. Kagawa)

Seen from the Hills, the sea is green
A color like the cucumbers we grew in the summer
Running so bitterness
All day long, the sea stabs
At my dry pupils
I have lived here for four years already.
Poverty, too, belongs to me
I have come to tell myself
Facing straight toward the bitter sea

My wife!
The sea shines today also
Embracing the land in which man lives
The sea shines keenly"

Bunichi arrived at Palo Alto in 1918 to join his father from Eastern Yamaguchi facing the Seto Inland Sea. He studied English and poetry on his own while living and working at Stanford University dorm. By age 25, he published his first anthology "Hidden Flame" with the foreword by Yvor Winters (poet, critic and scholar at Stanford University). Apparently this anthology was lost and possibly no longer exists. While thumbing through another Kagawa anthology republished in Japanese in 2006 in Oakland, I found Bunichi poems which were sung at the camp in Manzanar and at Tule Lake. Seemingly he spent time in both camps.

I have visited JANM many times, but it was my daughter’s first visit and she was enthused to see the exhibits. While touring the library camp exhibits, we were lucky to encounter Roy Kakuda, a volunteer docent. Roy had spent his youth at Poston Camp 1 in Arizona. Camp Poston, at its fullest, imprisoned a population of 17,814. The internees who corresponded with Miss Breed were in Camp 111. Roy Kakuda gave us a true-to-life graphic story using his brand new iPad. We intently listened to him, totally mesmerized.

Part II: Clara Breed's "Children" and Letters

In l994, the year of my retirement, I returned to Japan with my wife, respecting my wife's preference to live in Japan. Our children and their families live in the U.S., so we have made it a point to visit the U.S. every year. On one such trip, I came across Clara Breed's obituary in the paper and discovered who she was (besides being a wonderful stenographer) and what she did during the war - her constant commitment to the Japanese American children during their internment through letters which she kept. Clara worked for the San Diego Library her entire life. She became Chief Librarian and at retirement was honored with various awards from the city. To my great surprise, the paper reported that many Japanese Americans attended her funeral service.

The story of Clara Breed and her students dates back to 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, and the beginning of World War II. Clara had met many Japanese American children at the library. She was in charge of handling books at the time. She noted that these Japanese Americans were diligent children with good manners. She liked them very much.

When these children were sent to the concentration camps, she asked them to write to her and she would send them books. The children thanked her for the books, adding notes about their lives in the camp and their hardships, problems, and anxieties about their future. Their letters were rather like an American version of the Diary of Anne Frank.

Clara answered every letter she received and tried to coordinate between the libraries close to the camp sites. She wrote to the State Department to reconsider the treatment of Japanese Americans in the camps. She tried hard to get visitation to the camp site to see "her" children. She was a person with an iron will who turned her ideas into action!

It occurred to me one of Clara's children was most likely among the Officers of the Japanese Friendship Garden. It turned out that Liz Yamada, who was eight years old when World War II broke out, and her sister corresponded with Clara. Liz's family lived in the Santa Ana Horse Racing stables until they were relocated to Poston, Arizona. I called Liz Yamada to ask her about these letters and Liz said she had donated all of them to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

I also met Tetsuzo "Ted" Hirasaki, who was close to Clara through Liz. Ted, the eldest boy among the interned children, was 16 years old at the start of the War. Ted enlisted with the Nisei Troops directly from camp. Despite the bitter experience of internment, almost all Japanese living in America expressed a strong desire to prove their loyalty. Many Nisei - children born in the U.S. of Japanese parentage - enlisted in the armed forces, such as the infantry of the much decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In all, 8,000 Japanese joined the armed forces despite the loss of their civil liberties at home. The 442nd Combat Team received many citations for bravery in l944.

I visited Ted at his home right away. Ted was working at General Dynamics. He was a man of knowledge and quite a speaker. He had an extensive vocabulary. He was saddened at Clara's death. He said he owed her a great debt of gratitude for the many things she did and wanted to preserve her legacy. Ted and others helped collect and organize the Clara Breed letters and sent them to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

In the summer of 2002, I visited the newly built Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo located in downtown Los Angeles. I found Clara's photo in the Who' s Who information, together with sample of letters to Clara from the children in the camps. Visitors have access to typewritten letter files upon request. It probably took me more than an hour to review them all. It was a pretty thick file. I would like to share am excerpt.

"Dear Miss Breed,
Thank you for sending William Saroyan's Human Comedy. I'm glad you liked the doll I handmade for you......Two things I can't take in Poston. The sand storms and the heat! Many people here have rashes to treat....The other night I had a dream. I had permission to go back to San Diego. The moment I gout out at the station, I was in a candy store... You are standing behind me. I bought 5 pounds of chocolate... and U was asking you... Would it melt before I could go back to my house?"

The letters were in the process of being sorted and digitized. The librarian assured me that by my next return visit, I should see them online. It was probably around this time that Joanne Oppenheim found the letters and decided to write a book.