Japanese Heritage Night at Citi Field

Japanese Heritage Night in the News

Introduction

New York Mets fans celebrated Japanese Heritage Night at Citi Field on August 27th, 2010. This is the first time the New York team has hosted such an event, marking the growing influence of the Japanese and Japanese American communities in the region.

Shinichi Nishimiya, ambassador and consul general of Japan, was in attendance. He says “Recently, there has been a most welcome surge in activity by various Japanese American organizations in and around New York, one of the aims being to engage the expat and long-term Japanese community in the area. The Mets hosting their first Japanese Heritage Night at Citi Field is an excellent attempt to pull together all those interested in furthering such causes, in a most enjoyable setting.”

The U.S.-Japan Council (USJC), Japanese American Association of New York, Inc. (JAA), Japanese Americans and Japanese in America (JAJA), Japanese American National Museum, Japan Society and the Japanese American Veterans Association were among the participating organizations for the event.

USJC member Ann Harakawa was motivated to bring Japanese Heritage Night to New York. She says, “As a member of the Japanese-American Leadership Delegation co-sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, I have a responsibility to facilitate productive relationships between our countries on a commercial and cultural level. Due to my professional connection with the Mets, I thought this would provide the opportunity for them to host one of the best and most enjoyable ways I can think of to help promote Japanese-American relations.” Ann Harakawa is also a principal at the graphic design firm, TwoTwelve, one of the corporate sponsors of the event.

Mets Spirit Awards

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the first Japanese diplomatic delegation to the United States, which included official visits to Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and lastly New York. Since then, Japanese, Japanese Americans, and Japanese Latinos have come to New York City as students, business people, academics, professionals, tourists, artists, writers, performing artists, and laborers.

During World War II, the U.S. government removed Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese ancestry from their homes on the West Coast to American concentration camps surrounded by armed guard towers and barbed wire, and situated in deserts or on swampland. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans resided in these camps during the war.

While most Japanese Americans in New York were not subject to the mass removal and incarceration, the U.S. Department of Justice detained Japanese, German, and Italian immigrant community leaders, businessmen, laborers, clergy, and university students at “enemy alien” internment camps established at Ellis Island and Camp Upton in New York and at other locations. Others were placed under house arrest by the FBI for the duration of the war.

To prove their loyalty, more than 10,000 young Japanese Americans served in the U.S. Army during World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit composed almost entirely of Japanese Americans, became and remains to the present day the most decorated unit for its size and strength in American military history. On August 27th and the ballpark, we paid tribute to those who have served our country during wartime and peace in the past and in the present.

Accepting the award for Japanese Americans Serving our Country are Kazuo Yamaguchi and Lt. Janelle Kuroda.

Lt. Janelle Kuroda, US Navy Lieutenant on active duty in the JAG (Judge Advocate General) Corps

Lieutenant Janelle Kuroda grew up in Hilo, Hawaii and graduated from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 2001. Upon graduation, she entered Boston College Law School, where she served as President of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. Following the footsteps of her grand-uncle, Pvt. Jack Tanaka, who served in the 100th Battalion during WWII, as well as family members who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and Vietnam, Lt. Kuroda decided to enter the uniformed services and was commissioned in 2004. Kuroda served as Legal Assistance Attorney, Defense Counsel, and Officer-in-Charge of the legal assistance office at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. In 2006, Lt. Kuroda volunteered to serve with Multi-National Forces-Iraq in Baghdad. Following that tour, Lt. Kuroda served as legal advisor to the Commander of Navy Region Southwest Asia in Bahrain and was selected as the legal advisor to the Combined Maritime Forces multi-national counter-piracy mission. Lt. Kuroda also provided legal assistance in Naples, Italy, allowing her the opportunity to travel to Monte Cassino in Central Italy. She was the first family member to visit the battle site where Pvt. Tanaka died while trying to secure the Abbey of Monte Cassino from German forces in January, 1944. Lt. Kuroda currently serves as the U.S. Navy Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program Manager at the Office of the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Assistance Policy Division in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Kazuo Yamaguchi, WWII Veteran of the Military Intelligence Service

Kazuo “Kaz” Yamaguchi is a native New Yorker born in Long Island City to parents from Japan in 1925. After several attempts to enlist and being rejected because he was of Japanese descent, he was was drafted into the army in 1944 and trained as an infantryman for the US Army. Here, he clased with West Coast Japanese Americans for the first time, until he learned about the concentration camps their families were in. Upon completion of his training, he was sent to Military Intelligence Service (MIS) language school and studied Japanese for about eight months. Shortly after the atomic bombs were dropped on HIroshima and Nagasaki, he was shipped to the Philippines and then to Tokyo, Japan as part of MIS. He was assigned to General Headquarters in the Occupation, where he saw firsthand the devastating impact of the war on the Japanese people and attempted to alleviate the suffering he saw. As a Nisei, he tried to create an understanding between Americans and the United States and the Japanese he met. In July, he was given emergency furlough to go home because of his father’s illness. He was discharged and went on to receive his education at the University of Connecticut, which welcomed Japanese Americans, unlike several other institutions he applied to. Kaz then started his own greenhouse business in Melville, Long Island. He has a wife, Emi, and two children and lives in Montvale, New Jersey. He volunteers at Northport Veterans Administration Hospital in Northport, Long Island driving a shuttle bus to pick up veterans and take them to campus clinics. He continues to share about his experiences, hoping that doing so will help create a future without war.

Persons of Japanese heritage and ancestry residing in New York City today include native New Yorkers, transplants from other U.S. cities, and immigrants from Japan, Canada, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world. Service to the community and not just to the Japanese American community has been an important part of our tradition. In this connection, we honor those who have given of themselves to advocate for the underdog and who will continue to help and fight for what is right in the future.

Accepting the award on behalf of Japanese Americans Serving the Community are Suki Terada Ports, community activist and Samuel Kiyomi Turner, youth activist

Mr. Sam Kiyomi Turner, Youth Leader and Delegate to Japan

Sam Kiyomi Turner is a core organizer in a youth-led, social justice organization NY2NO. He works with other youth and community partners in New York and Louisiana to address social, racial, and economic inequalities in both the New York City and the New Orleans area. Founded by a small group of high school students post Katrina, NY2NO strives to develop a network of young people interested in working with marginalized communities to address social justice issues such as food access, environmental safety, poverty, and racism. Since 2009, NY2NO has engaged over 400 youth in food justice organizing campaigns. As an organizer Sam has devoted tremendous energy to the development of training curriculum, fundraising, community outreach, and working on food justice issues. He is a senior at The Beacon School in New York City.

Mrs Suki Terada Ports, Executive Director of the Family Health Project
Mrs. Suki Terada Ports has dedi cated her life to social service, beginning with school integration and community empowerment and later, quality health care access for all. Ms. Ports' fight for social justice was inspired by her childhood. She was the daughter of parents directly affected by U.S. policies against Japanese Americans during World War II. In 1985, Ms. Ports organized a conference for the New York City Council of Churches that focused on the implications of AIDS in minority communities. The conference led to the formation of the first minority AIDS organization in New York City, which Mrs. Ports directed. She then helped launch programs for specific communities as the National Minority AIDS Council, the Asian and Pacific Islander Coal ition on HIV/AIDS, Iris House and in 1989, the Family Health Project. Currently, Ms. Ports serves as the executive director at the Family Health Project, which provides HIV/AIDS prevention information, advocacy and support services for low income women of color and their families.

Baseball has played a significant role in the lives of Japanese Americans for more than 100 years. Unable to play in Euro-American leagues because of racial segregation in parts of California, Washington State, and other locales, Japanese Americans had to form their own baseball leagues and teams. During World War II when Japanese Americans were incarcerated in camps, baseball played a major part in maintaining a semblance of normality in their disrupted lives. For new arrivals to New York, baseball also served as a common ground and community leagues were an important part of their fabric. Today we honor those who played before us and we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the JAA Baseball League and all those who love to play ball.

Accepting the award on behalf of Japanese Contributing to Baseball are Satoru Tsufura, "Nisei" ball player and Shuji Kato, founder of the JAA Baseball League.

Mr. Satoru Tsufura, Japanese American 'Nisei' Ballplayer
Mr. Tsufura played his first baseball game in Arizona, where he was interned in 1944. He later played shortstop on the Bridgeton High School baseball team in New Jersey. In 1946, he was selected to play shortstop for the Group 4 South Jersey All-Star team representing Bridgeton H.S. that played against a team of Major League players. After graduating from high school in 1946, Tsufura enlisted in the army. The war had ended in 1945 but the government needed to replace those who were returning and being discharged. After basic training in Fort Dix, NJ, Tsufura went to the Presidio of Monterey, California to brush up on Japanese in order to assist in the occupation of defeated Japan. When Tsufura arrived in Tokyo, he was recruited to play for the CIC Team of which he was attached to and also the General Headquarters Team in Tokyo. They primarily played against other military teams. In 1949, Tsufura was discharged from the army and began preparing for college. Tsufura chose to attend Syracuse University and studied photography which later became a big part of his career. He started Sportsfolio Magazine of High School Sports in New Jersey. On the sport of baseball Tsufura says: “Playing baseball gave me a chance to be on teams where the players came from different backgrounds and different places. You learn to appreciate other players’ talents and background.”

Mr. Shuji Kato, Founder JAA Baseball League

Shuji Kato first came to this country in 1969 and settled in New York in the 1970's. He is the founder of the JAA Baseball League which just completed its 25th Annual Foreign Minister's Tournament. A boxer by training, he has worked tirelessly to put together and manage the league, including going back and forth to Japan to buy equipment and cleaning the fields before each game. The JAA Baseball League, which plays the Japanese "nanshiki" style of baseball (a hybrid between American hardball and softball), currently has 20 teams made up of a cross section of the Japanese and Japanese American community and their non-Japanese friends representing all backgrounds and professions as well as both genders. Mr. Kato remains active with the league and continues to serve as the Honorary Chairman of the JAA Baseball Committee. Mr. Kato is pictured below, on the far left wearing a black jacket.

The Japanese American Association of New York (JAA) is a 100 plus year old social service organization providing a wide array of services to the Japanese/Japanese American community.

Entertainment Programming
Pre-game entertainment kicks of at 6:30p.m. and includes:

Taiko Drumming by Soh Daiko
Japanese Folk Dancers from the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of N.Y. Inc.
A Scoreboard Welcome
Singing of the National Anthem by Kurt Kanazawa

About Soh Daiko:
Soh Daiko, the first taiko troupe on the east coast, was established in 1979 at the New York Buddhist Church and took as its name the pre-Buddhist phrase meaning "peaceful, harmonious drums." Soh Daiko received critical acclaim from the New York Times, been featured on National Public Radio, Sesame Street, MTV, David Letterman show and performed with Kodo, Korn, and Kanye West. Their music is on the Lyrichord Disc label and iTunes. For more information about Soh Daiko visit www.sohdaiko.org.

About The Japanese Folk Dancers:

The Japanese Folk Dance Institute of N.Y. Inc. is a not-for profit 501( c ) ( 3 ) organization, formed by Momo Suzuki in 1992, through the medium of Japanese folk dance, introduces the culture, history and spirit of Japan. We have participated in numerous school performances, community festivals, and many special events such as the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Epcot Pavilion at Disney World in Florida. Momo Suzuki will be leading members of the Japanese and Japanese American community in the Obon dance: Tanko Bushi. For more information about The Japanese Folk Dance Institute of N.Y. Inc. visit http://www.japanesefolkdance.org/

About Kurt Kanazawa:
Baritone Kurt Kanazawa is fourth-generation Japanese-American, with family roots in Hawaii and the West Coast. Born in Los Angeles, Kurt Kanazawa is currently entering his senior year at Columbia University in New York, where he is pursuing his BA in Visual Arts. In the future he hopes to continue his academic interests in film and photography, as well as to commence graduate studies in opera and vocal performance. He is a voice student of Spiro Malas and recently attended the Chautauqua Institution Voice Program, where he received further musical training. This past year, Kurt had the most exciting and honorable opportunity to sing at the New York Japanese Consulate at an event honoring Dr. Jeanette Takamura, and then again this past spring to present a short music program.

Youth Leader and Delegate to Japan