A Memorial in Music

Music of the internment-- then and now

Photo by Michelle Deng

Jazz Revival: The J-Town Jazz Ensemble performing swing favorites from the internment era. On stage is an image of one of the original 1940s bands.

BY STEPHANIE GREEN

Music moves us, takes away our inhibitions, allays our fears with unadulterated joy or, at the very least, a sense of commiseration. Perhaps it comes as no surprise then that one of the darkest moments of American history--the negation of personal freedom for 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans--had a profound impact not only on the civil-rights movement, but music history as well.

Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942, led to the detention of Japanese Americans living in the Western United States--two-thirds of whom were American citizens--during World War II.

That experience continues to resonate in the music of three prominent Bay Area Asian American jazz musicians--Mark Izu, Anthony Brown, and Jon Jang--who will perform at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in observance of the 1998 Day of Remembrance, the first nationally observed anniversary of the internment order.

While Izu, Jang, and Brown take their inspiration in part from the internment, musician and historian George Yoshida, who will also perform, creates a direct link as a former internee. He and his J-Town Jazz Ensemble, which he started with Mark Izu, will play swing tunes that were popular in the camps just as he did as a young man in Poston, Ariz., where he played alto sax in a camp band.

The cross-fertilization between these musicians is undeniable. The J-Town Ensemble, Asian American Jazz Orchestra, and Jon Jang's Pan Asian Arkestra are all collaborative efforts involving various combinations of Izu, Brown, Jang, Yoshida, saxophonist Francis Wong, and the San Jose Taiko, which has been involved in a number of recording projects with the musicians. Many of Izu and Brown's compositions, in particular, are based on the Japanese folk rhythms created through the drumming.

The performances--"Jazz & Justice" and "Big Bands Behind Barbed Wire"--highlight the work of contemporary composers who have taken their inspiration from the internment experience, as well as swing music played in the camps as performed by George Yoshida & the J-Town Jazz Ensemble and the Asian American Jazz Orchestra.

Social justice is the message in the music, but it is also integral to the story of the bands, which formed under the harsh conditions of camp life. The optimism--particularly of the Nisei generation--expressed in the swing music of the era creates a startling counterpoint to the pervasive racial discrimination and the violation of rights of which the internment was symbolic. This determination is integral to Asian American jazz.

Yoshida considers the camp bands a continuation of American life and culture in the face of discrimination and complete marginalization, calling swing music "part of that total concept and philosophy of being an American."

He describes the evolution of bands in the camps as key to buoying the spirits of the young people. "And this [swing bands] was, I think, something that really helped to keep our spirit going in terms of being in camps. To be branded japs, enemy aliens, and to be put in circumstances where our life was not very pleasurable, we needed some kind of distraction, some way to keep going, some way to do the best we can at that time. For a few of us, playing music, playing for dances, was one way to make life a little bit easier," he says.

In the course of his research into the big band phenomena within the camps, Yoshida also discovered that big bands had existed within the Japanese American community since the mid- 1920s.

In contrast to Yoshida, Jang says he was not even familiar with the internment of Japanese Americans until he turned 20, at which time he learned about it from a former internee who became the inspiration for Reparations Now!

The composition conveys Jang's feelings not only about the redress and reparations movement for Japanese Americans, but also for African Americans and Native Americans. Jang sees a common link between the individual struggle for justice of each group. The third movement of Reparations is a tribute to African American
organizations that, he says, "were among the first early supporters of the redress and reparations movement during a period of anti-Japanese sentiment."

Jang describes his music as "a diary of my experience as an Asian American," though his influences are diverse. He counts Duke Ellington among them. "Of course it was Duke Ellington in his use of brass ... I wanted to create the effect of the growls, which help emphasize to me the lament of Japanese Americans," Jang says.

Photo by Francisco Garcia
Bay Area jazz musicians Mark Izu (left) and Anthony Brown (right) in performance.

Brown, who is half Japanese American and half African American, describes Asian American jazz as a distinct form. "What distinguishes it [Asian American jazz] from others is that it incorporates not only instrumentation from Asia, but also conceptual approaches to making music. ... So when you bring in the music rather than just bringing in the melodies, you bring in also concepts of how to improvise and how to structure the music," he says.

Izu, who was one of the first musicians to bridge jazz and traditional Asian music, is third-generation Japanese American, or Sansei. Izu describes his work with Yoshida & the J-Town Jazz Ensemble as a part of his understanding of the internment.

His own composition, Last Dance, reflects that understanding, placing the internment within the context of the broader Japanese American experience and highlighting the continuity of the struggle for justice. This is evident in Izu's own description of Last Dance, which he says derives its substance from the internment, but also from the formation of Japanese American communities against the odds, as well as recognition of the progress made.

The Day of Remembrance--a symbol of that progress--marks the 10th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which included a formal apology by the government for the internment and an acknowledgment of "race prejudice" and "a failure of political leadership" in the decision to detain Japanese Americans. The act came about in part as a result of the redress movement, which began to gain momentum in the 1970s.

The work of Izu, Brown, Jang, and other Asian American jazz musicians in the Bay Area takes their audience through the Asian American experience using a particularly American form of music. The synthesis of jazz and the struggle for justice is a uniquely American expression--an indigenous creation that draws on our collective tradition both musically and ideologically. The swing music that sustained the internees and the original, vibrant sound of Asian American jazz create a link between past and present--a record of Asian American optimism and struggle.

"Jazz & Justice: Contemporary Works," featuring Mark Izu's Last Dance, Anthony Brown's E.O. 9066--Truth Be Told, and Reparations Now! by Jon Jang, will be performed by the Asian American Jazz Orchestra and members of San Jose Taiko at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21.

"Big Bands Behind Barbed Wire," with performances by George Yoshida & the J-Town Jazz Ensemble and the Asian American Jazz Orchestra with members of San Jose Taiko, along with a candlelight remembrance ceremony will take place on Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. Redress activist and former internee "Sox" Kitashima will speak at both events.

Call 415-978-2787 for tickets and information.

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