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A Matter of Trust It didn’t take long for San Franciscan Michi Onuma to figure out where she was -- and wasn’t -- welcome. In grammar school she wanted to learn to swim, but the public pools barred Japanese people. “That was my first encounter [with racism]. I took it as, ‘Well, that’s to be,’” recalled 91-year-old Onuma. In contrast, the Japanese Young Women’s Christian Association provided a social haven, a place where young girls could gather after school. “A lot of parents were not at home and [we] needed someplace to go,” she said. “It was one place we could assemble. There was no other place for us.” Women, who were members of the Soko Bukai, a San Francisco Japanese Christian organization, established the Japanese YWCA in 1912. At the time, even the YWCA was a segregated institution with separate ethnic branches. In 1921, the organization moved to a permanent residence at 1835 Sutter. Onuma remembers the immigrant mothers and their daughters who raised money for the project. Even her father, Shigeki Oka, printed flyers for the campaign, she said. Later in 1931, a new building designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan was erected on the site. “The building itself was built by the Japanese community and money was raised among the Japanese community,” said Onuma. Today, the historic building is at the center of a lawsuit brought by the Soko Bukai against the YWCA with both groups claiming ownership of the property, purchased 79 years ago for $6500 and now appraised at $1.7 million. The YWCA currently holds title to the property and maintains that the building has always belonged to the greater organization. The Soko Bukai, on the other hand, contends issei (first-generation) women, restrained by alien land laws that restricted immigrants from owning property, entered a trust agreement with the YWCA for the purchase of the site. “This is not an open-and-close case,” acknowledged Paul Osaki, outspoken critic of the YWCA as well as executive director of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center. “We’re extracting from laws 70 years ago. We feel we have a strong case, but clearly they have the papers and title to the property.” A Question of Trust Controversy first erupted in 1996 when the San Francisco-Marin-San Mateo YWCA announced it was selling the property. For many Japanese Americans the building held significant historic and sentimental value as the only pre-World War II building left in Japantown. The community was concerned that once the site was sold, the building would be torn down and replaced with lucrative condos, said Karen Kai, an attorney for the Soko Bukai. Moreover, the community worried Nihonmachi Little Friends Preschool, which rents space from the YWCA, would be forced to close. YWCA board member June Quan empathizes, saying, “Anybody would have stood up. If I were a member I would want to continue to use it for my own people, but times change and we need to find different uses.” At one point, the YWCA owned 11 buildings in San Francisco, said YWCA executive director Carol Newkirk, but “as time passed the needs changed. In the 60s. We began to sell off the buildings, which are very expensive to maintain.” The YWCA looks at changes in the neighborhood and considers the costs of seismic upgrades, as well as compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires handicap access. The YWCA determined that it would have to raise “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to bring the Sutter building up to such standards, prompting the decision to sell the building, said YWCA board president Linda Hills. “I think what infuriated the community is that the YWCA made a decision to [sell] without informing the community,” Hills acknowledges. “The board did not talk to them about what was going on and what the decision was. That is one thing I can own up to that I think was not ideal on our part.” Later in 1996, the Japanese community began garnering support to keep the building open, and older members recalled that some women had invested money in the property. As they began researching the YWCA’s records, they discovered trust language, Kai said. “Initially, we thought, ‘Why did they have someone else buy the property?” she said. “Then everyone thought back to the one ethnic studies class they took in college and remembered the Alien Land Law.” Hills said as soon as the question of trusteeship came up, the building was pulled from the market. “We said, ‘Let’s stop to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” she said. But after doing research, Hills said the organization was confident no trusteeship existed. “We had the right [to sell].” Leaders in the community considered buying the property, but the YWCA’s asking price of $1.6 million was “beyond what most community groups could think seriously about,” said Kai. Still, the Japanese Community and Cultural Center of Northern California did make a offer of $1.25 million -- provided by an anonymous donor -- but the YWCA rejected the bid. In the summer of 1996, the YWCA announced they were going to close the building in November and evict the tenants. In October, Japantown leaders went to the YWCA’s board meeting and forced the YWCA to back down, according to Kai, who added, “The Y would lose rent and have to pay to put their programs elsewhere, yet they were claiming they had a terrible shortfall. We couldn’t make sense of it.” But in December, the YWCA moved their offices into the building. Kai said “it was a shock. It seemed to be a statement to the community that they were going to occupy the building and exert their power.” Newkirk, however, said the move was “irrelevant.” “The YWCA owns the building,” she said. “This administration needed offices and heard space was available on this floor. There was parking here.” In 1997, supervisors Mabel Teng and Amos Brown arranged mediation discussions to begin in March. But after six months, talks broke down when YWCA representatives announced the YWCA board had taken away their authority to discuss the trust, according to Kai. “That’s what the community wanted to discuss,” she said. “That was the end.” But the YWCA says it offered to form partnerships during mediation, but the Japanese community “only wanted to talk about giving [them] the building,” said Hills, who explained, “We have a fiduciary responsibility. We cannot just give [them] a building. “They felt they owned it,” she added. “They insisted there was a trust and we are still saying today, there is no trust.” The Lawsuit In September 1997, two weeks after discussion ended, lawyers for the Soko Bukai served the YWCA with a lawsuit. Hill viewed their swift action as proof the Japanese community never intended to negotiate during mediation. “While they were talking to us, they were building a legal campaign,” she said. “We were sitting there naively thinking we could work this out.” The lawsuit filed seeks to turn over the building to the Soko Bukai or another agency “that will keep the building for community use.” Unless an agreement is reached, the case will most likely go to the California Superior Court in San Francisco sometime next year. Community leaders do not want the YWCA to continue to be a trustee, according to Kai. “The suit charges that the Y violated its obligations to use the facility for the community by attempting to sell the building,” she said. “The churches are committed to diverse representation and working in the larger community. Whoever controls the building would have to share that value.” But Hills says she doesn’t trust the Japanese community to serve the needs of the neighborhood. “There are no African Americans with the Japanese leaders,” she said. “Our record speaks for itself. We are committed to serving various communities and people in the Mission, Chinatown, the Japanese and African Americans.” Hills compares the YWCA to the recently demolished Jones Methodist Church. “My great aunts and uncles gave money to [build] the church. Do I have a right to say I want some of that money?” But the Soko Bukai and Japanese leaders say this is about more than a building. “The issei women thought to raise money during the worst depression and worst times for Japanese because of prejudice and racism,” said Osaki. “They had incredible vision for the girls and women of the community. It was built by the issei women for us, and we owe it to them to have the same vision and drive they had to keep the building for its intended purpose.” The Japanese Community During the early part of this century, Japanese immigration peaked. Between 1901 and 1910, 130,000 traveled half-way around the world to settle in the United States, only to find they were largely unwelcome. Beginning in 1913, a series of alien land laws passed in California, prohibiting non-citizens from owning property. The laws discouraged further immigration from Japan and attempted to drive those already in the United States back to their homeland, said Santa Clara University’s ethnic studies director Stephen Fujita. He explained these laws “were a tremendous burden to isseis,” since most were farmers who relied on the availability of land. To get around the land law, immigrants could purchase property in the name of a trustee. However, such agreements were illegal. Many of these arrangements, therefore, were “done on a handshake” and those in writing were often vague, said Don Tamaki, an attorney for the Soko Bukai. As a result, no one knows how many of these trust agreements were made. The Soko Bukai argues that when the Japanese YWCA looked for a new residence in the 20s, the women in the community raised money and sought the San Francisco YWCA for trusteeship. The community held fund-raisers and collected donations from the community and local corporations. Some even traveled back to Japan to raise money, said Kai. In 1921 the YWCA took out a $6500 mortgage. The community raised $2000 and borrowed $1000 from the YWCA’s general fund. Where the remaining $3500 came from is unclear, said Kai, but she explained, “There is evidence that the Japanese women paid that off.” Records from the Japanese YWCA Twenty-Year Retrospective, written in 1932, state “in January of 1931, we completed the payments for the full amount of the purchase.” The Japanese American community says YWCA records support its claim that the YWCA entered a trust agreement with the Japanese women. For example, the San Francisco YWCA’s minutes from May 28, 1920 state: “the proposition is made that the Japanese people rai[se] funds to purchase a house to be used for the Japanese YWCA. The property to be bought by the local Association and held in trust for the Japanese YWCA.” After the YWCA purchased the Sutter property, minutes from 1921 indicate that it was to be used solely for the Japanese community. It states: “no decision is to be made about the uses of this property without consultation with the Japanese YWCA Board.” The YWCA But representatives of the YWCA -- Linda Hills, Carol Newkirk, June Quan, and Michele Stratton -- point out that the Japanese women raised money as members of the YWCA, not as an organization independent of the YWCA. “From a legal point of view, someone has to own property or money to create a trust,” said board member Michele Stratton. “There was no outsider coming in saying, ‘We have money; we have property. We want to do something, but we can’t do it.’ “The Japanese YWCA first formed in 1912, one year before the Alien Land Laws took affect,” Stratton continued. “After the Alien Land Law went into affect, there was no change in the organization. It was this organization that already existed that was part of the YWCA that purchased this building.” Moreover, YWCA representatives say it was not unusual for YWCA members to solicit funds for building projects. “All building funds are raised by members,” said Newkirk. “The women in Chinatown were also fundraising door-to-door.” But she says at no point has “the YWCA constituency within the Chinatown community come forward and say, ‘This is our building.’” The YWCA concurs that the women, as members of the Japanese YWCA, raised money for the building and had the YWCA take out a mortgage from the bank. However, they assert the Japanese YWCA paid off the mortgage in part with YWCA general fund money it received as part of their budget -- a claim Japanese American leaders dispute. Furthermore, the term “trust,” as stated in the minutes, has been defined out of context, said Stratton, who explained the Japanese women used the word to say, “When we raise the money, we would like you to hold it in trust; don’t use the money for something else.” And though the minutes from the 1920s state the building is to be used exclusively for the Japanese YWCA, that group no longer exists. Board president Hills says if the issei women felt they owned the building as expressed in the 20-Year Retrospective, it is because the YWCA fostered that mentality to empower women. “When the YWCA built the building, they created ownership. They wanted the women to feel as if this was a building they owned,” said Hills. “Historically, during segregation, the YWCA would build specific buildings that would support the women of different ethnic groups. The YWCA wanted to make sure the people of color had advancements.” When the Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps during World War II, African Americans began to move into Japantown. After the war, many Japanese Americans did not return to the area. “The Y had a real dilemma when the Japanese were forced out,” said Stratton. The YWCA “held the building for their return. When the community did not return, there was another dilemma: What to do with the building. In 1960, they convened a meeting including members of the Japanese community ... they opened this building and made it a multi-ethnic center because blacks, Filipinos, then Koreans had moved in.” Gaining Political Support During last February’s Day of Remembrance candlelight procession, a commemoration of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, some 200 people marched along Sutter and stopped in front of the YWCA. Speakers talked about protecting the legacy of the issei women, while inside the building, the YWCA held a reception to honor its dedication to civil rights. “We blocked the first lane of traffic and police were directing cars around us,” said Kai. “For folks in the Japanese American community to stop and block traffic was a really strong statement.” Supervisor Michael Yaki was one of those who condemned the actions of the YWCA, saying the Julia Morgan building was a symbol of a community torn apart when Japanese Americans were sent to camps during World War II. Assemblyman Mike Honda has also shown support for the Japanese American community, recently introducing a resolution that pledges the state legislature’s support in eradicating vestiges of the racism of California’s Alien Land Law. Resolution 32 passed the Senate in April, 28-0. “The state of California was responsible for the Alien Land Law,” Honda said. “We should acknowledge it existed and should work to resolve its vestiges. It seemed the YWCA was not responding properly and that we should put it before the legislation to have a discussion on it.” Honda applauded his colleagues who supported the resolution. “They looked at it at first, and once they sat down and I explained it, they agreed,” he said. “I’m grateful they agreed and took the time to look at it, and didn’t just jump on it.” But the YWCA representatives say its position has been ignored and misrepresented “The politicians who voted for Honda’s resolution didn’t contact the YWCA. That scares me,” said Quan. “Supervisor Yaki -- the same thing. He stood outside the building and maligned us without the facts.” Hills believes the Japanese community is using the issue to get more support for Japantown. “I think the YWCA is being used to help promote that -- to mobilize their race. This whole thing gets the Japanese people going and interested. I know there is less interest in Japantown and there’s a need to get the young people involved. They are using the YWCA as a bully point to move forward their own issues.” Stratton added that it has been difficult to respond to attacks against the YWCA. “It makes us look like we’re pouring salt in wounds,” she said. Continuing Debate The YWCA wants to settle the case and has agreed to sell the building for $1.2 million, $500,000 lower than the appraised value. Stratton said commitment to help find funding for the Japanese community was included in the YWCA’s most recent proposal. “We have no ax with the Japanese community. We would love to see the building maintained and used for its historic purposes.” Still, Japanese community leaders say the YWCA is asking too much. An appraisal done based on the fact that the building would be used for community service estimates that it’s worth $900,000. “We’re not close to an agreement,” said Osaki. “They feel like they’ve already come down $500,000, but we’re saying it’s based on inaccurate appraisal.” Newkirk is still hopeful the issue will be resolved out of the court. “This has become much bigger than the YWCA,” she said. “It has become a city problem. This is not the way the YWCA wants to work and not the way the Japanese community wants to work. We have to move forward and put this behind us.” For now, the building is alive with chatter from Nihonmachi Little Friends Preschool and the flurry of activity from the YWCA’s summer camp. Michi Onuma hopes the building will be “used for community activities” for many more years to come. “The interests of young people have changed since I was a member of the YWCA,” she said, “but the community still needs a place to gather.”
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