Defining Japanese American

After eight months on the job, Herb Yamanishi has a plan to revitalize the JACL

Nisei, Sansei, American: Japanese Americans, like all Americans, are going through an identity crisis, says JACL’s Yamanishi. "I think we’re still in the process of figuring out how to define the culture, but that’s one of the tasks that we have before us now." Photo by Judi Parks

By Alethea Yip

In more than 25 years dedicated to nonprofit service, Herbert Yamanishi has seen his share of challenges. Recognized as a "clean-up" executive, with a knack for redefining and restructuring, Yamanishi has rescued several groups from the financial and organizational abyss.

What he did not expect, upon assuming the post as the executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), was how challenging-and rewarding-his latest undertaking would be.

Last year, Yamanishi was hired by the JACL, the oldest and largest Asian Pacific American civil rights organization, to help solve the group’s problems. At the time, the JACL was rocked by accusations of sexual harassment and financial woes. The organization was in need of a take-charge professional.

"It was in a tough position fiscally," said Yamanishi, 52, who was born in the internment camp at Tule Lake during World War II. "If it had kept on going in the direction it started out, it would have ended up in a financial situation that would have been impossible to recover from.

"We’re back on the road to recovery now," he added. "Now we’ll be able to start looking at the major issues of society."

It is precisely his vision for the future of the JACL-and the actions that have accompanied his vision-that have galvanized the Japanese American community.

In the eight months as national executive director, Yamanishi has hired six new staff members, revised policies, and is in the process of updating the image and approach of the 67-year-old organization.

To understand the task ahead of him, Yamanishi looked back to the roots of the JACL for perspective on the group’s current issues.

The organization was founded and run primarily by Niseis, an aging population. The establishment of JACL was largely in reaction to the growing anti-Japanese sentiment swelling in the United States at the time and a need to fight for civil rights legislation.

While Yamanishi admits that for the past few years the JACL has dropped out of the civil rights arena because of the organization’s instability, he has vowed to change that.

On Yamanishi’s watch, the JACL has taken a firm stand against the California Civil Rights Initiative, this fall’s ballot measure that would eliminate racial and gender preferences in hiring and the awarding of contracts by state offices.

With the current attacks on immigrant rights, affirmative action, and welfare programs, Yamanishi is determined to keep the JACL on track and in the fight. He is already developing plans to attract younger people to the organization.

"They bring the vigor, the vision, the new ideas to the organization," he said. "But we also need to recognize the things that the Nisei brought to the community and to the nation."

He admits that revitalizing the JACL is definitely a balancing act-and quite a challenge.

Right now, Yamanishi is hard at work organizing the JACL’s 34th biennial national convention to be held Aug. 6-11 in San Jose, Calif. He recently took some time out to talk to AsianWeek about where the JACL has been and where he plans to take it.

JACL was founded in 1929, primarily to address the then-growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States and to fight discriminatory legislation. More than 67 years after its establishment, is JACL still relevant?

Actually, I think it’s as relevant now than it ever has been. Maybe more so. If these kinds of organizations aren’t around they will ebb and flow, but I think it will continue to remain just as important. I think when you see the number of hate crimes increasing and when you see the church burnings, my fear is that we will have more problems interracially if we don’t start to address these matters in a more positive way.

So, are interracial issues a big problem?

It becomes more of a problem of interracial competition and infighting. CCRI, for example, is being used as a kind of wedge issue within the minority community, pitting Asian Americans against African Americans and Latinos, Chicanos. So, that’s how I see this becoming a problem.

If there is this growing tension between groups of color, how does the JACL relate to other civil rights organizations like the NAACP?

I’m not sure yet. I tried to have a meeting. [NAACP executive director] Kweisi Mfume came in about the same time I did. I’ve been trying to set up a meeting.

It sounds like civil rights have continued to be important to the JACL. Just how much is it going to become the group’s focus?

I think it’s important because of this whole notion that civil rights was a government responsibility ... we don’t need to look at civil rights. Actually, now that government is taking less responsibility-this is how I perceive it, maybe in an oversimplified way-but we need to get the various organizations involved back together and hopefully everybody understands that that’s how the perception is because if we don’t understand how that is, we are not going to come up with a common solution to this matter.

I see that it puts more of the onus for a solution on our shoulders than on government. We’re going to have to do more programming, getting more involved, trying to implement things rather than depend on the government for the solutions. They can hopefully maintain the framework.

That’s the problem right now. CCRI would throw out the framework as well as the funding, enforcement, and everything else. It’s throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I don’t think that everyone felt that the civil rights system was perfect-the methods in which it was enforced and how we define the issues or who was at the day-to-day practical level, who was in and who was out of the system. But, now there seems to be a feeling that the problems have been solved. But the problems, we know, have not all been solved. We can see all the numbers: the increasing number of employee grievances being brought forward, more and more hate crimes, and other indicators of the need for being more watchful about civil rights and about affirmative action. But, the resources aren’t going to be there. I think we are going to have to look elsewhere.

Where?

Individuals. We are going to be increasingly dependent on the private sector and donations.

Is the JACL ready for the challenge? Last year, the JACL was plagued with a myriad of problems and scandals, ranging from accusations of sexual harassment to financial problems. There was also the controversial downsizing, which four national staff members disputed and demanded compensation. Is there any resolution to all this?

All of the employee issues have been settled. All of the financial issues have been settled-just a couple of weeks ago. So, I think we’re pretty much out of the woods with those issues. Now we have the convention to look forward to.

What are you planning to address there ... what are the key issues facing Japanese Americans this year?

I suppose, for lack of a better term, identity-an identity crisis that Japanese Americans are feeling. But, I don’t think that is very much different from the rest of America. I think that Americans are going through an identity crisis.

I think Japanese Americans are reflective of much of the population at large. Although we always want to be different. On one hand, we all want to be different, but then we don’t want to be when it comes to stereotypes.

But, there is an identity crisis because the outmarriage of Japanese Americans is at a higher rate than any other ethnic population in the United States. The feeling is that the numbers are dwindling, but when you look at the actual numbers, it’s not as consequential and may be viewed as-it depends on how you want to look at it-the strength of the population. The fact is that they are able to integrate without the same kind of problems people imagined a number of years ago, which resulted in the camps. There were anti-miscegenation laws-those are the kinds of things that the JACL helped to do away with.

Yamanishi: "We're back on the road to recovery now. Now we'll be able to start looking at the major issues of society."

So, how do you define Japanese American?

To say that we have a definition would be to indicate that we completed the culture. We haven’t done that yet. I think we’re still in the process of figuring out how to define the culture, but that’s one of the tasks that we have before us now because there is a feeling that there is an identity crisis and we have not yet fully defined what this new culture is. But, I think it will come about. But, we have to now and then look at it more positively and help to look at this more carefully.

One example is that somebody brought taiko drums to the United States and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for this and learning about this.

Maybe we need to fund some programs that look at how you can make it in the various arts, how we can come up with some new creative ways of looking at what is Japanese American taiko, Japanese American art. That has yet to be done.

But, by focusing on it as a positive-the blending, the amalgamation can have a positive effect in redefining who we are.

Getting back to the role of the individual and how it’s important for the JACL to engage youth ... you are a Nisei, but you are more like a Sansei in terms of your age. As a result, you have the potential to act as a bridge between the two generations. How have you applied this unique perspective to your leadership style at the JACL?

I’ve tried to understand young people’s roles and try to get them involved in this organization. We started to develop a youth outreach program and we got going with more use of the Internet and knowing the value of that. I think that has been one benefit. But, on the other hand, I know how important the history is because of the struggles that people went through.

I have felt the stories. I have felt the consequences growing up on public assistance, public welfare, in Idaho. I think I know the aspect of it and I appreciate the Nisei experience, but also having young kids and knowing how they feel about American society and how they can get involved and participate ...

My daughter was president of the Asian Pacific American Association at Michigan State University for three years and now my son is. They are quite involved even though they are only half Japanese American. They have come to appreciate their heritage on both sides.

You’ve really emphasized the role of youth as the key to the future. Do you think it’s because the youth are more savvy, more ambitious about influencing the mainstream agenda? And what influence does the JACL have in that regard?

I think the larger way in which the mainstream agenda gets affected is probably through how my kids got affected. There still is this impression that there is something unique about the contributions and the story of the internment experience. So, people still look to us.

In the past, the mainstream agenda has been influenced primarily through this whole discussion on redress. There’s recognition that America does need a policy on civil rights because the internment was very blatant and obvious in retrospect, that civil rights were violated because these were citizens of the United States.

You have so many thoughts on where you’ve been, where you’re going. What are your specific goals as executive director?

We have to do some things within the next five years fairly quickly to get this organization fiscally sound. If the organization’s infrastructure is not sound then it isn’t going to be able to do anything in the civil rights arena or the human rights arena.

We need to have a planned giving program, a methodology that people can give and feel good about giving to the JACL. That means we have to get our fiscal house in order and we have to have programs that are not only visible, but productive. So, we need to start developing some of those things and we are going to be doing some educational things and more training and more involvement with the chapters so we can give them the strength as well.

The major change in society is the devolution of the responsibility for lots of decisions coming to the local level. And so the civil rights issue will be less on a national scale and more on a local level and that is where we will be working.

How have you been doing? How would you rate your performance so far?

I don’t know. I come to work, I go home and eat, and fall asleep again. I think we’re doing well. I sense people are feeling better about JACL right now. That’s one measure I use. I try to keep a pulse on myself, whether I feel too stressed out or not. I don’t feel too badly yet. I’m doing O.K.

Lastly, what is your vision for the JACL?

I think the JACL can be the pre-eminent organization that is chosen not just by minorities, but America, to show how to make democracy work. That’s ultimately where we want to go in this organization.

It’s going to involve a variety of strategies, programs, and tactics, but we should be the organization and I think we can be.

I think that we as a people have had the experience and had the knowledge and the willingness, hopefully, to demonstrate to American society that there is a way to make diversity a positive value and make it work.