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California Japantowns Threatened

Senate Bill to preserve Japanese neighborhoods

By Ethen Lieser

Look at Japantown’s billboards and names of shops. Listen to the people. Smell the aroma from restaurants. To Americans not familiar with Japanese culture and language, this might seem as complicated as hieroglyphics. But for many Japanese Americans, this was once home, a place to call their own.

Within the last 20 years, however, San Francisco’s Japantown has fallen victim to the Civic Center expansion and redevelopment work. Moreover, most Japanese Americans have left California’s Japantowns for the suburbs.

“They esentially died out,” said Bill Watanabe, California Japanese American Community Leadership Council (CJACLC) co-chair and executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center in Los Angeles.

Senate Bill 307 could possibly prove the antidote.

Also known as the Ethnic Heritage Site Bill, SB 307 is aimed at preserving and funding the three major Japantown centers in California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. Proponents say it will also act like a spark to trigger future legislation — and consciousness within ethnic communities.

“The bill would be like a pilot,” Watanabe explained. “It will be for any historic ethnic neighborhoods. So it could involve many different types of communities that have some historic nature to it.”

According to Watanabe, the current state of California’s Japantowns is dismal.

“The San Francisco Japantown was actually cut up and divided by an expressway right through the middle of town,” he said. “We don’t have the power or the political juice to say you can’t do that. So, we’re hoping that this kind of designation would have to say that these are important resources that have contributed to California, and they should be preserved.”

Watanabe is looking for the bill to provide some kind of security blanket, reaffirming the importance of Japantowns and preserving them.

“It is really about setting up a whole new designation of what historic resources are,” he said. “Because up until now, they have basically been focusing on building and structures. But what we’re looking for is to get recognition of a historical neighborhood.”

SB 307 is also asking for funding — $2 million — that will be divided evenly among the three major cities. According to Georgette Imura, who provides technical assistance to CJACLC, the money will be used to set up programs that examine and then find remedies for the underlying issues of Japantowns, such as encroachment by surrounding neighborhoods and the lack of affordable rental spaces to house cultural organizations.

“The government will have to work in cooperation with a community organization that is made up of stakeholders from Japantowns,” Imura said.

However, procuring every cent of the $2 million might be hard to pull off. “A lot of it is going to be decided by the budget,” Imura said. “And, especially with the current energy situation, it’s really anybody’s guess on the final outcome of the budget.”

First, SB 307 must pass in the Appropriations Committee hearing May 1. Then, it will probably go to another Appropriations hearing. “Hopefully, after that, it will get into the state budget,” Wantanabe said. “But it won’t be ratified until June because that’s when the governor will sign off on it. If the bill survives the governor signing, then it becomes set.”

SB 307 unanimously passed a Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee hearing April 2 after it was introduced on Feb. 20 by state Sen. John Vasconcelloes. The bill was originally kindled by the CJACLC, headed by Wantanabe himself. “There is a sense throughout the community that once you lose it, you can’t get it back,” he said.

Added Imura: “It is very important for people who support this to write to their legislators and tell them they are in support of this.”