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Patsy, Yuji, Tooru and the Nail That Sticks Up

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Better to be like the bamboo, which bends in the wind but never breaks.

These two Japanese proverbs are cited by some as words for Asian Pacific Americans to live by. In the face of anti-Asian violence, employment discrimination and other examples of unfair treatment, they say, it is better to keep your head down, earn your paycheck and not rock the boat too much.

Fortunately for us, three pioneering APA activists — who, sadly, have passed away in the past month — did not live by these words, and instead forged individual and collective legacies that have benefited not just APAs but all Americans. Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink, scholar-activist Yuji Ichioka and writer-activist Tooru Kanazawa got their starts in Hawai‘i, California and Seattle/Alaska, respectively, but each made an impact that will affect you no matter where you live.

Growing up in New York, I knew Tooru Kanazawa as a friend of the family and a quiet guy who was always witty and charming, but never boastful. A multi-dimensional writer who mastered both journalism and the novel, I did not realize until later that he also had served as a member of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II.

Like many of us, Tooru had to make a living even as he plied his literary craft. By day, he was an executive at a travel company. He raised a family of three, and in his spare time he volunteered at various community organizations. In 1989, however, Tooru published a novel with the University of Washington Press that was as refreshing as a story as it was thoughtful as a social commentary.

Sushi and Sourdough took us to the land of prospectors and adventurers in 1897 Alaska, and painted a picture of a young Japanese man, Matajuro Fuse, who searches for gold and spends five years learning about freedom from the segregation of Japan’s rigid caste system. Freed from the necessities of a 9-to-5 job later in life, Tooru lived with his family and continued his writing to the day he died at age 95. He lived in Topanga, Calif., just north of Los Angeles.

Yuji Ichioka is well known in the Asian American Studies movement for several reasons. He taught the first course with an Asian Pacific American theme at UCLA in 1969. He was one of the founders of the venerable Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. And, he is credited with coining the phrase “Asian American.”

According to an article in A. Magazine in 1998, Yuji was still a grad student at U.C. Berkeley in the late 1960s when he coined the term. “When I used the term ‘Asian American,’ there were some Chinese, Japanese, a Korean, a Filipina. It did not mean that we had a common identity. It was used for a practical political purpose.”

That purpose, then and now, was to look for commonalties instead of differences, and to gain the political clout that comes with numbers. The Vietnam War had created a lot of racist sentiment towards people of all Asian ancestries in this country, so Yuji, Franklin Odo and other grad students at U.C. Berkeley formed the Asian American Political Alliance to bring all APAs together in opposition to the war.

A fund is being established at UCLA to continue the work of this giant of scholarship and activism. For information, contact the UCLA Asian American Studies Center at 310-825-2974.

It seems like everyone has their own Patsy Mink story. This APA dynamo served 24 years in Congress in two 12-year terms, starting in 1964. While actively serving her constituents in the Second Congressional District in Hawai‘i, she became a role model for many of us, especially APA women entering the legal profession and government service. She also shaped the broader social landscape in many ways, serving as a champion of the poor and disempowered, and challenging people and policies she felt were unjust. She was one of the first in Congress to call for the impeachment of President Nixon, and was an early critic of our involvement in Vietnam.

Rep. Mink’s career also contains important lessons for those of us who aspire to careers in elective office. She won high office many times, but also suffered defeats when running for governor, senator and mayor of Honolulu. Despite these setbacks, she continued to speak her mind, and took positions without always worrying if they were popular. As a result of this vision, strength, intelligence and determination, we all have benefited from laws such as Title IX of the federal education act, which she championed in 1972, and which has opened many opportunities for women in athletics and life.

Rep. Mink passed away on Sept. 28 at age 74, but her legacy lives on in those of us who worked with her to build a more just and inclusive world. Her family has established the Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Fund for Low Income Women and Children (P.O. Box 479, Honolulu, Hawaii 96809).

As President Bush calls out for action against Iraq, I can just see Yuji, Patsy and Tooru picking up their pens and placards to make the case for peace instead of an unjust war. Our community has lost three shining examples of community-minded activism, but their legacies live on in the institutions they have built, the works they have written and the lives they have changed.

Reach Phil Tajitsu Nash at pnash@campaignadvantage.com.