The Cherry Blossom Festival, which concludes this Sunday with its Grand Parade, offers an allegory for San Francisco’s Japantown. The festival was started in 1967, amid the intertwined societal upheavals of the Vietnam War, the civil rights struggles and Japanese Americans’ burgeoning ethnic consciousness. It began as a proud display of Japanese cultural heritage, restoring what had been stolen during the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
But over the past decade, the festival has faced stiff challenges. Attendance has dropped. At the same time, the Japanese American community in San Francisco has shrunk, mirroring a nationwide trend. Some 796,700 Americans of Japanese descent live in the United States today, compared with more than 847,500 counted in 1990 by the U.S. Census.
But every challenge is also a new opportunity.
As Irene Aranya reports in this issue, Tak Onishi sought to start a new tradition in 1998, adding an anime parade to draw in the devoted and growing anime community. As a video store owner, Onishi was at the frontline witnessing the newest Japanese exports creating a craze in the United States. He saw the future of Japanese culture in America — and its names were Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon.
The Anime Costume Parade has drawn many new faces to the Cherry Blossom Festival, people who possibly would never have otherwise stepped foot in Japantown. Likewise, changes are underfoot in the neighborhood to draw more newcomers — the new Hotel Tomo, the even newer O Izakaya Lounge in the Hotel Kabuki and the forthcoming J-Pop Museum are all part of a re-branding of Japantown by combining centuries-old traditional Japanese culture with the new generation’s J-pop modernizations.
And these changes are not happening in a vacuum. They are part of a thoughtful and comprehensive process being undertaken by the community — in a collaborative process that includes local merchants, government, community nonprofits and real estate developers.
Certainly many hurdles lay ahead as the rebirth of San Francisco Japantown faces political wrangling, as well as the pressures of balancing many different interests. Still, the process is starting off on the right track.
From an Asian American perspective, it is a fascinating process to watch unfold. For even if Japanese Americans don’t have the population numbers on their side, they may yet succeed in spreading Japanese heritage even deeper into American culture.