I shuffled into a small square of shade next to Little Tokyo’s “Go for Broke” memorial, dedicated to the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team who served in World War II. The glittery black marble radiated Los Angeles’ late-afternoon heat and I strained my ears to hear Mr. Watanabe. As the informal mayor of Little Tokyo, he’s the closest person to a local expert and was therefore appointed as tour guide.
I had never felt particularly connected to San Francisco’s Chinatown. After growing up in its narrow streets and cramped apartments, my grandmother rarely returned for anything other than the occasional dan tat. As Mr. Watanabe led us through plazas, alleyways, and intersections of Little Tokyo, he pointed out buildings and greeted locals. “Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong and all the jazz greats played in that little one story building over there” or “this is where fortune cookies were invented” or “he’s a very good man - be sure to eat at his ramen restaurant over there.” His passion and love for the enclave was evident in the sheer wealth of knowledge he possessed about the area.
I had never felt particularly connected to Chinatown, but I had also never felt particularly connected to my own suburb in Fairfield. The inorganic cookie-cutter houses and drought-resistant lawns that lined the quiet street of my childhood home lacked the kind of historical richness that is bountiful in both Chinatown and Little Tokyo.
Before the tour, we joined Kizuna interns to listen to James Choi and Nancy Yap speak on their experiences of civic engagement specifically within Little Tokyo. In particular, James’ positionality as a Korean American working in and working for a Japanese community dissolved my own fears and anxieties regarding civic engagement in communities I am not completely and fully a part of. As a multiracial Asian American, I have come to terms with my inability to gain full membership to any one ethnic group or community and thus I fear speaking for others on the needs and wants of their community. James was able to navigate his new community as a small business owner and developed deep relationships with other business owners and locals which invariably strengthened the community and its ability to mobilize for its people.
In its entirety, this session was particularly surprising and empowering for me. Mr. Watanabe’s tour inspired a desire to revisit Chinatown and to delve into the history of the enclave as it relates to my own family’s growth and success within San Francisco. The preservation of local histories is integral to maintaining all minority communities and in clarifying my own family’s past, perhaps I can contribute to the long, complex history of AAPI communities. James’ undying dedication to Little Tokyo and its inhabitants is nothing short of inspiring. The positive impact of his small business will serve as a model for my own civic engagement as I move forward. Lastly, Mr. Watanabe posed a question at the end of the tour: How do we make Little Tokyo an inviting and accessible place while preserving our Japanese history and heritage? Though I have no definitive answer, the question encourages us to interrogate how a place constitutes and defines a community and how those community values are relayed through civic engagement work.