Nomination Process for Portraits to be included on Japantown History Mural
The SF JACL established the following criteria for portrait nominees:
1. Established and built San Francisco Japantown and who have made significant contributions
to continue to build and preserve it; or
2. Advanced our diverse stories and history through education, the arts and culture; or
3. Played a leadership role in social justice and civil rights issues
Each criterion should have a significant connection to San Francisco Japantown.
Nominations closed at midnight on December 31, 2022. The goal is to identify 10-12 notables to be included in the proposed mural.
The initial list contained 73 names, including individuals both living and deceased. In reviewing nominations, the SFJACL board determined that, to be considered further, candidates should only include deceased individuals. Nominations were posted on the website in advance of the January 12 community meeting. At the conclusion of that meeting, 27 finalists were announced. The list of finalists is posted below.
Semifinal List of Portraits for proposed San Francisco Japantown History Mural Project
At its January 12, 2023 meeting, the Advisory Committee for the Japantown History Mural Project selected the following 27 nominees for portraits on the proposed Mural. The list below is divided up into Timeline Eras and note the accomplishments of each nominee
At its January 12, 2023 meeting, the Advisory Committee for the Japantown History Mural Project selected the following 27 nominees for portraits on the proposed Mural. This list of 27 will be reduced to a smaller number of approximately 8 at the public meeting to be held on January 30, 2023. The list below is divided up into Timeline Eras and list the accomplishments of each nominee.
Timeline Era: Issei/Early Japantown
Kyutaro Abiko & Yona Abiko
Kyutaro:
Pioneer publisher of Japanese language newspaper Nichi Bei Shimbun
Purchased land to establish Yamato colony (1907)
Early leader of San Francisco Japanese Christian community.
Yona:
First woman to own a Japanese language newspaper in the US
Chief leader, fundraiser for the Japantown YWCA building
Champion of women's higher education in Japan; raised money nationally to rebuild Tsuda College in Tokyo, destroyed by earthquake
Shichinosuke Asano
After career with Asahi Shimbun in Japan, became long-time Japanese editor of Nichi Bei Shimbun, founder of postwar Nichi Bei Times
Champion of civil rights, particularly of Issei, including access to citizenship and land ownership
Led effort to send postwar relief packages to Japan through Licenses Agencies for Relief in Asia (LARA) which eventually sent 3.5 million pounds of food, clothing, medicine
George Togasaki
First Japanese President of Rotary International
Led opposition to San Francisco Board of Education actions to segregate Japanese, Korean students into "Oriental School"
Recipient of Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award to UC Berkeley alumni from another country (1968)
Archbishop Nitten Ishida
Founder of Nichiren Hokke Buddhist Church of America
Founding President of the Japanese American Religious Federation, established Hinode Tower/Nihonmachi Terrace
Master calligrapher who taught for 60 years
Issei/Pre-war onward
Hisako Hibi
Japan-born American Issei painter and printmaker whose works were exhibited by the Oakland Museum
Founding instructor of Tanforan Art School, Topaz Art School
Early member of the Asian American Women's Artists Association
Yoshiye Togasaki
First Japanese American woman to work in a California public health lab
Postwar Medical Officer of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
At Manzanar and Tule Lake, advocated for proper sewage, food safety, clean water, baby formula
Issei/World War II
James Wakasa
Japan-born chef and World War I veteran based in San Francisco before the incarceration
Murdered by a prison guard at Tule Lake; the administration's denial of a memorial service led to the community to erect a monument that was immediately removed
Discovery of the hidden and buried Wakasa Memorial in 2020 has brought renewed attention to the tragedy and injustice of Wakasa's murder
Nisei/Active 1950s onward
Jimbo Edwards
Founder of Jimbo's Bob City in SF Japanatown, featuring John Coltraine, Miles David, Billie Holiday
With a cover fee of just $4, Jimbo Edwards welcomed everyone to his club, regardless of ethnicity or means
Subject of documentary film "Legend of Bop City" (1998)
Edison Uno
Fought for repeal of "Emergency Detention Act/Title II of the Internal Security Act of 1950" which would have permitted future concentration camps
After 1,647 days, last US citizen to leave Crystal City in protest of his father's detention
As JACL Chapter President, activist, early advocate of redress movement & champion of designating Manzanar a historical landmark. After untimely death at age 47, National JACL established Edison Uno Award
Clifford Uyeda
Past National JACL President; Chair of JACL Redress campaign
Co-founder of Center for Japanese American Studies to support the fledgling Asian American Studies program at SF State University
JACL National Committee for Iva Toguri (aka "Tokyo Rose), helping to secure a Presidential pardon in 1977
Nisei/Active 1960s onward
Ruth Asawa
Internationally recognized artist, sculptor
Champion of arts education in San Francisco public school; Founder of Alvarado School Arts Workshop (1968), advocate for SF School of the Arts (later named Ruth Asawa School of the Arts)
Served on CA Arts Council, National Endowment of the Arts, Fine Arts Museums of SF Board of Trustees
James Hirabayashi
Founding Dean of the SFSU College of Ethnic Studies, the first school of ethnic studies in the nation
Founding adviser of the SFSU Asian American Political Alliance
Inspired generations of students to pursue ethnic studies, community advocacy.
Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Award-winning playwright, actor, poet, memoirist
Founder of the Japanese American collection at the Western Addition Branch of the SF Public Library
Frequent speaker on draft resister experience, movement
Toshi Koba
Social worker on staff at the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center for 32 years, bridging the Japanese American and Black communities
Mentored another young social worker Yori Wada on meeting the needs of young people across communities
Pine Methodist Church named a memorial scholarship for Toshi Koba
Kathleen "Kay* & Takeo Okamoto
Takeo: Founder of legacy business T. Okamoto & Company; Kay: Founding Coordinator of the Hamilton Senior Center where she served for 30 years
Takeo: Founding member of Japanese Business Club of SF, JCCCNC, Kokusai Shigin Group; Kay: President of the North American Federation of Young Women's Buddhist Asso
Takeo Okamoto Community Leadership Award and the Kay Okamoto Volunteer Award were merged to create the Takeo and Kay Okamoto Community Award
Michi Onuma
Journalist and English Editor of both Nichi Bei Times and the Hokubei Mainichi
Founding member of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California
Board of Directors for the YWCA
Wayne Osaki
Architect known for design of several buildings in Japantown and the Western Addition: JCCCNC, JCYC, Allen Temple Baptist Church, to name a few
Helped organize the Western Addition Community Organization (WACO) in 1966 a committee of Japanese and African American activists who opposed the Redevelopment. WACO won a lawsuit against the Redevelopment Agency that secured residents’ unprecedented representation in redevelopment decisions.
Osaki also wrote a critically acclaimed children’s book, “My Dog Teny,” which was based on his experience of having to leave his childhood dog behind as he was shipped to Tule Lake concentration camp during WWII
Yori Wada
Executive Director of the Buchanan YMCA and led the Western Addition Council of Youth Serving Agencies
Fought for inclusivity as a member of the San Francisco Civil Service Commission to allow more minorities and women to serve in the police and fire departments.
First Asian American UC Regent who advocated for affirmative action and UC divestment in South Africa
Sansei/Active 1960s onward
Janice Mirikitani
Founding President of the Glide Foundation; tireless advocate of the poor, marginalized
Award winning poet, writer, performer; named San Francisco Poet Laureate by Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr.
Recipient of awards from the Before Columbus Foundation, CA State Assembly, SF Chamber of Commerce, the University of California
Thomatra Scott
Thomatra Scott aka "Scotty" acted as an important bridge between the African American and Japanese American communities
Scotty was a founding member of the Westside Mental Health Center and a member of the Western Addition Council of Youth Serving Organizations
Scotty was a community organizer at JCYC who focused on preventing youth substance abuse
Nisei /Active 1970s onward
Helen Cooke Jones
As part of the Japantown neighborhood, Helen Jones was an active member of the Committee Against Nihonmachi Eviction in the 1970s
As a historian at the African American Historical and Cultural Society, she wrote and directed plays in the community documenting the history of African Americans in California.. After receiving a master's in broadcasting from SFSU, she taught inner-city kids how to produce videos and radio shows
Of Mohawk Indian and Black descent, arrived from Philadelphia as a poor single mother of three young children. Lived in a shelter for women until she could land on their feet. Found friends and a new family in Japantown
Tomoye & Henri Takahashi
The Takahashi Trading Company imported finely crafted home goods from Japan for their growing number of Takahashi retail stores in the Bay Area and NYC
Established along with Martha Suzuki, the Takahashi Family Foundation in 1968 and have been major philanthropists in Japantown
Tomoye Takahashi was awarded Japan’s highest award of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays for their contribution toward strengthening US-Japan relations and their work in the community
Sansei/Active 1970s onward
Wes Senzaki
Wes was an activist-artist who was an active member of the CANE Newsletter Committee where he began to hone his artist expression as a political activist
Wes was a founding member of Japantown Art and Media Workshop that provided a place for politically conscious art and offered art classes that people normally could not afford. Then JAM started graphic services. and special art projects such as the Asian Women Artists Project, Senior Citizen Art Project and Nihonmachi Garden Project and exhibitions and cultural events like the Oshogatsu Festival and Nihonmachi Street Fair
Wes painted the first mural in Japantown on the side of the 1858 Sutter Street building depicting a wrecking ball and Japantown community members fighting it off
Nisei /Active 1980s onward
Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima
Sox was a seven-days-a-week volunteer and member of the Kimochi, Inc. Board
Sox was a Nisei leader in the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations and credited for single-handedly gathering 8,000 letters of support for Japanese American reparations and her tenacious determination to locate all those eligible for monetary compensation. Sox was awarded a Free Spirit Award by the Freedom Forum and National Women's History Month/Week honoree by the National Women's History Project for her work on redress
Sox and Jeff Adachi founded the Asian American Arts Foundation that honored the best of Asian American artists in multiple fields while raising money for artists through the Golden Rings Awards - a mix of the Asian American Oscars, Tonys and Emmys
Sansei /Active 1980s onward
Jeff Adachi
Elected San Francisco Public Defender in 2002, Jeff was also a board member of the Asian American Theater Company and the SF Chapter of the JACL.
Jeff founded the Asian American Arts Foundation in the 1990s to recognize Asian American artists across various genres, presenting three Golden Ring Awards programs in the process of raising funds for the Asian American arts
Jeff was also an accomplished filmmaker, creating films such as The Slanted Screen (2006), You Don’t Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story (2009), America Needs a Racial Facial (2016) and Defender (2017).
Robert Hamaguchi
Executive Director of the Japantown Task Force
Bob formulated and implemented the Japantown Cultural Heritage and Economic Sustainability Strategy (JCHESS), the first document in San Francisco to focus specifically on how to preserve and promote a neighborhood's cultural heritage
Bob organized the Japantown Community Benefit District whose mission is economic business development for property owners and merchants, beautification of public spaces for all to enjoy and a safe livable environment