<Begin Segment 20>

Mo N: So that's when we decided this idea, okay, well, they're trapped in their hotel rooms and they're trapped down here, they ain't got nothing to do, so let's try to at least make some enjoyment for their time. So that's when we started a free movie program, so anybody who came to the neighborhood in that area we told 'em a certain time and date, pay for coming to the movie. So it started like that, we developed mailing lists. And then we went through a whole lot of shit. We used to gather rummage, go out to the rummage sale, make money like that. So we never asked anybody for money. In fact, one of the lessons we learned was that one of the guys, we used to go ask for donations, and people would say, "Sure, we can give you money." But then sometimes you get some of these guys, big shot guys, said, "Oh, I'll give you some money, but you got to give me credit," blah, blah, blah, started laying down what they wanted for this money that we'd give 'em. And so we had one guy, Chuck, good strong young man, said, "Hey, man, are you giving it or what? What's your problem?" The guy took, said, "Okay, you don't want it then? Okay, fuck you." And he didn't say that, but, you know, that's what we were thinking. So when he come back, we talked about it, said, "Okay, fuck it, we're going to earn our own money. We're not going to go out there and beg." So we go out and pick up rummage, yeah, ask for donation for rummage and stuff like that, people give us stuff, then we'd go down to that Gardena, the Rodeum or something like that, go down there and sell, stuff like that.

Yeah, we found too that the people, the poorest people were the ones that would give the most. Whenever we went into Monterey Park, people would be slamming doors in our faces. We did that, we had that slammed in our face twice. Once when we were raising money, or trying to get stuff for the rummage sales from these more upper class folks, and then we raised the most stuff right in J-flats. Just knocked door to door and people would listen to us and say, "Oh, man, you guys are really helping people, aren't you? Here, let me get..." they'd go in the back, dig something up and bring it out. And we had the same experience when the Alcatraz occupation took place with the Native peoples, right? Said, "Oh, let's do the tribe and take some stuff up there to support them." So that's what we did. So went in the neighborhood and people gave like hell. We'd fill up a busload. We went up to Monterey Park and couldn't get shit up there. All these people with money, they were peeking out the door. They wouldn't even open the door for us half the time. But, yeah, so that's the Pioneer Project.

But then we used to our own fundraisers, and we raised enough money to support this old man, Mr. Nishimura, who was the organizer of the Goh-Shogi Club for the workers down here. They always had a Goh-Shogi Club for the businesspeople, but they were pretty snooty, if you know what I mean. So this was just a workers thing, Mr. Nishimura, he had left influences on him in his life. So he's saying, and we had this guy Sayama, who was a social worker for J-town.

[Interruption]

Mo N: We got used to raising money on our own. We used to do these sukiyaki sales, sukiyaki dinner, and that kind of stuff. One year we made mochi and sold it, and that's the way we used to raise money. And when Mr. Nishimura said that he was running out of funds and running out of resources to keep the Goh-Shogi Club going, so we figured, "Okay, well, let's support the thing that he was doing." And so we developed the Pioneer Center right there on Weller Street. Yeah, that was real interesting. That was the fun part, we'd be working our ass off trying to get this place ready so we could open it up. But we knew that they needed the Goh-Shogi Club, 'cause the upstairs, second floor one was closed down. So we opened it up, the Goh-Shogi area up. The fucking Isseis would come in and push us out of the way, make demands about, "Let me in here, let me play this," and stuff like that. Sometimes we'd be locked out, we'd be beatin' on the door and those guys would be in there playing and wouldn't look up. You know? All kind of aggravations. [Laughs] We're sitting up there screaming at 'em and stuff. But we had a good time. But yeah, we worked our butt off cleaning the place up. And then finally opened, and that was the beginning of the Pioneer Center.

But if you read the official history, you wouldn't know that. Because Mr. Takeda, Paul Takeda, revised the whole history and took us out of the picture completely. It was as if those guys, the upward bound Isseis, or maybe they're Kibeis. These are the new rich. The Japanese Chamber of Commerce was the old rich, and these young guys that made their money after the war were considered upstarts. So they weren't listened to and looked down on and everything. So these younger ones, led by Takeda, wanted some leverage in the community. So they latched onto us, the Pioneer Center, 'cause we were also looking for elders to give us some legitimacy other than just poor Japanese, poor Isseis. They'd probably be fucked up like that. We should have had a big contingent of just regular poor Issei that were living in the area. But anyhow, so he came in, eventually maneuvered himself to become president, and then pushed us all out. Real clean job.

MN: So that's how all the Sanseis got pushed out? And there was accusations that you guys were Communists?

Mo N: We were, some of us. Well, maybe not yet, that was early on, not yet.

MN: And you guys started out in the basement of the old Union Church, right? Is that where you first started to clean up everything?

Mo N: No, no. That's where we did all our fundraising and stuff.

MN: And talk about the hanami the Pioneer Project had.

Mo N: Oh, yeah, yeah. That was the glory. When we started doing all of this stuff, things just rang a bell with people all over the city. So all of a sudden we had Pioneer Projects in Long Beach and Pasadena and the west side, Gardena. So we, every spring we'd go out and charter buses and go up and meet up there. So the last hanami we had, there must have been about twenty, thirty buses. We had over a thousand people out there. It was great, but we thought, "Shit, man, we bring all these people out here, we're gonna trample all the poppies down. Man, ain't gonna be nothin' left after we get through." We were freaking the local people out, too, "Goddamn Jap invasion out here," and all of that. [Laughs] We used to stay up and eat lunch at that park out there, that was named after that Mexican bandit? Miriana? No... Vasquez Rocks. Got a, that's a real nice park out there. We'd fill that sucker up with Buddhaheads, man. We're going crazy. [Laughs] But, yeah, yeah, that rang a bell, and the Pioneer Project's still in existence. So that was a great experience and a great push.

MN: And it brought you and people like Jim Matsuoka when you were really were kind of rivals.

Mo N: Yeah.

MN: Was it kind of hard to work with people like that in the beginning?

Mo N: No, I think all we were looking for was what we could do to help our people. I mean, the Panthers had pushed Chairman Mao, served the people lying out there in front, all this good work was being done by them, the Civil Rights Movement was talking about uplifting our people, and what we found in the community was that our people were wasted. We're downtrodden, there are people that... and this is the people that gave our community the reputation that still lasts, right? Honest, hardworking, feisty and beat down and did in. Because right after World War II comes the split, the beginnings of the Cold War and McCarthy era. So anything that was -- just like right now -- anything that was not America, patriotic, rah-rah oriented was looked down on and people crapped on it. And that was our people. Our experience was, can't go be rah-rah American shit, right? So, yeah, so the people in our community, the powers that be, the elite in our community wouldn't talk about none of this stuff. I mean, talk about the problems of the Isseis, I mean, the Chamber of Commerce had a half time social worker covering all of J-town. Good thing he was a good man and was open to us when we'd come down here and shit. But then JEMS, Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society, had, did some work, but that was it. So, yeah, so we have not only the problem, but we also have the tradition of rising to meet the problem and try to do something about it. But at least in those days we have a community. We don't have one now. So there's all those people hurting out there that are pretty isolated. That's the whole thing about the "silent deaths" and those kind of things actually mean something again to us through the redevelopment and all that.

MN: Let me change the subject for a moment and ask you about this political fellowship you got with Merv Dymally. How did you get this fellowship?

Mo N: I'm trying to remember that. I think, at that time, Miya Iwataki worked with Merv, and she put the word out that there was this fellowship available. I'm not sure why I joined that, though. Well, I guess maybe I wanted to see what it was like, so that's what I did. I joined it and then I was chosen, so I went to Sacramento and participated and I came back and participated and then I quit.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.