Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kazumi Yoneyama Interview
Narrator: Kazumi Yoneyama
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: May 23, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-ykazumi-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

MN: Now you also helped as a volunteer on a number of exhibits. Which was the first exhibit you worked on?

KY: Perhaps Sumo, U.S.A. It was a small exhibit that Brian curated. My heart and soul exhibit was called More than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community, and I did research for Brian, I loaned the museum some of my running shirts for the exhibit, I solicited funds from my nephews, and prepared a database for Brian. And I think I also did a lot of transcribing of interviews he did with some of the people who were featured in the exhibit. And that was an exhibit that was a labor of love.

MN: Now you said you bowled. Did your bowling contacts help in this exhibit?

KY: No, but some of the people that they had in there were familiar to me. And so it's always fun to read a name where you know them personally.

MN: Now during this time, Brian moved to Hawaii.

KY: Yes.

MN: And so how did you continue assisting him on this exhibit?

KY: I guess we probably talked by email. But he was here also, and they had a project manager here, so I worked with her.

MN: Why was this sports exhibit so important to you?

KY: I guess 'cause, as a boy, I was always interested in sports. And so the articles that I would read in the Rafu and the Kashu were sports-oriented. Like "Fingertip Release," like Tosh Kinjo, The Maestro, I even read Horse's column in those days because he wrote about sports and not this other nonsense that he writes about now. And I knew some of the people who participated in NAU sports. And so reading their names in the paper was interesting for me, and I knew many of the players who played for the Su Plumbers basketball team, because they were like my contemporaries. So I used to go watch them play basketball. So I guess that was perhaps the main attraction. I used to go to the racetrack, so they had a very famous Japanese American jockey named George Taniguchi. And they had a famous Japanese American woman bowler named Chiyo Tashima, and there was Fuzzy Shimada, a male bowler from San Francisco. And I had heard about Zenimura and the diamonds that he had made in Butte camp.

MN: That's right, he was at Gila River.

KY: Yes, Camp II.

MN: Yes. But I guess you never went to go see that when you were there.

KY: No, I did not.

[Interruption]

MN: Once Brian Niiya left the museum to work in Hawaii, did you continue volunteering at the museum?

KY: Oh, yes.

MN: Who did you work around with then after Brian left?

KY: I probably started working with Sojin Kim. And I think the first exhibit we worked on was Boyle Heights: The Power of Place. And I had lived there for twenty, twenty-five years, so again, that had a personal connection to me. I donated a picture of a butsudan to... well, I didn't donate the, I donated a copy of a picture to the museum for the exhibit, and it showed up in the book. And I did a lot of database management for Sojin, and also once the exhibit was over, we used the comments of the visitors as support for, request for grants, to show how the public had supported our exhibits. And I think the Boyle Heights exhibit was very good in drawing different ethnic groups to the museum, because Boyle Heights is such a multicultural area, or at least it used to be.

MN: What kind of volunteer work did you do for the Big Drum exhibit?

KY: Probably just did some research, did a lot of grunt work. I guess my main use of time was to edit the transcripts of the videotaped interviews that Akira Boch and the others from the Media Arts Center made of the pioneers of taiko. Like Grand Master Tanaka, the Hirabayashis from San Jose Taiko, Johnny Mori, and Kinnara, and some of the groups in Hawaii, like Maui Taiko.

MN: Now when you were working on this exhibit, did you also start taking taiko lessons?

KY: Well, I wasn't part of the exhibit, but yeah, I took some taiko lessons from Tom Korai, and also here with Roy Okida. But I found out to my dismay that I can't remember the patterns anymore. So I quit playing, but I still appreciate taiko.

MN: Did you get to meet a lot of the taiko legends?

KY: Yes, I did. I got to meet Tanaka-sensei and got to meet Roy and PJ Hirabayashi, got to meet Kenny Endo. And I had seen Johnny Mori around, because I think at that time he was the talent director for JACCC. And I know some of the Kinnara members, like Khris Yamashita, she's Chris Komai's wife. And Kevin Higa is Karen Higa's brother, who used to work at the museum. And George Abe, as I mentioned, used to work at the museum. So that was sort of another labor of love, exhibit for me.

MN: Is there other exhibits you worked on with Sojin?

KY: Probably not. I think Big Drum was the last exhibit she curated before she left.

MN: Didn't you work on a landscaping one with her?

KY: That was a tiny exhibit, though, and I didn't do a great deal with it.

MN: You know, you put in a lot of hard work as a volunteer, and a lot of people, most people get paid for what you do. What keeps you motivated and coming back as a volunteer?

KY: Well, in the old days, I think it was the person that I was working for. Brian Niiya and Sojin Kim and Audrey Lee-Sung, workaholics. And when your boss works that hard, you want to work hard, too, or at least I do. And I have to work for people that I respect as well as like. And I think they were appreciative of my efforts, which is one of the paybacks for being a volunteer, is that your work isn't being taken for granted.

MN: Why is it important for you to volunteer at the museum and continue the museum's legacy?

KY: Well, I guess, as I mentioned, when I was growing up, there was no Japanese American history in the books. At least now there is, you see programs about Japanese American history on television, not only on PBS but on other commercial stations. I think we're getting more accepted as regular citizens, not second-class citizens. And I don't know why otherwise.

MN: Now when you were growing up, how did you feel about being Japanese American, and did volunteering at the museum affect your views on being a Japanese American?

KY: When I was growing up, I guess the experience of job discrimination was the big, one of the big factors that I found as a negative. And I forgot the second part of your question.

MN: Oh, did volunteering at the museum, did that change your view or affect your view of what a Japanese American is like?

KY: I don't think so. I just learned more about what other Japanese Americans had done that I didn't realize.

MN: Now, when your parents were alive and they came back to Los Angeles, which church did they join?

KY: Probably Nishi Hongwanji.

MN: Now, when the old Nishi Hongwanji became part of the museum, how did you feel about that?

KY: Oh, I don't know if I had any particular feelings, because the Nishi had moved to this present location. So as far as the site goes, it didn't matter. When I used to take my aunt to the museum, I think she got a big kick out of being there, mostly because she remembered it as the Nishi. So I think at least one of her sons got married there, they had a celebration for her fortieth or fiftieth anniversary with the husband there. So I think it brought back a lot of pleasant memories. And her older son was very active at Nishi, so I think a lot of things that he did were probably at Nishi.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.