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NN: So I was talking about the JACS office.

BN: Right.

NN: And at the JACS office, I was fortunate and privileged to meet mentors like Mo Nishida, Miya Iwataki, I think there was a Ray Tasaki there, Carol Hatanaka, she was with the Nisei Welfare Rights program. But anyway, there were a lot of dedicated revolutionaries there, and the JACS office had different programs. One of the programs that I participated in was Youth and Drugs. And it started off as, like, an Asian American hotline, where if some young person was going through an overdose, that they would have access to call this hotline, and you'd walk 'em through until you'd get the medical attention that they needed, but just to take them step by step. "Don't go to sleep, fill your tub with ice." There was a drug problem within the community, and we were receiving phone calls, and a lot of times it was from concerned parents, so we would meet with families and young kids and whatnot. We were doing counseling, there was, what they call it, neighborhood youth, NYC corps program, and that they would, I guess the government at that time, that because there was so much uprising in the summers, meaning like cities burning down, because of, like, lack of jobs, oppression, overall conditions, and just unrest, and mainly in the people of color communities, that to placate that, they started this NYC program to give young people jobs in the summertime. So the JACS office happened to be one of the organizations for the Japanese American community to get slots. So we would hire young people to come in, and actually we had a summer to work with them and to try to politicize them, create bonds. And there was a summertime of activity.

So anyway, I was at the JACS office probably a few years. And during that time, I was living at home still with my folks from Crenshaw, but there were issues going on in Crenshaw. And there was like, when I was in the service, there was an organization that ended up being called the Yellow Brotherhood, that it was originated by a cadre of ex-gang individuals that were in this gang called the Ministers back in the early '60s. And I guess their story is that they had a big blowout at one point right at the end, it was like a shootout at this bowling alley. And I guess it's like Mid-Wilshire Shatto Bowl that resulted in everyone having to get out of Dodge, so a lot of them joined the service, some of them got arrested, went to the joint. They all scattered, and years later, they're older than me, so when all this is going on, I'm doing my thing in school. But I guess when they came back together, I was in the service, and what they saw was young people still trying to emulate them, they're calling themselves the Ministers III. So they organized these young thugs from the same Crenshaw community, and was very intent that we don't want them to go through what we experienced, and they had street credibility, so the youngsters were listening to the message. And they were influenced somewhat by the Black Panther party who was doing similar things within the community. So it was still a little bit like self-help and militant, and with a purpose of community control, serving the people.

But within a year's time, and I'm still in the service, that when they were working with the, I'm going to call it the at-risk kids within Crenshaw, that prior to that, that the Japanese American community at large refused to acknowledge that, you know what, there were a lot of fuck-ups in the neighborhood. And I went through that, and whole generations have gone through that, but you're never acknowledged as even existing. Because it's a shame to say that we've got kids out there overdosing on drugs or dying, and that's a shame not only on the family, but on the community in which we're the "model minorities." So you get to a point, "Well, fuck you," you know. This isn't cool. Your kids are dying, and as far as we're concerned, they're my younger brothers' age, and no longer are we just talking about a handful of rebellious seven samurai types, but we're talking about hordes of, you know, your next-door neighbor kind of kids, like dropping these barbiturates. But anyway, within like a years' time, the organization could not be ignored because of the numbers, and they were doing the study halls, they were participating in the Japanese volleyball leagues, and kids that would never participate in all this kind of stuff were like, they were getting empowered.

So finally, I think there was a paper, there was an article in the Rafu kind of like admonishing the community about "shame on you." They're doing what we're all supposed to be doing, and the Japanese American Business Association that they got together and did this massive fundraiser, and as a result, they purchased a Yellow Brotherhood house up on Crenshaw and Pico. And it was like a beautiful crib, two-story garage, big center. And I say this because the Chairman Mao once said, "A single spark could create a prairie fire." And within one year, I think I'm going to give him credit, it was like Victor Shibata, Gary Asamura, David Yanagi, Lawrence Lee, Art Ishi and Ats Sasaki, I think even Mike Yamaki, that, to their credit, that within one year, there was a Yellow Brotherhood House. And unfortunately, they were doers but not administrators. And they're like young men themselves, because I'm, like families and whatnot, so I guess as the younger membership got older and did okay, and in the meantime, there were still problems going on, overdoses and stuff, let's see. So eventually the Yellow Brotherhood House became a halfway house, meaning that there were still, let's see, JA youth that were incarcerated or either like at a youth camp or the county jail with no place to go. So the  Yellow Brotherhood House became somewhat of a safe haven in the sense where there were strict rules or mandates, no drugs, no parties, daytime, you go to go out and look for a job, you report back to one of the persons in charge over here, so they had a person in charge. And like the membership, the leadership of the YB, they had the respect of the people that were living there or benefiting from this opportunity. So they knew that if you stepped out of line and you crossed the line, then you're out or you get your ass whipped, so it was kind of an understanding.

So everything went okay, that unfortunately that was an incident where one of the people staying at Yellow Brotherhood House at that time had a fight at the local gas station and beat this cat down. And it was probably deserving, but he came back to the house, no big thing as far as everybody there was concerned, and then the guy that was at the gas station got his friends at the gas station and they came down to the Yellow Brotherhood House to settle a score. And I think they were, they had no business being there. But I guess they figured they had their honor protect, that kind of crap. And one of them was leery enough to bring a rifle. So he ended up shooting a brother by the name of Tony that was trying to be the peacemaker at the time. And I guess Tony had a rep of knocking suckers out, so I guess when this guy saw Tony approaching him, said, "Hey, you didn't need to bring that, let's talk about it." I think he got scared and he just killed Tony on the spot in the house. And so the YB House was closed, and I guess I'm bringing all this up because I'm out of the service now and I remember when Tony got killed, the YB House just got shut down.

And it was never really a real good, the word now is match, but a marriage between the Yellow Brotherhood and the Japanese American community. Because a lot of them always saw the Yellow Brotherhood as, these are thugs kind of thing. And the people that, the element that they're working with, not losers, but they're misfits. I think the story is that right after the fundraiser to build, to get the Yellow Brotherhood House, that the Japanese American business community, just severed all ties with the Yellow Brotherhood, and partially because the Yellow Brotherhood leadership was following the lines of autonomy, and not believing in electoral politics, or basically being anti-government. That the JA Business Association to do this fundraiser invited the then-mayor of L.A., Sam Yorty, to be like a speaker there. And the YB said, "No, he can't speak." These people are the problem, why we have a Yellow Brotherhood thing, right? The leadership of the businesspeople were saying they can't uninvite 'em because he's been accepted. So came to a stalemate, well, all of a sudden there was going to be a fundraiser. Well, if they still had it, the YB said, "We're going to picket our own fundraiser." So it got kind of, big clash.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.