Okaeri (Welcome Home): The Nisei Legacy at Shofuso Notes from the Curator
Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the US, but our Japanese American population numbers under 3,000. With this in mind, I have long sought the opportunity to present a public exhibition related to Japanese American history in our local region to educate Philadelphians about topics they might otherwise be unfamiliar with. This recently materialized as the new exhibit that opened on August 12, 2023 titled, Okaeri (Welcome Home): The Nisei Legacy at Shofuso.
Before starting my role at Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, I had no understanding of the pivotal role that Philadelphia’s Nisei leaders played in preserving and maintaining Shofuso Japanese House & Garden. In my first week on the job in August 2021 as I was perusing our organizational archives, I stumbled upon a typewritten 1983 board roster from the Friends of the Japanese House & Garden that included several names I recognized of now deceased Nisei leaders of the JACL.
A few days later I found an envelope of photos taken sometime in the mid-1980s showing Nisei civil rights leader Judge William Marutani at the 25th anniversary celebration of Shofuso. In another photo from a different event I recognized Sansei Teresa Maebori, a current board member of the JACL Philadelphia chapter. Following a few email exchanges with Teresa, I realized that there was more to this story than was publicly known. I shared some of my preliminary research in the 2021 PC Holiday Issue, and to what extent the Nisei may have viewed their work at Shofuso as activism, which was largely based on conjecture at that point. Thankfully the research phase of this project has unearthed many incredible finds that prove the Nisei did see their work as activism, and allowed us to better understand the role that Japanese art and culture played in Philadelphia’s Redress Movement.
Much of the credit goes to Lauren Griffin, Okaeri Project Research Assistant and Assistant Curator of the Okaeri exhibition, who discovered many of the key documents that led to these conclusions. We were able to bring Lauren into the project starting in November 2022, when we were awarded a grant from the Japanese American Community Foundation. Lauren was previously employed as a docent at Shofuso, and as luck would have it, was in the process of finishing her MA in Public History at Temple University.
Lauren began by cataloguing the Friends of the Japanese House & Garden archives that are currently housed in the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia offices since the two organizations merged in 2016. Her archival survey spanned about five months, and by the end of April 2023 we had discovered enough about the origins of the Friends to create a comprehensive historical timeline from 1981-1999 of the main accomplishments and activities the Nisei leadership engaged in during this period. Lauren also spent time researching at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Fairmount Park Commission, where she found some incredible materials detailing the early history of Shofuso from its arrival to Philadelphia in 1957 to the 1976 bicentennial celebration when restoration work on the house first began.
The story that we began to piece together was one of institutional neglect and lack of cultural competency within the Philadelphia city government, who neither understood nor cared about the treasure that the Japanese people had gifted them. A particularly egregious example was a letter written by one of the Fairmount Park Commissioners in the 1960s suggesting that a Japanese family might be recruited to live at Shofuso rent free, as caretakers of the space – despite the fact that the site had neither running water or electricity.
Shortly after the bicentennial, Nisei Mary Watanabe organized a group of concerned citizens who wished to prevent Shofuso from falling into a state of disrepair as it had in the previous decades. They formally established the Friends of the Japanese House & Garden in 1982, electing Watanabe as their Board President. As an active member of JACL Philadelphia and past Executive Director of the Asia/Pacific Coalition (an early Pan Asian American civil rights organization), Watanabe was a central figure in the organizing that happened at Shofuso until her death in 1994.
From Watanabe’s archival writings in the board minutes and general correspondence, we see a leader who recognized the need for Shofuso as a physical space for the Japanese American community to convene itself in the postwar era. One document found in the Watanabe files shows the 1983-1984 board demographics with respect to male/female, Japanese/non-Japanese, and Issei/Nisei+ generations. We interpret this as demonstrating the intentionality with which the Friends approached the topic of equitable representation, ensuring a diversity of Nikkei perspectives that prioritized historically marginalized voices within the community. Another document written by Watanabe in 1989 outlines her vision of what Shofuso meant to the people of Philadelphia, as follows.
“The House and Garden is a recognition of the multi-cultural society which is uniquely American – a symbol of people, regardless of origin, that have come together as one nation. For Americans of Japanese heritage, JHG provides a place to celebrate the arts, crafts, and holidays of their ancestors. It is a place to share a culture with other Americans. Its uniqueness as an art form contributes to the richness of American culture.”
Inherent in this statement of purpose are the concepts of inclusion and belonging. Sharing the culture of Japan with non-Japanese Philadelphians is an important factor in understanding the activist intent behind the Nisei involvement at Shofuso, particularly given the resurgence of anti-Japanese rhetoric amid the US-Japan Trade War during that era.
Of greater note perhaps is the idea that in Watanabe’s own words, Shofuso was a place for Japanese Americans to engage in reclamation of their ancestral culture. While many Nisei were so stigmatized by the wartime incarceration that they fully shunned Japanese culture, Watanabe and the other Friends actively celebrated the culture of their immigrant parents through their work at Shofuso. We interpret this as a meaningful attempt to heal from the traumatic experiences of WWII, by embracing the culture they were once vilified for coming from.
In addition to our research team’s interpretation of these and other archival documents, we also had the benefit of hearing directly from many of the now-deceased Nisei leaders through a series of oral history videos recorded by the JACL Philadelphia Chapter in 1994. While they did not speak specifically about the work that was happening at Shofuso, both Mary and her husband Warren Watanabe spoke at length about the influence of Japanese culture in their lives, and their approach to activism and community organizing. Other Nisei participants in the 1994 oral histories who were actively involved with the Friends group include Judge William Marutani, Grayce and Hiroshi Uyehara, and Tak Moriuchi. Listening to the voices of these departed Nisei speaking to us through the archive gave a new dimension to the project, and we began exploring ways to integrate their stories into a public exhibition.
Thanks to additional support from the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant-funded JACL/Densho Oral History project, our team was then able to conduct a dozen new oral histories with Sansei elders from the JACL Philadelphia and Seabrook chapters, many of whom are the children of the Nisei leaders who were active at Shofuso. The oral history documentation spanned the months of May-June and was captured by videographer and JACL New York member Brett Kodama. We then condensed these oral histories from 1994 and 2023 into a 30-minute clip loop that contains select quotes exploring the wartime incarceration, postwar resettlement, civil rights advocacy, and topics related to identity and Japanese cultural practice.
Another component of the Okaeri exhibit materialized when the estate of Isao Okumura, the head carpenter who led the installation of Shofuso in Philadelphia, mailed us a collection of 8mm home movie film reels. Unsure what they contained, we had them digitized sight-unseen and were thrilled to discover over ten minutes of footage shot during Shofuso’s 1957 installation in Fairmount Park. In reviewing the digitized footage, I recalled another video shot in 1999 by videographer Keiichi Kondoh, which documented the roof restoration that was paid for in-part by individual contributions from Philadelphia's Nisei population.
These two videos together with a slideshow of digitized photographs showing daily activities of the Friends from 1981-1999 form the basis of a three-channel projection installation as the main on-site interpretive element for the Okaeri exhibit. Situated in the 10-tatami mat room at Shofuso, the 1957 Okumura footage is on the left, opposite of the 1999 Kondoh footage on the right, with the slide show in the center. The 30-minute oral history clip loop plays aloud on speakers along with original audio of the roofers working in Kondoh's footage.
The 10-mat tatami room also contains a custom-built low-rise table that encompasses the projector setup, presenting a clean view of the traditional Japanese interior that allows exhibit goers to focus on the material being projected. The table surface also doubles as a reading area for visitors to sit on the tatami floor and peruse the exhibit catalogue or simply immerse themselves in the multimedia installation. Additional reading materials are available to visitors including a glossary of terminology, including definitions of euphemistic language used by the WRA and preferred terms by the Japanese American community to describe wartime incarceration, and several primary source documents from the mid-1940s related to Japanese American resettlement in the Philadelphia area.
Other on-site displays include the exhibit title card located just outside of the 10-mat installation, which describes the Okaeri exhibit and acknowledges our funders, and a large format graphic timeline depicting key events related to the exhibit that is located in the adjacent room of the house. The last physical component of the exhibit are two museum quality display cases containing artifacts related to the wartime incarceration (camp art and photos taken in camp), Redress brochures and publications (owned by members of the Friends group), and certain key documents related to the Friends that spanned the same time period. This room also contains a reproduction of the "evacuation notice" and wooden planks that were signed by the Japanese carpenters and roofers who build Shofuso in 1957 and restored the roof in 1999, tying together elements from the projection installation with a physical presence in the house.
Included in the display case is a class photograph of FJHG board member Reiko Nakawatase Gaspar alongside her elementary schoolmates at a Japanese garden in Poston Camp 1. To me this is one of the most significant pieces of the exhibit, showing if only by chance how this one woman gravitated back to the traditional culture of Japan despite the incredible hardships that the Japanese American community’s association with Japan brought on her and her family. Reiko was a West Philly public school teacher who also served as JACL Philadelphia Board President in the mid-1980s. While active in both FJHG and JACL, she co-curated a special exhibition alongside Mary Watanabe titled “The Japanese American Experience” at the Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies – the first such exhibit in Philadelphia. Reiko’s personal copy of the exhibit catalogue is included in the display case alongside her childhood photo.
As we were installing the projectors at Shofuso I began testing random videos from our Google drive and stumbled upon a 1987 video recording of a tour given by none other than Reiko Nakawatase Gaspar. While we had digitized dozens of Reiko’s photographs and researched extensively her involvement in the Friends group, this was the first time I had seen footage of her or heard her voice. It sent shivers down my spine, in the best possible way, to feel as if her presence was with us in that moment.
Yet this was essentially the intent of launching our exhibit when we did on Saturday, August 12 in tandem with Philadelphia's Obon Festival held just outside of Shofuso. The title of our exhibit was chosen to both recognize the community home that Shofuso became for the Nisei generation, but also to invite their stories back into the cultural memory of the site. For these reasons, Obon Festival was chosen as the launch date to recognize the Nisei leaders of FJHG as our movement ancestors in the work this organization continues to do at Shofuso.
One of the many exciting discoveries we made in the research phase was a letter from 1989 from Seabrook Buddhist Temple thanking the Friends group for providing seed funding for Hoh Daiko, the taiko troupe still affiliated with the temple. The letter references the donation being made in advance of the Obon Festival held at Shofuso that year, where Hoh Daiko was invited to present their debut performance.
Reiko Nakawatase Gaspar grew up in Bridgeton New Jersey where her parents both worked for Seabrook Farms. Longtime Seabrook JACL leader, Ellen Nakamura who also served as President of the Seabrook Buddhist Temple in the 1980s was involved in several cultural festivals and activities at Shofuso including a kimono exhibit and ikebana flower workshops. These connections run deep.
In an earlier phase of this project, we invited in Hoh Daiko and the Seabrook Minyo dancers to help coordinate the bon odori at our 2022 Obon festival held outside of Shofuso. This was before we understood the historical ties between our organizations, but given the new details of our shared history that emerged from the research, their participation took on new meaning as we continue fostering the connections among current generations of Japanese American cultural practitioners and community leaders from Philadelphia and Seabrook.
We ended the evening with a lantern ceremony on the koi pond where participants enjoyed a koto performance by JASGP board member Mirai Yasuyama. In the background was the faint sound of oral history, welcoming the spirits and stories of our Nisei forbearers back to Shofuso.
Okaeri (Welcome Home): The Nisei Legacy at Shofuso is on view during regular opening hours at Shofuso through December 10, 2023. Visit the exhibit website to learn more https://okaeri.japanphilly.org/