Spaces of Belonging
February of 2025 - February of 2027
Project coordinators: Steve Nava and Tom Izu
The Spaces of Belonging project amplifies the voices of local creatives who have contributed to a sense of belonging for Santa Clara Valley historically marginalized communities. Project coordinators Tom Izu and Steve Nava guide students as they conduct oral histories that are intended to bridge generational and ethnic differences. The oral history topics vary in content and focus but include interviews with social and cultural workers in Silicon Valley who have contributed to building belonging and transforming the lives of their community members. This project is an intervention into the way we think about history, moving away from a static perception towards history as a process of intergenerational exchange, social justice, and cultural awareness.
There are two sections of oral history videos and transcripts which reflect a focus on the local San Jose history of Japantown and the second labeled, "Artists and Artivists" focuses on the socialization of activists within the San Jose community. The interviews across both sections include questions addressing the life of San Jose Japantown however the artivists section is not primarily focused on Japantown but fields the artists' life growing up in their unique striving for racial, immigration, and economic justice and a social space to feel valued.
Although it is clear from the feelings expressed in both sets of interviews that growing up in San Jose and other cities was fraught with challenges to these creative human beings' ability to carve out a sure space of belonging, they also express an appreciation for the moments of warm connection and true community they experienced along the way. As researchers and interviewers we are extremely grateful to the community members who opened their lives to us and to the De Anza students who worked on this project in the spirit of historical fascination and empathy. For example, we were guided into anguished memories when hearing about what it was like to wake up in a bare desert army barracks as a nine year old Japanese American child during WWII, but we also witnessed shared nostalgic memories of the Beloved Community that the famous Civil Rights leader and sociologist Reverend Martin Luther King dreamed about. It is our hope that you listen with empathy and in the precious hope that the tragedies and wayward ambitions of the past do not repeat.
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Japantown
Spaces of Belonging in Japantown, San Jose
Oral History Interview - Rory Fukuda
February 9, 2024
Rory Fukuda, retired designer draftsman, Reflects on San Jose Japantown and Witnessing the Tech Boom that Transformed Santa Clara County:
Rory Fukuda’s oral history provides a detailed account of the evolution of San Jose and the enduring significance of Japantown as a cultural anchor. Born in 1957, Fukuda witnessed the region's transition from a "farming community" dominated by orchards to a "metropolis" shaped by the high-tech boom. Growing up in the 1960s in the Rosemary Gardens neighborhood, Fukuda’s initial sense of belonging was rooted in his immediate neighborhood and elementary school. For a child at that time, "community" was defined by bike-riding distance and local landmarks like the creek behind his house. While his Japanese American identity was a part of his life, his primary exposure to that specific community came through his father, who co-owned a barbershop in Japantown and was active in the Buddhist church. He notes that in his youth, he did not feel a strong "community joining" beyond these family ties and school-based sports and music . It was only as he grew older and saw the "urban sprawl" and the disappearance of farmlands that he began to feel a nostalgic desire to look back at his roots.
Japantown as a Space of Belonging
Japantown serves as a vital space of belonging for Japanese and other Asian Americans, characterized by a "strange kind of community" where many participants live outside the area but remain committed to its preservation. Fukuda identifies several legacy family businesses—such as Santo Market, Kogura Gift Store, Nichi Bei Bussan, and Roy’s Station—that have remained in the same families since before or immediately after the WWII internment camps. These locations hold deep personal value; for instance, he still walks his dog in Japantown, interacting with shop owners he has known since childhood. Furthermore, the space has evolved into a broader Asian American hub, hosting festivals that now include Chinese and Vietnamese cultural celebrations, such as the Lunar New Year.
Cultural Preservation and Intergenerational Belonging
Fukuda emphasizes that preserving the hidden histories of Japantown is essential for maintaining an identity during times of rapid technological and cultural change. He contributes to this intergenerational belonging through art and craftsmanship, specifically by:
- Creating 3D-printed miniatures of iconic buildings like the Buddhist Church and the Japanese American Museum to document them before inevitable "major renovations" occur.
- Personalizing functional items for legacy businesses, such as engraving family crests on gates for Roy’s Station or building traditional wooden "seiro" steam boxes for the local manju shop.
He highlights the importance of historical accuracy in Civil Rights contexts, such as the community’s successful effort to rename a local park "Heinlenville Park". Rather than accepting a generic name like "Cherry Blossom Park," the community fought to honor John Heinlen, who provided a refuge for Chinese Americans after their downtown San Jose Chinatown was burned down. Fukuda views the recent interest from younger generations in preserving this history as a hopeful sign that the memory and identity of Japantown will survive despite the pressures of development. What is the history of Heinlenville Park? The history of Heinlenville Park is rooted in the early struggle for Asian American belonging and refuge in San Jose, specifically honoring a legacy of solidarity during a time of racial violence.
Origins as a Refuge
The park is named after John Heinlen, a German immigrant who owned significant land in the area that would eventually become Japantown. In the late 19th century, after the original Chinatown in downtown San Jose was intentionally burned down and Chinese residents were driven out of the downtown area, Heinlen offered them a place to stay on his property. This settlement was originally developed and known as "Heinlenville". The park was built recently as part of a development between two apartment buildings. According to Rory Fukuda, the developers originally intended to name the space "Sakura Park" or "Cherry Blossom Park". However, the community pushed back against this generic naming convention, feeling it overlooked the specific historical significance of the site.
To ensure the area's history was not lost, a handful of community members—including Tamiko Rast and the owners of Roy's Station—petitioned and fought the city to change the name to Heinlenville Park. They had to go down to City Hall to state their case, arguing that the name should honor the man who specifically helped Asian residents develop a community when they were being persecuted elsewhere. Fukuda notes that this effort was a way to preserve a hidden history that might otherwise be simplified into a generic cultural label betraying the truer struggle for belonging.
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Oral History Interview - Lynne Santo Yamaichi
February 23, 2024
Lynne Santo Yamaichi’s director of Lotus Preschool and a Community of Growth and Belonging:
Lynne Santo Yamaichi’s oral history documents the life of a third-generation (Sansei) Japanese American woman whose identity and occupation are deeply intertwined with the cultural and economic fabric of San Jose Japantown. As the director of Lotus Preschool and a member of the family that owns the legacy Santo Market, her narrative emphasizes the resilience of community bonds across generations. Growing up in the 1960s just a mile from Japantown, Santo describes a childhood defined by a "wonderful" sense of security and cultural immersion. Her sense of belonging was anchored by the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, where her family participated in Sunday school, scouts, and community youth programs. She reflects on her education at San Jose High School as a positive experience where a diverse student body of various ethnicities coexisted comfortably, allowing students to share cultural offerings and participate in activities without the tensions often found in other inner-city environments. For Santo, being an ethnic minority in this context meant being part of a "cherished" community that provided a firm foundation for her adulthood.
Japantown as a Space of Belonging
Japantown and the Betsuin community "feel like home" to Santo Yamaichi, serving as a space where common goals and relationships are formed. This belonging is physically manifested in legacy family businesses like Santo Market (established in 1946), Kogura Company, and Roy’s Station. She highlights the unique cohesion of San Jose’s Japantown, noting that because it is smaller than those in San Francisco or Los Angeles, it has maintained a generational "cement" where children of business owners from her youth remain active leaders today. Historically, this space also facilitated belonging through kens—groups based on the specific prefectures in Japan from which families emigrated—which fostered deep social ties and supported the local church.
Santo Yamaichi views the preservation of history and tradition as vital for maintaining community integrity amidst social change and potential threats to civil rights. Lynne references the concept of kintsukuroi—the art of mending broken pottery with gold—as a metaphor for how the Japanese American community healed and persevered after the trauma of WWII incarceration. Her own family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Jerome, and Tule Lake. She also emphasizes that events like the Day of Remembrance are essential to educate the broader public so that such civil rights violations should never happen again to any other groups. She notes that the $20,000 reparations given in the 1980s were a token amount that could never truly compensate for four years of lost life, particularly for the many elders who passed away before receiving an apology.
Cultural Transmission and Current Challenges
Through her work at Lotus Preschool, Santo actively creates a "first step" for new families into the community by involving children in traditional services, visiting local seniors at Yu Ai-Kai, and celebrating cultural milestones like Oshogatsu (New Year's). Santo Yamaichi expresses a strong hope that Japantown will maintain family-run businesses rather than large retailers, believing that preserving these historic roots is necessary to maintain the neighborhood's integrity. During a time when gentrification is a threat to communities all over the world, San Jose Japantown’s communities must stay vigilant and committed to its grassroots preservation.
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Oral History Interview - Steve Fugita
February 29, 2024
Retired Professor of Psychology and Ethnic Studies, Steven Fugita Advocates for Intergenerational Local Cultural Preservation
Steven Fugita’s oral history provides a complex look at his changing Japanese American identity, shifting from the isolated experience of the Midwest to the established community of San Jose. While Fugita moved to Santa Clara County later in life, his reflections on belonging, space, and preservation highlight the social structures that define minority experiences in America.
Belonging as an Ethnic Minority
Although Fugita has lived in Santa Clara County since 1990, he spent his formative years in Cleveland, Ohio, an experience he contrasts sharply with growing up in a multi-racial place like San Jose. Born in the Jerome, Arkansas incarceration camp in 1943, his family was part of the post-war dispersal encouraged by the War Relocation Authority to facilitate "assimilation". According to Fugita, growing up in the Midwest created a "hyper-sensitivity" to being different; Fugita describes always looking around to see how others reacted to him because he was not part of a larger ethnic community. This sense of "being different" manifested early, such as a first-grade memory of feeling that his ethnically Japanese marble game accentuated his Japanese Americanness compared to his white peers with their ethnocentric biases. Furthermore, his family faced overt discrimination, such as a 1957 petition by neighbors intended to block them from building a house in a specific subdivision.
San Jose Japantown as a Space of Belonging
For Fugita, San Jose Japantown (Nihonmachi) represents a vital physical anchor for community that contrasts with the social links that had to suffice in Cleveland. He values the space for providing a sense of ease and trust. He describes the community as a place where one can be spontaneous and feel a sense of ease that is beneficial for mental health. Fugita views the "groupness" or collectiveness preserved in these spaces as a necessary counter-balance to the rampant individualism of broader American society.
In this oral history, Fugita highlights traditional hangouts like Fourth Street Bowl and the Japanese American Museum as places where informal interactions and random chit-chat among friends create deeper bonds than modern, “efficient” professional meetings. We reflected on the importance of these open dialogues as creating a comfort among ethnically similar community members as essential to what makes San Jose Japantown so precious and essential for a sense of belonging.
Intergenerational Preservation Amidst Cultural Change
Fugita emphasizes that the preservation of Japanese American history is essential because the ties to the community are weakening with younger generations. Japanese Americans, often successful in tech corporations, increasingly grow up further from the community and ethnic culture; Fugita argues they must work harder to form the bonds that came naturally to previous generations through common struggle. He warns that without active historical and cultural preservation, Japantown could become "hollowed out"—reduced to a place where people merely drive in to buy ethnic food before returning to the suburbs. He identifies the Buddhist and Methodist churches located in San Jose Japantown as the most persistent organizations for maintaining this sense of belonging over time.
Intergenerational Responsibility
Fugita reflects on the personal regret of not asking older generations more questions, noting that preserving the "essence" of the community requires documenting the stories of those who have passed before their history is distorted. In summary, Fugita views the preservation of spaces like Japantown not just as a nostalgic nod to the past, but as a necessary effort to provide a safeguard against the psychological and sociological disorganization that can occur when minorities are isolated from their collective history. He advocates for working across generations to preserve the beloved parts of ethnic culture.
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Oral History Interview - Jen Masuda
March 12, 2024
Jen Masuda shares how she started working as the Executive Director of Yu-Ai Kai Japanese American Senior Care Center and Japantown itself after discovering the center when her grandmother became ill with Alzheimer’s dementia. She explores the role of community as she moved from place to place and through serious health struggles. As a person of being of “mixed race” Japanese and white, and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she grappled with identity and belonging as her family moved from place to place. As an adult she survived cancer while caring for her grandmother as she navigated rebuilding a career and a new longterm relationship. Masuda shares how important the Japantown community as a space of belonging and support continues to shape her life today.
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Oral History Interview - Tom Izu
August 13, 2024
Tom Izu, a long time Civil Liberties advocate, reflects on Alienation and Belonging For Japanese Americans and all Minoritized Groups
Tom Izu’s oral history documents his journey from feeling alienated in the suburbs to becoming a prominent civil liberties activist and community leader in San Jose Japantown. Growing up in Sunnyvale during the 1960s and 1970s, Izu felt a profound sense of alienation and isolation in a neighborhood that was almost entirely white. He experienced frequent racial slurs and felt that people did not understand his identity, which led him to believe as a child that something was personally wrong with him. He describes his suburban environment as artificial and "fake," noting that he lacked a clear sense of his own Japanese ancestry because his parents rarely discussed their past or their experiences in concentration camps. This feeling of isolation only changed in college, where his involvement in the Asian American student movement and Ethnic Studies helped him recognize these personal struggles as products of systemic racism.
San Jose Japantown and Belonging to a Multi-generational Space
For Izu, San Jose Japantown evolved from a place of childhood visits to his grandmother’s house into a lifelong mission of community service. He identifies Japantown as a multicultural refuge with overlapping shared histories between Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino Americans, specifically referencing the history of Heinlenville and Pinoy Town. After college, he moved to Japantown to "serve the people" and eventually led the Yu-Ai Kai Senior Center, which was established as an act of mutual aid because outside institutions failed to provide culturally appropriate care for Japanese American elders. His earliest feelings of true belonging were tied to these childhood visits and the Obon festival, which he remembers as a time of security and connection with his extended family.
Izu views the preservation of Japanese American history as a critical tool for protecting civil rights in the present and future . He actively advocates for a historical narrative that moves beyond the model minority myth and instead emphasizes solidarity with other oppressed groups. Through initiatives like the "Don't Exclude Us" program, he highlighted the emotional and structural parallels between the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, the 1930s repatriation of Mexican Americans, and the modern Muslim ban. He believes that when communities recognize these shared patterns of exclusion, they can better fight for a multi-democratic society. Izu is currently focused on the fragility of Japantown, worrying that the high cost of living and the loss of legacy family businesses could erase the neighborhood's unique character. He champions the role of artists and cultural organizers in maintaining a sense of hope and bringing the community together to ensure Japantown remains a sustainable village within a city.
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Oral History Interview - Brendan Boon
February 26, 2025
Minasan Shop Owner Reflects on Growing up in Santa Clara County and his relationship to San Jose Japantown as a Village within a City
Brendan Boon, a 30-year-old tech recruiter and fourth-generation (Yonsei) Japanese American, provides an oral history that explores his deep-rooted connection to San Jose Japantown through his family history and his recent endeavor opening a "third-space" hangout shop called Minasan.
Belonging as an Ethnic Minority in Santa Clara County
Growing up in Cupertino, Boon experienced a unique form of "othering" within the Asian American community. As a fourth-generation resident whose home life felt more "midwestern" with a "Japanese American twist," he initially found it difficult to relate to the trials of his first- and second-generation immigrant peers. While Cupertino was historically an agricultural Japanese American town, it shifted over time, and Boon only realized how deeply embedded he was in this community as he grew older. He eventually gravitated toward Japantown as an important source of identity and belonging, noting that his grandparents and parents were both married at local institutions (the Buddhist Temple and Christian Church, respectively) and that weekly visits for dinner and mochi were essential family rituals.
Japantown as a Space of Belonging
For Boon, San Jose Japantown functions as a "village within a city" and a "protected, forward-thinking immigrant space". He highlights the area's history as a multicultural refuge, noting that it was originally "Heinlenville," a Chinatown established by John Heinlen for Chinese residents after their previous settlements were burned down by arsonists. This history of solidarity extended to the post-WWII era, when the local Italian community helped returning Japanese Americans find housing when other landlords turned them away. Today, Boon’s shop, Minasan (meaning "everyone"), aims to preserve this inclusive atmosphere by serving as a no-pressure gathering spot where elders from the Yu-Ai Kai senior center, youth waiting for tables at nearby restaurants, and local creatives can "talk story" over complimentary tea.
Preservation and Civil Rights Vigilance
Boon identifies as a "preservationist" who uses his shop to celebrate a "nuanced Japanese American culture" amidst the pressures of gentrification and corporate expansion. The shop acts as a living museum, displaying nostalgic items like vintage bowling shirts from South Central Los Angeles and clothing modeled after his grandfather’s style. He views this preservation as vital for an intergenerational sense of belonging, especially as legacy family businesses are lost to corporate structures. Crucially, Boon links historical memory to popular cultural specifically through the sale of T-shirts referencing the WWII concentration camps and other historical references within a vernacular younger generations can relate to. These shirts, which carry the message that "we cannot let this happen again," sold out immediately, signaling a profound community desire for historical awareness and political vigilance in a changing cultural landscape
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Artists & Artivists
Spaces of Belonging in Activist and Creative Communities
Oral History Interview - Juan Carlos Araujo
March 12, 2024
Juan Carlos Araujo, owner of Empire Seven Studios:
In this oral history interview with Juan Carlos Araujo, owner of Empire Seven Studios, provides a personal lens into the intersections of art, economy, and community identity in San Jose. His narrative illustrates how a first-generation Mexican American navigated systemic challenges to create a lasting cultural impact. Araujo’s story highlights the extreme difficulty of maintaining a sense of belonging in an environment dominated by high rent and the "forces of capital". Growing up in low-income barrios, he observed his single mother work multiple jobs just to survive. This economic pressure continued into his adulthood; he describes working a "9 to 5" day job from 5:00 AM to 3:00 PM to funnel all his earnings into sustaining his art gallery. The high cost of the county is most starkly illustrated by the rent disparity he faced: his original warehouse space cost 89 cents per square foot, whereas the market rate for new developments in the same area jumped to $20 per square foot. To remain in his neighborhood, Araujo had to engage in years of "hard work" involving city policy and building relationships with developers to secure a smaller, affordable retail space.
Art as Healing
In this interview we also learn about the how art is a way to heal from social trauma for Araujo. Art continues to serve as a vital outlet for productivity and healing during a turbulent youth. After leaving home at age fourteen and experiencing housing instability and frequent police interactions for curfew violations, he found a community and a "sense of belonging" through graffiti culture. Although he faced incarceration for his art, the experience led him to reevaluate his path and "champion the culture" he loved, including skateboarding and lowrider lifestyles. Later in life, when he lost his original gallery space in 2016, he described the experience as "crushing" and "painful," necessitating a period of healing and resiliency. Ultimately, his studio provided a space where others could share their own stories and experiences, creating a "community-based movement" that emerged organically from their shared lifestyles.
History Through Lived Experiences
The oral history format captures a "hidden" history of San Jose that traditional records might overlook, such as the everyday realities of gang violence in the 1990s and the cultural landmarks of Japantown. Araujo’s narrative documents a particular transformation of a popular area of San Jose Japantown historicizing the change through his unique lens. By recounting his interactions with long-standing family businesses like Santo Market and Nichi Bei Bussan, he provides a history of how local murals changed the "entire community" and made it more vibrant. His testimony also preserves the political history of the city, detailing his personal efforts at City Hall to advocate for rezoning and policy changes that would allow arts-centric businesses to survive amidst corporate development. Araujo explicitly hopes these documented experiences will be "remembered" in the history books as a testament to the dedication required to change a city's demographics and values.
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Oral History Interview - Carolyn Kameya
March 25, 2025
Carolyn Kameya is a local activist and master gardener who dedicates her time to preserving the Emma Prusch Park orchard and the Guadalupe Community Garden and serving as a member of the council for the Urban Growers Network. Kameya also joined and remains active in the grassroots San Jose Nikkei Resisters community movement in San Jose Japantown she joined early in Donald Trump’s first administration when she became concerned about the Muslim Ban and Immigrant family separation policies. In this interview Kameya reflects on the meaning and purpose of this work as well as the struggle to support Japantown's efforts to stay vibrant in the face of gentrification. Kameya reflects on her lineage and places their experiences within an historical context of socio-economic change outlining a vision of community change through work and activism. She focuses on cultural tensions within social justice efforts and the challenges they face. As she reflects on her life growing up in Decatur, Illinois where her bi-racial identity was not understood and how this shaped her sense of belonging. She emphasizes the need for social and cultural understanding as a solution to the problem of social exclusion.
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Oral History Interview - Shirley Kuramoto
September 8, 2025
In this oral history Shirley Kuramoto (age 92 when this interview took place) shares captivating stories about growing up during the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW II under order 9066 when she was age twelve. The intimate details include her feelings of being bullied as a child as a result of the Anti-Japanese American fervor during the war and how her stoic response is a through line in her life that she had to confront in her middle age years. She also shares what it was like attending pro-Japan nationalist school while also simultaneously attending pro-American school in the years of her families incarceration. Kuramoto shares the wisdom she garnered throughout her life and how her philosophy of life transformed and adapted to new social and political moments. She is currently a playwright for the local Red Ladder Theater group which infuses Japanese cultural perspectives and humor to entertain elders at the Yu-Ai Kai senior center and more. Her deep yearning to learn the arts and Asian American and other ethnic histories is deeply inspiring as is her storytelling.
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Oral History Interview - Tamiko Rast
February 27, 2024
Tamiko Rast is president of the San Jose Japantown Business Association and owner of the State of Grace tattoo shop in Japantown where she lives. She is Roy Murotsune's (1925- 2021) granddaughter. Mr. Murotsune is locally known for running Roy’s Gas Station in SJ Japantown until 1990 when he had to close due to the high cost of updating their gas storage system. In this oral history interview Tamika Rast of the well-known Rast family who currently own and operate Roy’s Station a popular coffee shop in 5th and Jackson Street in San Jose reflects on growing up in Japantown under her grandmother’s care while her parents’ were working. She talks about experiencing negotiating being hapa or “mixed race” (Swedish- and Japanese-American) and growing up part of a multi-racial brood of adopted and biological siblings in a place where Japanese ethnic pride was strong in the aftermath of order 9066 or Japanese concentration camps during WWII. She reflects on her love for Japantown as the president of the Japantown business association and the town-like experience living and working in the neighborhood where she played as a child. She shares a positive outlook on this space where her family continues to nurture the local community through volunteer services, community gatherings, and lively businesses entrepreneurship.
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Oral History Interview - Adriana Garcia
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Oral History Interview - Angelo Lopez
Angelo Lopez is a political cartoonist who has spent decades capturing important political events that affect vulnerable communities emphasizing social justice and human rights. His career was twofold, working in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale Public Libraries and as the political cartoonist for the Philippine News Today newspaper (2011-2023). In his retirement he continues to publish political cartoons highlighting current oppressions in the Philippines and in the USA among various marginalized groups that the mainstream media are not paying attention to.
In this interview with a focus on his sense of belonging over the lifespan, Lopez shares key formative reflections on his engagement with historical events and popular culture that continue to influence his social consciousness and that inform his current political cartooning. He shares what it was like growing up as the child of a military family that moved too often to develop lifelong childhood friendships and how his sense of belonging relates to his Filipino heritage. The topics range from popular culture and changing consumption practices and their effects on critical consciousness, generational understanding, San Jose’s Japantown community and continuity, and what it means to be a nearly 60 year-old Left-leaning political artist in the age of global oppressions.
This project has been funded through a National Endowment of the Humanities grant, "Voices of Silicon Valley", to California History Center at De Anza College. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
