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| MAIN | HISTORY |
NEWS | VIEWPOINTS |
COMMUNITY | NARRATIVES |
ART/CULTURE | |
Toward Barefoot Journalism (cont'd)
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The turnover of the staff was actually fast and furious by the end of 1970. Evelyn Yoshimura, formerly an instructor of Asian American studies at Cal State Long Beach and active in other community organizations, joined the staff. Doug Aihara, Jane Morimoto and Jeanne Nishimura joined soon after, and along with the rest of us formed a nucleus that built a cohesive staff over the next three years.
After a tumultuous two years-a period in which over two hundred people came to Gidra to contribute their time and talents, and at the end of which most eventually moved on to do other things-the staff began to solidify, but many of the problems remained unresolved and many hardships were yet to come.
We concentrated on developing an awareness of our own history, a sensitivity and identification with our community, and an international perspective. Pat Sumi, who had traveled to North Korea, China, North Vietnam, and other parts of Asia, had a large impact on us as she taught us to become more aware of developments throughout the world. She challenged us, encouraged us, and defied us. I remember that we were sometimes in awe of her, sometimes angry at her, and sometimes just glad she was around. In retrospect, her presence was felt long after she moved up north. Now, Pat is teaching the Asian women 's class at San Francisco State.
In 1971, we began publishing a series of issues focusing on specific themes beginning in January with the Women's Issue produced under the guidance of fifteen Asian women. Their editorial comment was clear and bold:
We as Asian women have united in opposition to this society which has reduced women to economic and psychological servitude, and Third World women and men to racist, dehumanizing stereotypes.
They emphatically rejected notions prevalent among some circles of women that men are the oppressors and stated their intention to:
oppose the capitalist system, resist the racist images imposed on both ourselves and our brothers, and struggle with our brothers against male chauvinism (so that we can) join in constructing new definitions for self-determination in the revolutionary society.
Subsequent issues highlighted Street People, the Middle Generation, Youth and Children, just to name a few. The idea of focusing on a theme each month was later abandoned in order to have a wider coverage of events and personalities within each issue.
The Neighborhood Youth Corp (NYC) program was set up by the federal government after the 1965 Watts rebellion to keep the inner city youth occupied during the hot summer months. During the summer of 1971, Gidra "employed" three youths-Minako Kawahira, Glenn Oshima and Scott Nagatanithrough the NYC program for $2.00 an hour. Meanwhile, top. officials in NYC were pilfering a cool $2.7 million from program funds. High administrative costs.
And more people joined the staff too. Tom Okabe, Lloyd Tanaka, Kyoko Shibasaki, Teri Nitta and Tomo Hisamoto. Tomo, only fourteen at the time, wanted to be a Ninja (a spy during the samurai days in Japan who is said to have perfected the "art of invisibility") but he talked too loudly to be unnoticed and was too clumsy to be evasive. He dropped out of Dorsey High in the tenth grade, complaining that school was irrelevant. It wasn't that he resisted learning; he was always searching for new knowledge. He is still very inquisitive, and likes to talk, in fact some people say he talks too much. But he listens too, and asks questions. He is endowed with a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of things that most people know nothing about. One of the things Tomo did best was to remember where small but important items in the office were. Our office got pretty messy sometimes, and in the heat of the press run, we would misplace scissors, articles, checkbooks, and things like that, and Tomo would know where everything was. Most people talk about parts of his anatomy that are big: his mouth and his feet. But Tomo has a heart to match.
In July we took a major step to correct an internal problem that had perplexed us for two years. In order to break down that old hierarchy again, and so that we can develop leadership and organizational qualities among all, a system of rotating monthly "coordinators" was set up. The first two people to take on that responsibility were Doug Aihara and Jeff Furumura. They directed the entire operation of the staff and organized the contents of the July issue. We have worked with the system of coordinators ever since.