Minn Matsuda | |
---|---|
Born | 31 May 1911 |
Died | 6 August 2003 (aged 92) |
Works | Asian Americans for Action |
Shizu "Minn" Matsuda (1911-2003) was a Japanese-American activist and known for being a co-founder of Asian Americans for Action (also known as "AAA" or "Triple A"). In 1969, inspired by the Back Power Movement, with her friend Kazu Iijima (1918-2007), a survivor of the Japanese-American Internment Camp, Matsuda co-founded the New York-based AAA, one of the first U.S. East Coast pan-Asian organizations promoting the awareness of pan-Asian identity and heritage, civil rights, and equality. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Matsuda was born in Seattle, Washington in 1911. At some point, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and earned an art undergraduate degree at the California School of Arts and Crafts in 1933. She received some recognition for her watercolor paintings. [7] [8] She worked for a time for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the federal art project. [9] In Salt Lake City, Utah, Matsuda managed to find a job creating ads for a retail store despite hostility toward people of Japanese heritage. [10] Her artwork from the WPA was a part of an exhibit at the Utah State Arts Center in 1939. [9]
Matsuda and Iijima, the co-founders of the AAA, had met each other in California prior to World War II, during which the signing of the U.S. Executive Order 9066 that placed Japanese-Americans living in the West Coast under internment. Unlike her co-founder Kazu Iijima, Matsuda avoided the mass incarceration since she had already moved inland to Utah by the time of the Japanese-American internment. [10] To Matsuda, this historic event had a long and strong impact on her even decades after. [10]
The pan-Asian activism had been growing post-war and was inspired by the preceding Black Power movement. In 1968, the term "Asian American" was brought up by an academic in the West Coast, followed by multiple Asian-American movements throughout 1968-69. [2] In 1969, Matsuda and Iijima co-founded AAA in New York City inspired by the Black Power movement. [1] [11] [12] The women originally conceived of an organization focused on Japanese-American identity, but were convinced by Iijima's son, Chris Iijima, to make it pan-Asian, that is to bring together activists from all Asian American groups. [13] The AAA is community-based and aimed to promote the Asian heritage, especially among younger population.Its scope expanded from awareness of cultural heritage to civil rights, women's rights and equality. [14]
The organization's first meeting was held in New York City April 6, 1969. [15] Tthe first members of AAA included activist Yuri Kochiyama. [12] According to Iijima, AAA began with two old ladies sitting on a park bench worrying about their children's future. [1] Matsuda was approximately 58 and Iijima about 51 when they set up the organization. By that time, both women had already been involved in pro-Asian movements for many years. To enlist members, the women approached persons of Asian descent at rallies protesting the Vietnam War. The war, which they considered an act of American aggression, became the first cause they espoused. They also protested the renewal of the United States-Japan Security Treaty which allowed for American military bases on Japanese soil, including Okinawa. [13] The AAA continued to evolve and became known as "Union of Activists" in 1976. However, due to loss of membership to possibly more radical organizations, the pan-Asian organization dissolved within a decade. [16] Nevertheless, throughout the decades, AAA had an impact on the Asian American activism, which became increasingly professionalized with focuses including cultural/heritage preservation and civil rights. [14]
Matsuda was a witness of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. [10] In her ninth-floor residence, she personally witnessed the second jet striking the tower. [10] In an interviewed piece by Chisun Lee, Matsuda recounted her shocking experience in connection to the traumatic memory of the Japanese-American Internment during Ward War II. She believed that the post-9/11 government put Muslim Americans under the watch, just as the Japanese-American Internment. Matsuda raised concerns of how the political climate might have normalized and perhaps promoted racial discrimination. [10]
Matsuda passed away on August 6, 2003 at the age of 92. [17]
Little Tokyo, also known as Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnically Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. It is the largest and most populous of only three official Japantowns in the United States, all of which are in California. Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, sometimes called Lil' Tokyo, J-Town, Shō-Tōkyō (小東京), is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California. It was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995.
The Japanese American Citizens League is an Asian American civil rights charity, headquartered in San Francisco, with regional chapters across the United States.
Yuri Kochiyama was an American civil rights activist. Influenced by her Japanese-American family's experience in an American internment camp, her association with Malcolm X, and her Maoist and Islamic beliefs, she advocated for many causes, including black separatism, the anti-war movement, reparations for Japanese-American internees, and the rights of political prisoners.
The Rafu Shimpo is a Japanese-English language newspaper based in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California and is the largest bilingual English-Japanese daily newspaper in the United States. As of February 2021, it is published online daily. In print publication is only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Nisei Week is an annual festival celebrating Japanese American (JA) culture and history in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Nisei means 2nd generation in Japanese, describing the first American born Japanese, a group which the seven-day festival was originally meant to attract. Though named for the Nisei generation, Nisei Week is no longer targeted at Niseis, nor is the festival still contained within a week. Nisei Week Foundation president for 2006, Michelle Suzuki, described the festival as "the opportunity for people of all backgrounds to celebrate Japanese heritage and culture".
People from Japan began emigrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Japanese immigration to the Americas started with immigration to Hawaii in the first year of the Meiji era in 1868.
Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants. The Nisei are considered the second generation and the grandchildren of the Japanese-born immigrants are called Sansei, or third generation. Though nisei means "second-generation immigrant", it often refers to the children of the initial diaspora, occurring in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and overlapping with the G.I. and silent generations.
Yonsei is a Japanese diasporic term used in countries, particularly in North America and in Latin America, to specify the great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants (Issei). The children of Issei are Nisei. Sansei are the third generation, and their offspring are Yonsei. For the majority of Yonsei in the Western hemisphere, their Issei ancestors emigrated from Japan between the 1880s and 1924.
Chris Kwando Iijima (1948–2005) was an American folksinger, educator and legal scholar. He, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin, were the members of the group Yellow Pearl; their 1973 album, A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America (originally recorded on Paredon Records now Smithsonian Folkways was an important part of the development of Asian American identity in the early 1970s.
George Katsumi Yuzawa was a Japanese-American community activist. He was involved in numerous social and political causes fighting racial discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans, providing aid for senior citizens, and organizing Japanese cultural events around New York City.
Frances Kazuko Hashimoto was an American businesswoman, schoolteacher, and social activist. She was a key figure and proponent of Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood. She was the head of Mikawaya confectionery company since 1970, where Hashimoto, the inventor of mochi ice cream, also introduced the dessert to American consumers.
The Asian American Movement was a sociopolitical movement in which the widespread grassroots effort of Asian Americans affected racial, social and political change in the U.S., reaching its peak in the late 1960s to mid-1970s. During this period Asian Americans promoted anti-war and anti-imperialist activism, directly opposing what was viewed as an unjust Vietnam war. The American Asian Movement (AAM) differs from previous Asian American activism due to its emphasis on Pan-Asianism and its solidarity with U.S. and international Third World movements such as the Third World Liberation Front.
Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz is an American artist and art educator; her paintings depict her memories of a childhood during the Japanese American internment.
The Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution is celebrated on January 30 in California and a growing number of additional states to commemorate the birthday of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist best known for resisting the internment of Japanese Americans. It also recognizes American civil liberties and rights under the Constitution of the United States. It is the first day in U.S. history named after an Asian American.
Grayce Uyehara, née Kaneda, was a Japanese-American social worker and activist who led the campaign for a formal government apology for Japanese-American internment during World War II.
Kazu Iijima was a Japanese American activist and community organizer who was a co-founder of Asian Americans for Action and the United Asian Communities Center.
Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto is a Japanese American folk singer, songwriter, author, and activist in the Asian American Movement. She was a member of the band Yellow Pearl along with Chris Kando Iijima and Charlie Chin. They are known for co-creating the 1973 folk album A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America. This album is considered the first Asian-American album in history. She was a member of the band Warriors of the Rainbow during the late 1970s.
Chizu Iiyama was a Japanese American activist, social worker, and educator active in the Redress Movement, desegregation in Chicago, and other causes. She is best known for her contributions to the Japanese American Redress Movement, which sought to obtain reparations and a formal apology from the United States government for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
In 1969, Shizuko "Minn" Matsuda and Kazu Iijima founded the Asian Americans for Action (Triple A or AAA) in New York City. The two women were inspired by the Black Power movement and originally planned a Japanese American political and social action movement, but ultimately chose to make it a pan-Asian organization, inviting members of all Asian ethnic groups to join. The story goes that it was Iijima's son, Chris Iijima, who convinced them to broaden their focus.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)