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Frlddy, Oct* 2»1981
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S^ii:iMexicoa,ofberitagfe
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By "ESTBBAN" NA<A$H〖AAA
Boarding the planeIn San F^ranclsco,  I  really did not know w|iat to expect of this first Panamerlcon Nikkei Convention. I knew of lis structure: ti  thi^^day $eries of worl^ミhops  involving peopie 子com allthe Americas, asort of c0Italy" foi* tross-cuitural meetings, What Iciicln't know was What "、expect々iF the people. Who Woulci( they be? Would   they  be receptive? Would、 th— ♦ coitimdn "round    for conversation? Would they be nsar.my—age? Sひrveyりg 6ur conUndent of aboutラO and finding myself one of fourぁnsei,lwds riot too sure about thelast two
When We arrWed (July 23)， the hot ?1lob by辨s in chaoき. It seems that the,:ratherire!ax-styl台：oipisもu^9 keys and assigning rooms broke down entirely when m。re tficm six people arrived qしonce. Our group,- now nリnrifcerjnすnearly IOO，simply sentthenrv into completepanic. The :ni&t i:e--sult was five very ，nfused hotd  employees confronting lOOgrumbling, tired Nikkeis.
Working politely and quietly behindthis scenario were Gic/ozen or sdof young Nikker from Mexico, patiently trying to register us for the conference. Thevr were doing their best to speak English toリs， although it was obviouslシnot their bestlanguage (registering the South American Niはei Was ho problem as they naturally spokeヽSpanish.) Communicati6n-bqrrier or not, the friendly, helpfuldssぉt曙 ance we received from the young Mexicoh Nikkei was reassuring.
Onqe the cor>fusion fiad sひbsicM， ， met theleacfer of the- MexicoりSbnsei, Yasuo Jic!cL )A/e tallied d?out oOf ex-pectatiQns of the ccmterence， his being very similar t6 mine, the deさire understand the differinglifestylesofSansei w6rld wide. I vy?is very hcifipシ to hear of sortiebody elさe with tKesofne hopes; vvf^t initidl ふi^bts ，Ikid were quickly erosecrwiththi$ man ond the 30: or $0 peopHe he Vi^e he id commbir g咖nd, age, Interest，， andoboveallthゥ Were fr，endly and receptive ,anxiously awaitedまe^ beglnhing of the conference.
維2Q2 23$>3333
I shoリ】d point out tトflt the rtext day ， beowne acquainted with t!Ve Sahselfrom other eQijmtrleV Steve Saganj one I keithAkada of Toronto were both quite tolerant of the antics of we Cdilfornia Sanse!, Ron Mcx;hizukr of Kakimazoo, wos found to be qui16 similar to west96aslSiansei. Unfortunately, there\A/eref^ Sanseiむom.South Aifieれaj, but the importgnt p pi fit is that eyerybbdy was 6p^'n :る"d friendly, Thatゾincludes many of the. Nisei tt91n !^uth Am 二
gap ofuip to 25: y貝ars， would 6reさt artcT c6hv©rse ,ith c6mpiさte stirangei^s. Th$re Was an atmosphere of genu in ， fellowship inthecjir.
The person rさsponslblもfor trcmslatina the schedule of events shouldlook up the word "wopksf)op"， Accor(iing to this schedule, the opening speech" were     be followed
by ''workshopi.''However， these woriksfiof^sゝmore closely reserHbledlectures; this wa$ fine for the first day.: By the second ddy， theseleetui"es had digressed Considerably. While t oppr—ate thee仔ort being made to inform me oflife in other countries, I could not become too excited about Peruvian waterways.
For me,- the most beneficial wor"hops were conducted iri-fornaally talking with other Sansei. This meant discussina prejudice inpリb!ic schoois with Steve and Ron over beers in the hot(jDqにOr it could mean chat ting with Midiiico and Harumi《f rom AAexico) while they were working at tfie tdbles in front of the aリditorium where otぉef woi^shops weretoklng |^lab?:
Truthfully,にl^ad to forego aゃ叩le of the formalvyorlc-沐ops for tトe infdnncilones, bリtldo not regrbt it. The ex-pbsure wosinvaluabje, J learnおa great dea〗，n these ぉri6f talks, I Wishに如d anotherwe^ just to talk.
When Mhmk <yf myself,化 ihternaUpngl"rir^s, I 。m de-finitely an American. This can ber s乓enIn the way I dress, walにth威，think this canぁe said oboij! allthe American
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Sdruei. We a re qu"eclearly Amおleans, c?nd th"is not rneantlnciclerogatQry sense, はis simply tfiat being born hゅ"are 'Ahiericahs, Ve arもno t J印an "e inAmeirlca, we ore Japaりese Americom. 化thesame"iise, "otmcJ the Canc1c!i(3ns to be theもame,
We as a gro叩,the: Noはh Anr\erkcm$, f?—avかslml!oト ly, ev扣looked "Westerniz-ed.，'外e M台xicprv,nse"h6v/: ever, are aIUUぶdifferent. They are all AAex!can citizens and do hot thir>k of them-
tlieir appeaぉnce anc;I fee-hひVior fQ'llo由much morp closely with that o:f Japair rathさr the in that力f tfie coun-try in whichtfielive.
Thb differeゅe was something greater than just clothing andわaはstyle. The Mexican Sansei wore the same designer jeans t ha I" nyI body pise w的rs. It was somethina in their iinannさrlsTTis, theire)(tre-me poUteness， ttietr expressions. はis di杆let;It to explain, t)ut when in the ,pi:eさもhce of t"eAAexican Sansei, '， sometimes felt Hlce' the bumbling American.
i have not had this feeling since ]thetime when I was the bumbMng American wandering In Tokyo*
The Mexican Sansei import an cjura of "Japanese" not found in their, contemporaries in the U nItさd States, Oaりcida， Peru, Colo mlbia or aiiyone else at the c6nfrence,lnfapt; I think that theM欲iccm Sanseimay have treated me vyith more Japanese courtesy than  thepeo}>le ，  met fn
:化genもrdl,mytdip to the Copdjiime ，81cohv印tton wds one of the most rewai"chng trips ir) my "fe. The cQljbre of the peoplりmetvvcis ex-c^lぉnt. This means allpeople allag然,fronrv allthe: courv-tries in att印darKe. I wos there only one \v^eic， yet ， ぉU that I f}ad knoN/vrtthe friertds卜IT1ode foryeti?s.
When departyretimecarne, J felt this stroiiぉhjmp.in my throat, dis^ if r W6re Iゃavlng myl"el9ng ffieric(s.，n r和lity， ，was.
きd Note: Steve (we called him Esteban， the Spahish for Steven, in Mexico) was pro-bobly the best educated JACleir in Spanish on tour, having studied " continuously from junior high through the university. He was seen freely co reversing with his newly-found Spanish-spectking Sansei friends in theirlanguoge.
Fro in The Frying^ Pan, • •
'、
K-9 Corps v& 25翻他
,y WLL HQS OK AW A Whaにfoll0)vs must qy糾fy (3is one々f J:hezaflierゅれes >f World yi^r礼れぁoiス(\ do WUh a IT old SWis( whゃカad a theotythp^ lijogfiぶoulf:H匈(9 taugM to seみ6u^t ofrid a "ack Jひpcmess soldiers by their sttien jn the jungleso^f the Soリtfrwe" Padi^ic, and the 25 Hawaii on N"ei who were detached fromき】加Aぉ-fcmU,y Battalion the in "oining i'りWiscons;n， to take part, in: (he experiment.
The  story h  told !rv MardvAprUl邻O  issue o〖
at ion of Club100 in fJoWati， whidivyas sent tilpng by fViehd,&:>hei Ycimate， H^e Ho* noKjluslockbrojker. So^eiIsひ story in himse!f. As gリarcl and in，erpretさf Cit Sugamo Pn'scm in Tolcyoci"arWorIcr War n， he b柳nnsカcquainレ edv/ithmcmy of theJapd-nese leaders who were l(*ie<i and executed os weirtれnrtin-。1にBut thなt's anc^ther tale.
The Puka-PijlcaPc?rade s纟ory i$ by YosuoTakcitci cmd Roy' mond M Osaka who wきre among the 25. On rv|o\/. 3: 1942， they w6r存flown wUh :great secreぷyむom Ccimp McCoy, Wis" to whatseemぉ lo be an obandonecT airslfip some>yhSre near thき AAissi"ippi River. boat took: then TV tp what theylot針learned was Ship IskmcT in Ifie^ Gulf of AAexkケcib9u1 20 nrUlぉoft Gulff)ort, Mぉs. Theyseはiecl into qO oldbpiけaiju type bu"ding at ancl節t Fori: AAti$sachusetts. Th" /tor the fksl Ume theyl的mきd they would be traveling by boat each dby toれeorby Cdt ，slanc;l，
to train sentryさ的s， sc^t
StotUlng and ser?try training was f(rtrly routl(ie, but the 。ttqck ーs wps 卿咖ng ehe. The authors
"To trdin a"なcfcdogs to hateus， we began bybeaUrtg onedog a time chclined: to e> tree, withd l?m)Ued burlap bag Cbn you 、m09inet"e db^ grbWling， snorting on<|spfirtg-ing at yoリevery time you hU hfmW"habvrkip bag! H didn't toke toolong before the dogs were growling and
pOUing 0" thゃlr (:hains when they saw uミcomtng.i Going ホroリgh (hi sV pro cess we had noゃrotiBcUon   e«;epl qIji"
.fatigue clothes.
，，lrV the n争xi proc的Siき3 do-1eかned   to  bitさtぉ6
.knotted  bu"cip  fc的S, TM$ ,t!mfrwe used a h(5)meiwUhQ
hockey gloves. We held the 'Jmo(t|Bclburlorf> in frorU of oUr MC", then ロVthe，raln^^、 com，cl of 'Kin, KlまJth攀 dog would〖ushthe knotted burlap ot 一 iieclc. The dog wQulcl bite it anti tiy to r|pに away ♦,:
"Theattock cbgs' w柳如st beginning toリndeiistcmcl tWr mission U> when the h的d trmひer — the o)kJ Swissー was Qslced toleave afler the biさshots from Washington !rupei:tecJ our program • ..The hlgiiCO m mar id finallゾcorv dvided that the Buddaheads from Hawaii did not secrete d peculiar odor of their natur-Oflancestors. They forgot to feed us 'chozuke, koko and takuwan (rヒs with tea and pungem picked vegetable"?'
The Nisei worked only a few houi> morning qndafter-noon，wh比hleft them plenty of自eねand rdce up oystefs to supplement fare.二One day i coゅle of tVie men fowed out to buy several buckets of shH^np fr<^ a fisherman for a te?mpura feast. Sho"ly so me off则Is shoWぉ up to investigate reports of stronge soldiers, possibly Jqf)anese,lanclぉザrom asub-
CoいWand Was"ocked v^dthdthree-monUv svfjpiy of iieer. ，t was us eel up in three ，的lcs because, theauthoM "sure lis? "the drinking water was '—dcish, si;lphiir tosta 加d smelled HkeんUen柳s". By the Ume tl^e dog trqiners re(joined their biidd!ぉwith th, HX)th, they Were soixaめy over weゆt frorrl go^ food 加d HirmecJ dutythot" too> them o while to catch up. Their commahchng o附cer, AAc^Jlm to ye H, observed not l卿qgo如t the ''hate'J op" training forthedogs, the theory tbatbloocl ancT sweat smelled different oneむom onother， wos a to化lfanure.
But now neorly 40 ytaは later, it makes a good story.
股THE NEW GANUHAN爐湖 BEST RESULTS FROM THE J, 11GOMMWUTY
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テンベラシス街1二番地
匚
匚匸