Nikkei Student Unions thriving on college campuses

By Elise Takahama

It’s more than basketball and boba.

To many Japanese American college kids in California — or students interested in JA culture — those are big draws of the Nikkei Student Union. But members like Kayla Tanaka say she’s a different person now because of NSU.

“It’s important to have a space, whether it’s a physical or emotional space, to be connected with your community and the people who understand your family’s past,” said Tanaka, a senior at UC Riverside and current president of the Southern California Intercollegiate Nikkei Counsel (INC), which governs the 12 NSU chapters in the state.

The group, made up of college students from each of the dozen NSU chapters, usually meets monthly to plan organization-wide events or go over updates from each school. This year, the Nikkei student group is introducing a new event: Mr. INC.

It’s their take on a pageant show, Tanaka said. Each school will choose a male representative to answer questions related to the JA community, show off unique talents and more. At the end of the night, a panel of judges will decide who takes the Mr. INC crown home.

Mr. INC

The event is scheduled to take place in May 2020 at Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo. Most of the details are still in progress, she said, but families and community members are invited to come.

“It’s really just fun — nothing too serious,” she said.  

The goal, she said, is to expand the organization’s fundraising efforts for a local Nikkei nonprofit by building on a student talent show hosted annually by the INC executive board. Last year, they donated to Okaeri, a Nikkei LGBTQ organization. This year, they chose the Zentoku Foundation, a new nonprofit aimed at preserving and sharing stories about Japanese Americans.

“For us to understand how far our community has pushed to get to where it is and to be able to provide all these resources for us ... it’s important for us to be appreciative and be able to pass it on to the next generation of college students,” Tanaka said. “You don’t want to regret not recording someone’s history.”

It’s a lesson she learned through NSU. After becoming involved and further integrating herself into Nikkei culture, she started reaching out to her grandparents more, inquiring about their past.

Her great-grandfather left Japan when he was 14 years old, she said, ended up in Mexico, then walked to California. He opened up a grocery store in South Torrance and has been there ever since.

Before joining NSU, Tanaka said she didn’t interact nearly as much with the JA community.

She joined the club when she walked onto UCR’s campus as a freshman because a friend recommended it. She thought she’d be a casual member — but three years later, she’s found herself at the helm of the entire organization.

Volunteering

And while bonding comes naturally through sports tournaments and late-night dessert runs, Tanaka said members volunteer at summer Obons, help out during Nisei Week, facilitate conversations about JA history and participate in an annual pilgrimage to Manzanar In during the February week Executive Order 9066 was issued.

“It’s helped me grow a lot,” she said. “I feel a lot more tied to the community.”

While INC brings in all members for a handful of organization-wide events every year — like Mr. INC — each school’s chapter has its own budget and set of events, Tanaka said, including welcome picnics and recruitment events.

At UCLA’s weekly NSU meetings, members often have group discussions about issues close to the community, such as gentrification in Little Tokyo or what it means to be Nikkei, said Nicole Oshima, the Bruins chapter president.

“I didn’t have a good sense of community or culture growing up, other than in my family,” said Oshima, who said there weren’t many JA students at her Pasadena high school.

When she was in 11th grade, her grandmother encouraged her to get involved with Kizuna, a Little Tokyo nonprofit that creates educational, cultural and leadership youth programs.

“Being around people who shared similar experiences was really cool because that was the first time I had done that — learning about the history of Little Tokyo, meeting people that were really similar to me, coming to terms with Japanese American identity, rather than Japanese identity,” Oshima said.

The first NSU chapter — called Tomo No Kai — was created at UC Irvine about 40 years ago. UCLA’s group popped up four years later. In 1995, USC also founded a chapter.

Today INC represents Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, San Diego State University, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and USC.

The chapters are growing rapidly, Tanaka said.

While Southern California chapters have historically had more members, Northern California schools are starting to join the fold — including San Francisco State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which are both launching their new chapters this year.

“If we don’t have people who are taking the initiative to keep the JA community, we’ll see it start to decline,” said Timothy Chuman, one of the co-founders of SLO’s chapter, which will launch later this quarter.

Chuman, a freshman studying communications, said he grew up playing baseball and basketball in Asian leagues, and started participating in Kizuna programs and interning for the JA newspaper Rafu Shimpo in high school.

He’s eager to see how his chapter develops, knowing he has the support of other schools’ chapters at his side. Right now, he’s focusing on planning their first event, the Day of Remembrance to honor the anniversary of Executive Order 9066.

“There’s a sense of responsibility to fill the shoes of the people who have come before us,” Chuman said. “There’s a lot of things from our story — from World War II to everything that happened after — and the perseverance we showed that are things to be proud of, and things we should model our lives today after.”

For more information about Zentoku, click here.