By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
If the recent Abercrombie and Fitch T-shirts depicting negative
stereotypes of Asians represents the continuing racism against
“the model minority,” then “Pearls on
Sand,” a choral concert about the Japanese American
experience, hopes to provide an antidote.
The concert, which will take place at Schoenberg Hall on
Saturday, features the Los Angeles Chamber Singers doing works by
Toru Takemitsu, faculty composers Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse as
well as former and current UCLA students. Though focused mainly on
Japanese culture, the concert distinguishes itself as not
representing Japan itself.
“This is not a program about Japanese music. It’s
about Japanese Americans. That’s a very special
subculture,” said Paul Chihara, a music composition professor
who also maintains a career as a film and concert composer.
Chihara is a “nissei,” or a first-generation child
of Japanese American immigrants. For him, the racism against Asian
Americans was all too real. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin
Roosevelt signed Executive Decision 9066, allowing for the
relocation of Japanese Americans, many of whom were citizens.
“They took my father away at the beginning of the war. I
never saw him until after the war,” said Chihara, who was
only four years old at the time. “I remember mom crying
because daddy wasn’t there.”
Yet Chihara’s piece, “Minidoka” (named after
the place in Idaho where Chihara’s family was relocated), is
not a political statement nor is it a straight-forward elegy of
victimization. In fact, Chihara retains fondness for his years at
Minidoka.
“For me, it was like summer camp that lasted for four
years,” Chihara said. “I remember that I didn’t
want to leave and I wanted to go back. After we got used to it, we
were safe. But in white society, I was the only Asian in my class
and everyone was very hostile because of the war against the
“˜Japs.'”
“We were aware of the atrocities at Nanking,”
Chihara added, referring to Japan’s invasion of China in
1931. “On one hand we were victimized by relocation, but our
cousins were over there victimizing others. It was this strange
identity crisis. We were both proud and ashamed of our country at
the same time.”
While an important aspect, the concert is not just about war.
Krouse’s “River of Stars” uses erotic poetry text
from contemporary Japanese women poets. Korean Kay Rhie, a graduate
composition major, uses her piece to comment on Japan from a Korean
perspective.
The encore will be a choral medley of various musicals about
Japan. Titled “Japan on Broadway,” Chihara has arranged
Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado,” Stephen
Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures,” and
Chihara’s own musical, “Shogun,” into a piece
that shows how stereotypes of Asians have progressed on the
Broadway stage.
“We’re changing and softening the stereotypes or
maybe we’re creating new ones, but at least it’s
becoming more a part of the focus,” Chihara said.