VC Connect #19: Which Way, Little Tokyo?

Welcome to VC CONNECT, an online destination through which just some of the hundreds of films and media productions created by Visual Communications can be found for your enjoyment. Featured films include some of our VC Classics, as well as films made in the Digital Histories production program for older adults and the Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Artists. Each week, we’ll roll out a new batch, specially themed for our audience’s diverse cinematic palate. Click here to watch the complete showcase.

Monday Nite VC: Which Way, Little Tokyo?

Post-WWII community “re-development” initiatives have created waves of disruption, casting the vitality of Los Angeles Little Tokyo in doubt. In this program curated in cooperation with the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund and featuring many highlights from our Digital Histories production program for older adults, we cast an observant eye on our community-builders and institutions that no longer exist, and hold out hope for a brighter future.

We hosted a special Monday Nite VC conversation on Monday, October 5, 2020 at 4pm PT featuring Bill Watanabe of the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund, Digital Histories filmmakers Robert Shoji and Steve Nagano, and special guests Patty Nagano and Miya Iwataki as they highlighted measures being undertaken by stakeholders to advocate for long-term solutions to protect the character and legacy of Little Tokyo. Watch the recording below.

This Monday Nite VC presentation is part of the LT@Home series, via the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Visual Communications’ home is Little Tokyo. We are grateful for our local partners who have provided spaces for us to gather during decades of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Because we are unable to connect in person, we present our LT@Home series of bringing stories of Little Tokyo to your home. Click here to learn more.

Thank you to the following sponsors for their ongoing support of the Digital Histories program: AARP, The Aratani Foundation, Keiro, Union Bank, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sundance Institute, and West One Music Group.

Funding for VC CONNECT has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan of 2020.

1970s: THE FIGHT FOR LITTLE TOKYO (2019) by Visual Communications
Produced from rarely-seen still and moving image resources culled from the Visual Communications Archives, 1970s: THE FIGHT FOR LITTLE TOKYO recalls the redevelopment struggle and the fight for housing, social services, equal pay, and the future of Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo community through first-hand accounts by activists and Little Tokyo community stakeholders including Evelyn Yoshimura, Mark Masaoka, David Monkawa, and Lucien Kubo.

FINDING OUR PLACE (2007) by Chicky Otani
An interview with Brian Kito, longtime proprietor of Little Tokyo institution Fugetsu-do (a nearly 110-year-old confectioner’s shop), foregrounds the issues facing the community due to the ever-shifting demographics of the city.

GONE (2019) by Robert Shoji
We often don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Take a look at present-day Little Tokyo and the changes taking place. The question: Will we stand by until Little Tokyo is GONE, or will we stand up and fight for the future of our community?

HOME IS LITTLE TOKYO (2019) by Steve Nagano
Artist Tony Osumi reveals how the Little Tokyo mural along Central Avenue, "Home is Little Tokyo" originated, the processes involved in its creation, and the story behind its images.

KATO SEWING MACHINE STORE (2011) by Hideko Ibaraki
A tour through the Sewing Machine Gallery reveals interesting stories about the store owners.

LITTLE TOKYO TOWER (2010) by Hideko Ibaraki
An inside look at Little Tokyo Towers and its inhabitants, as told by one of its residents.

NO VACANCY (1986) by Noami Hirahara
Inspired in part by investigative reports initiated through her tenure as a reporter for The Rafu Shimpo, Naomi Hirahara’s 1986 documentary NO VACANCY profiles two Asian American middle-aged men who, faced with the depletion of low-cost housing, find ways to survive in downtown’s Little Tokyo and Chinatown. This documentary, which contains footage of the razing of Little Tokyo’s Alan Hotel (now a market-priced block-wide housing complex), offers a poignant view of a segment of Asian American underclass that is rarely talked about. Produced as part of Visual Communications' Filmmakers Development Program.

THE UYEDA FAMILY (2005) by Genevieve Lew
Through the Uyeda family history, the filmmaker examines the evolution of Little Tokyo, geographic dislocation, and the meaning of family.

THE UYEDA FAMILY: GROWING UP IN JAPANESE TOWN (2009) by Genevieve Lew
This follow-up to the director’s earlier THE UYEDA FAMILY offers a brief history of a prominent Japanese American family in Little Tokyo before internment.

DOWNTOWN L.A. COMMUNITY HEALTH DAY (1971) by Visual Communications
Initially untitled, this reel of black & white footage documents the first community health day held for residents in the Downtown Los Angeles area, specifically Weller Court in Little Tokyo. Organized by a coalition of activists working with Japanese American Community Services’ Asian Involvement (JACS-AI) initiative, the Community Health Day brought together a wide range of public health, social service, and cultural organizations to engage chronically-underserved Little Tokyo-area residents and stakeholders. This silent footage by VC co-founder Robert A. Nakamura observes one of the first community health days to be organized by area community organizers and nonprofit workers.