On December 10th, Calvin Manshio, longtime Chicago resident and a leader in the local Japanese-American community, was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation at a ceremony at the Japan America Society of Chicago's Annual Dinner. The Commendation, signed by Japan's Foreign Minister himself, Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, states,
Your contribution to the friendship between our country and the rest of the world through your proactive effort to promote mutual understanding between Japan and the United States of America is outstanding.
I pay you my deepest respect and commend you.
The sentiment is a testament to the significance of Mr. Manshio's tireless efforts at helping Japanese Americans in our community, while also strengthening the bond between the Midwest and Japan. As a president of the Japanese American Service Committee for four years, he boosted their services to first and second Japanese Americans in Chicago, as current president of the Japanese Mutual Aid Society of Chicago he has continued that legacy, and ensured dignity and respect for all generations of Japanese Americans in the city.
Meanhwhile, he has been a Chicago representative for four years at the annual Washington DC meeting of national Japanese and Japanese-American leaders, all the while maintaining a regular column in the Chicago Shimpo newspaper.
The e-Japan Journal recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Manshio about his many achievements, the future of the Japanese community in Chicago, and a particularly memorable brush with the Last Samurai, Saigo Takamori:
e-Japan Journal: Congratulations. How did it feel to be recognized for your many decades of service to Japanese-American relations?
Calvin Manshio: It's unexpected and I'm very humbled by it. Typically, when you do service, you don't expect a reward. They always say the reward is the service itself. It's always good to get recognition, though. In some ways it's embarrassing, because you don't want to get a reward for what you want to do.
EJJ: Which achievement from your many years of work are you the most proud of today?
CM: It's not the big things, it's the little things. It's helping the individuals out. We have many Japanese-Americans in the community who are very suspicious of the government, and when they get a notice they call me and I go and help out. It reminds me of my grandparents who were intimated by the system; helping them understand the process makes me feel good.
EJJ: Looking forward, what are your plans for the future of the Chicago Japanese American Council and the Japanese Mutual Aid Society of Chicago?
CM: I guess after so many years you come to the realization that the community is changing and I'm not sure all our institutions are recognizing the change. We have some organizations that stay the same, their members stay the same, and that's all right. But we have a lot of younger people who don't feel the institutions recognize their needs. We need institutions that recognize those needs.
It's hard; they don't come forward and tell you. The Japanese-American community is very closed in some ways, from a group point of view. In an individual point of view, many don't feel connected to the larger community. There’s a need to find some way to bring them into the Japanese-American community.
I found that at some point, most Japanese-Americans reflect on their heritage, after they're married and settle down, and want to learn about their parents and grandparents. They find out about internment, et cetera, and want to learn about their past relationships. Yet most Japanese information is in nihongo, and most Japanese-Americans don't speak nihongo. A lot of the history has been written by non Japanese-Americans, because they didn't write about themselves really. But that's changed, there's a big push to write about their experience lately. That's why I think 2010 is interesting; the JASC will be sponsoring an exhibit with the JASF about the Japanese contribution to the military intelligence war effort. It wasn't until the 70s or so that people felt comfortable talking about it. If you look at the history, Japanese interpreters were important to translating codes and things, but beyond that they knew about the culture and its structure, something which was very valuable to the Pacific campaign.
Also, the Japanese American Citizen's League is having their convention this year in Chicago. They focus on civil rights and legal actions.
Also, the local Chicago Japanese Historical Society is having a photo exhibit at the Field Museum which had been in Los Angeles. Happa is a Hawaiian term that means mixed blood. This photo exhibit is by Kip Fulbeck, and it shows a bunch of people with different mixed backgrounds. It stems from the idea that most Japanese-Americans, when you ask what their heritage is, they say Japanese, but no, they're saying lately that, “I’m Irish, Samoan, African-American.” Intermarriage in Hawaii is over 50% these days. 4th and 5th generation descendents are now partially Japanese, and the question is, how do they relate to their Japanese-American heritage?
The last thing is the 80th anniversary of the Japan America Society of Chicago. The friendship between the two countries in Chicago goes back at least 80 years. 80 years ago it was primarily business and educated people that really had an interest in the two countries. The impression these days is that it's mostly cultural exchange, but the JASC has done a lot lately to promote lifestyle aspects of the 2 cultures.
EJJ: Finally, do you have any advice or words of wisdom about Japan-America relations that you'd like to give to readers of the e-Japan Journal?
CM: I think we all don't take time to study things, so we develop certain preconceptions. I develop them about the US or Japan. It's always sort of interesting to look at Japan and the US and learn about the reality of the situation rather than the perceptions.
Now, I say this being someone who doesn't like travel, but actually being there provides perspective.
When I went to Japan, my uncles on my mom's side came from Kagoshima. The big guy from Kagoshima is Saigo Takamori, the samurai who led the Satsuma samurai rebellion against the central government.
If you go to most people from Kagoshima living in Chicago, they all had the Saigo Takamori doll, and I used to think that was strange, but I learned that this represents their pride and love of their origins.
When I went to Japan, one of the things I wanted to see was the Saigo Takamori statue in Ueno Park [in Tokyo.] It's like when you go to DC and you see Lincoln and Jefferson and everybody. And it's a very small park, but a substantial statue. It was interesting; everyone was walking by and not looking. It's interesting because I always felt so much kinship with Takamori and Kagoshima, and people in Japan less so. In Tokyo, when I finally saw it, I took a picture and the picture didn't come out; so my language teacher asked me "I'm going back to Japan, anyone want anything?" and I asked for that photo, and she got me one which was great.
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