☆ Silicon Valley Obon Festival celebrates the past
Image of Bon Odori in Japan, August 2014 by jinkemoole, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Local historian April Halberstadt notes that this weekend, July 12–13, all of us in Santa Clara County have a unique opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our Japanese neighbors at the annual Obon Festival. Halberstadt also explores the difficult times and unfairness early Asian American immigrants to California had to overcome. An Opp Now exclusive.
San Jose is home to America’s only authentic Japantown with buildings and businesses preserved by caring friends during the World War II internments. Our Japantown sits on the foundation of a former Chinatown, one of many enclaves of Chinese workers in Santa Clara Valley that have disappeared. Chinese workers were driven out of the local community, but the Japanese have persevered. Why did the Chinese community seem to have such a difficult time, while the Japanese prospered? The answers lie in the timing of immigration and the Japanese ability to assimilate.
San Jose likes to pride itself on its ethnic diversity and its racial tolerance. This was not always the case. For example, the authors of the California Constitution, written in 1850, did not bother to debate the slavery question. California would be a "free state." There would be no slavery in California; end of discussion. Move on to the next issue.
While the local residents and Californios who were present in 1850 were happy with freedom, newcomers to California brought their prejudicial attitudes and practices with them. Hoping to do well in the gold mines, some brought slaves from their home state; others tried to enslave local Native Americans. It would take litigation and some California Supreme Court decisions to restore balance. Racial prejudice, primarily from newcomers, would be hard to erase.
In 1852, the California census revealed that the Chinese were the largest local immigrant population. The Irish were the second group; the Germans were third. Reasons for their migrations can be attributed to famine and wars in their native countries. Many people immigrated with the help of labor contractors, the Tongs for the Chinese and Indenture Contracts for the Irish.
Chinese labor was essential to the success of the rapidly expanding City of San Jose. They were the primary source of labor for road-building and construction for the little pueblo. A few years they were working on the California railroads, first the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad, completed in 1864, and later on the transcontinental Union Pacific. They built many of the County roads, including the torturous road to Mt. Hamilton, completed in 1876. Ugly political activity, particularly the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, limited the flow of Chinese to California and other areas on the West Coast. The San Jose Chinatowns were burned by activists. The sandlot orators who insisted on the exclusion laws were ignorant of the realities of the labor market. Farmers and industrialists soon needed to look elsewhere for labor.
Few histories discuss the important role of labor contractors. As immigration laws limited Chinese workers, contractors turned to both Japanese and Filipino workers. Japanese workers were allowed to bring their wives, or were allowed to send for them. The Japanese had many virtues as workers; perhaps they learned what not to do from the Chinese. By 1890, Japanese workers began flooding into Hawaii and California.
One of the most important qualities of the Japanese was their apparent willingness to convert to Christianity and to learn the English language. The expression “heathen Chinese” was once frequently used, implying they could not be trusted because they were not baptized. In contrast, Japanese were seen to make every effort to assimilate, wearing American clothes and learning American customs. They were perceived as a hard-working, thrifty group, in contrast with perceptions of the Chinese, who were frequently stereotyped as gambling and using opium.
During the height of the anti-Chinese activity in San Jose, German investor John Heinlen built a walled city, three blocks long and two blocks wide, to protect local Chinese from harm. The property centered along Jackson Street and included the area between North 4th to North 7th Streets. There was a watchman at night, and the entrance was gated. The little walled city included shops and housing as well as a temple. A replica of the temple can be found today at History San Jose. It is home to its original altar, which was salvaged and restored.
The community, sometimes called Heinlenville, was later taken over by the Japanese community. Like the Chinese, they would come to collect mail and buy groceries and other necessities on their weekends. They expanded their community and built a hospital and a theater named Okida Hall. Their crowning achievement in the 1930s was the construction of their Buddhist Temple, located at 640 North 5th Street.
The San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin is the host of the Obon Festival, but the entire community reaches out to celebrate. The Wesley Methodist Church is a block away at 566 North 5th and is also a participant, along with the Japanese-American Museum of San Jose and the local business community. We all have ancestors. This is the weekend to celebrate their presence in our lives.
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