Proud School of Language May Fall Silent

Since 1927, a tiny school in downtown Oxnard has been teaching Japanese Americans the language of their ancestors.

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Part of the historic Oxnard Buddhist Temple, it is the oldest-running language school in Ventura County, and thousands of people have learned to read, write and speak Japanese in its simple classrooms.

But with each successive generation of Japanese Americans, interest in learning Japanese--and the old tradition of the Oxnard Japanese Language School--is waning.

Enrollment has plummeted from 60 students six years ago to only 30 today, and supporters worry that the proud school--which survived the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II--may soon have to close its doors.

“The unstated purpose of this school is to try and instill some culture in these kids,” said Kazue Kitchens of Camarillo, a member of the school’s parents club. “That’s why we’re so concerned. There’s not much interest in this anymore.”

Despite the dwindling number of children, schoolteachers say they are buoyed by an emerging trend: Sansei, or third-generation Japanese Americans, are turning to the school in increasing numbers as adults, eager to regain contact with their culture and learn the language they disregarded in youth.

“I never learned Japanese and I regret it,” said 27-year-old Andrew Uyesato of Ventura. “Like everyone, you reach a point where you want to learn more about your ethnic background. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Seasonal farm work on the fertile Oxnard Plain attracted scores of Japanese immigrants to Ventura County around the turn of the century. Many settled in a small section of downtown Oxnard near Oxnard Boulevard, launching small businesses and farming leased land.

The immigrants sought to impart their cultural heritage to their children, and Buddhism became a vital conduit. The Showa Gakuen Japanese Language School (later simplified to Oxnard Japanese Language School) was founded by the Hashimoto, Kanamori, Tagami and Yeto families, who also helped bring the first Buddhist minister to Oxnard in 1929.

The classes were suspended during the wartime evacuation of Japanese Americans but resumed immediately after the school’s principal returned from the Gila River Relocation Center in 1945.

At its peak in the mid-1960s, the school, which meets on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, attracted about 140 students. But assimilation soon began to dilute the school’s core of students, and enrollment slowly sank.

“I keep hearing, ‘We have soccer practice’ or ‘We have music class,’ ” said Kitchens, whose daughters Emily, 8, and Alyssa, 10, attend the school. “It’s a real commitment to put another three hours of education a week into your kid’s life.”

This year, the school--which costs $18 a month to attend--has had to combine its class for children with its more advanced course for adolescents because of low enrollment. If it were not for the school’s annual teriyaki chicken fund-raiser, the school would have already closed for lack of funds, supporters say.

“We used to have more classes,” said 11-year-old Laura Maruyama, who has been attending the school for seven years. “Now I have to go into the smaller grades and sit in those dinky little chairs.”

Like many of the children at the school, Laura said her parents made her attend classes. But while she hated the intensive schoolwork at first, she has grown to appreciate what she has learned.

“It’s fun to learn the Japanese characters and talk in Japanese,” she said. “Then you can understand what your grandparents say.”

Carol Conner of Camarillo, a third-generation Japanese American, and her husband Geoff decided to learn Japanese so they could speak to Carol’s relatives in Japan. In Geoff Conner’s case, he at least wanted to understand.

“If we ever go to Japan, I want to know what her relatives are saying about me,” Geoff Conner said with an uneasy grin. “Not that I’m worried or anything.”

Maintaining a link between her children and her family in Japan is the reason Takiko Mathias takes her 5-year-old daughter, Linda, to the school.

“I send my daughter to Japan once a year to stay with my relatives, and if my daughter can’t speak with them, she can’t maintain a relationship with them,” Mathias said. “I think it’s important to keep those ties.”

Paul Sakai of Ventura said he wishes he had learned more than the few words of Japanese his parents taught him while he was growing up in Texas. At age 39, after a trip to Japan, he has decided it is not too late to learn.

“When I went to Japan and learned about my family history, it made me proud of my heritage,” Sakai said. “My grandparents came here with nothing on their backs. They were dirt poor, like the Mexican immigrants coming here now.

“I never would have done what they did--especially going to Texas. That took guts. I want to be in touch with my past, and to do that, I’ve got to learn the language.”