CSUN Students to Present Materials on History of the Valley's Early Nisei

The Northridge students will participate in an event hosted by the Friends of the Lopez Adobe that will feature a photo exhibit by Cynthia Alarcón-Negrete titled "Long Journey Home" that portrays the lives of four Japanese Americans from the Valley who were interned during World War II.

The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 16, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Las Palmas Recreation Center, 505 Huntington St. in the city of San Fernando. The event also will enable viewers to experience the Manzanar War Relocation Camp in its current state.

About 3,200 Japanese Americans lived in the San Fernando Valley prior to their internment during World War II. Most were farming families who struggled to earn a living in an era of intense racism.

Falsely suspected as being the enemy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many had burned or buried their family photos and documents, or those materials became lost during their forced relocation to internment camps. The event gives visibility to this very important part of local Valley history that has not been well documented.

The photos and oral histories collected by the Northridge students focus on second-generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) who lived and farmed in the San Fernando Valley from the 1910s to the 1950s.

After noting the under-documentation of the Japanese American experience in the Valley while researching her family's roots, Nancy Takayama, who has been involved with the Japanese American Community Center in Pacoima, brought to the department's attention the need and importance to document Nisei life stories that will be lost if not recorded.

The CSUN project is headed by Asian American studies professor Edith Chen. The project is seeking more people who can talk about the Japanese American experience in the Valley prior to the 1950s. That includes the role of Japanese American women as well as Japanese American and Mexican American relationships.