{"id":85,"date":"2019-03-15T11:03:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T18:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/?p=85"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:33:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T17:33:45","slug":"baseball-helped-a-japanese-immigrant-find-his-place-in-postwar-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/baseball-helped-a-japanese-immigrant-find-his-place-in-postwar-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball helped a Japanese immigrant find his place in postwar America"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.6″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_padding=”0px||0px|”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.6″ src=”https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/03\/Hafsa_s_story.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_audio _builder_version=”3.6″ title=”Listen to Charles Igawa talk about his journey to America and how he was chosen to play baseball at his local college. ” audio=”https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/03\/HAFSA_Charles.mp3″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.6″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.6″]<\/p>\n

As he walked through the bustling plaza of the Little Tokyo Mall in Los Angeles, Dr. Itsuki Charles Igawa pointed out how significantly the neighborhood had changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this is privately owned already, no longer is the hands of Japanese-Americans,\u201d he said gesturing to the buildings around him. \u00a0The area once extended all the way to Koreatown, he claimed. \u201cA lot of Japanese settled there post-war, along Olympic Boulevard. All those things changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired professor has witnessed these transformations first hand. As an active member of Little Tokyo\u2019s community since the 1950s, he is a repository of facts about the small, but thriving Japanese-American community. One of his first jobs was as a store clerk at a drugstore, a few streets away.<\/p>\n

Defining himself as a \u201cpost-war transplant\u201d in the United States, Igawa came to this community to find a home. In an America after World War II, identity and belonging were hard concepts to grapple with for the Japanese-American community — they were put in internment camps by the U.S. government in response to the Pearl Harbor attacks.<\/p>\n

Igawa was born and raised in the Hiroshima Prefecture, about 90 miles away from where the atom bomb was dropped on August 6 1945. The area Igawa lived was far enough from the main city that he said he was not affected by the attack.<\/p>\n

At the age of 5, Igawa\u2019s father died from typhus. His widowed mother\u2019s economic hardship was a contributing factor that pushed him to leave. Igawa also came from a line of Shinto priests, a calling that never suited him. The United States offered reprieve from all of it.<\/p>\n

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Igawa\u2019s boyhood days in Japan. (Photo credit: Charles Igawa)<\/p><\/div>\n

At the time, his aunt and cousins lived in the United States. But in the midst of the war, they were interned at the Tule Lake concentration camp in Northern California.<\/p>\n

Upon their release, Igawa\u2019s cousins returned to Japan for a short time. Among them was his cousin Hiro, who Igawa remembered as an \u201can older brother,\u201d filling the void of his deceased father. Igawa said Hiro impacted the family in many ways, most significantly, inspiring Igawa to make his way to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did everything he did at that time,\u201d he laughed, then speaking of how Hiro returned to the United States at 15, earning a full scholarship to Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became an idol very, very quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up wanting to be like him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Igawa was familiar with Elvis Presley, rock n roll, the usual trappings of the American dream.<\/p>\n

But post-war Japan was a \u201cmodern marvel,\u201d he said, with the glistening city of Tokyo rivaling any metro in the West. Americana was not alien to Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan was a very important country in the 19th century,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew enough [about America.] I read. So my world vision was not isolated.\u201d So Igawa said that he didn\u2019t want to chase the Elvis version of an American dream, instead he was hoping to be a writer.<\/p>\n

It took 19 days for the boat Igawa was on to cross the Pacific, docking in San Pedro, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica? Big!\u201d he said of his first impressions. \u201cCalifornia? Bright! So bright it was almost blinding, because I arrived in the summer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Igawa attended Cambria Adult School, where early immigrants learned about \u201cAmerican values and culture,\u201d he said. \u00a0He was scouted playing softball, and brought on to play varsity baseball at the Los Angeles City College, where he was a catcher.<\/p>\n

From the onset, English was a struggle was a struggle for Igawa, but not in baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cCatcher is a commanding post,\u201d he said. \u201cYou give a signal to every pitcher, the language doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n

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Igawa (second from right) found a passion in playing baseball. (Photo credit: Charles Igawa)<\/p><\/div>\n

He eventually built a camaraderie with his teammates, and a particular act of kindness from a teammate stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good Christian boy who give me $6 of meal money,\u201d he said. At this time, Igawa was almost broke. He was having trouble finding and keeping a job. \u201cHe would put it in my locker every day. I refused it for three weeks, but finally accepted it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Igawa\u2019s \u00a0first job was fished from an L.A Times classified listing, as a house boy in Studio City with the Frost family. His employer, Mr. Frost, had no children, and welcomed Igawa\u2019s company. Frost\u2019s wife felt differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the day one that I was there, I wasn\u2019t wanted by the Mrs.,\u201d he said. Her dislike of him was obvious. \u00a0\u201cI was the second smartest boy in the house, and the smartest was the dog, Duke,\u201d he laughed. \u201cShe would always compare me to him, \u2018Duke, you are a good boy. Itsuki, he\u2019s a bad boy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His stay at the Frosts\u2019 came to an end when he came home at 3 a.m, after a Halloween party. \u201cI was canned that night,\u201d he remembered.<\/p>\n

He tried his hand at a dishwasher at a local restaurant, only to also be fired a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she [the owner] thought I wasn’t fast enough in doing whatever she assigned me to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI was hardly eating at that time, I was probably as quick as I might have been with proper diet and a regular sleep pattern. I was just a step away from being homeless then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singing too loudly at his next job, working at the kitchens at Imperial Garden, a Japanese restaurant, was \u201cnot tolerated\u201d by the chef. He was fired once again.<\/p>\n

It was an unusual start for a man who would dedicate the rest of his life to research and academia. Through it all, he remained optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a saying in Japanese,\u201d he said. \u201cYou fall down seven times, but I get up eight times. That\u2019s how I live my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, he made his way to study at Cal State L.A., where he began to study political science. It was his professor there that dramatically changed the course of his career. Dr. Fleming saw promise in Igawa, pushing him to pursue a Ph.D in political science at the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI began to look at community studies, \u2018What is community in an American context?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that was when I discovered the history of immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n

His studies focused intensely on the generations of Japanese-Americans in the United States, like his own family. It was Igawa\u2019s love for writing that drew him to America which continues today. He is currently writing a memoir he hopes to eventually publish in Japanese, while the other focuses on what it means to be a post-war transplant like himself.<\/p>\n

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Igawa (far right) started his American education at Cambria Adult School. (Photo Credit: Charles Igawa)<\/p><\/div>\n

Now retired in Cerritos, Igawa is also a member of the Little Tokyo Historical Society. His years in the United States have forged a dual identity, proudly American and Japanese, all part of a journey well-lived. But was it all worth it for him?<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing here in the United States in the 60s, 70s, as a minority, it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also very challenging. You will begin to say, \u2018Did I make the right choice?\u2019 But once you begin to do that, you\u2019re going to fall, unravel pscyhologically. So I refuse to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As he walked through the bustling plaza of the Little Tokyo Mall in Los Angeles, Dr. Itsuki Charles Igawa pointed out how significantly the neighborhood had changed. \u201cAll of this is privately owned already, no longer is the hands of Japanese-Americans,\u201d he said gesturing to the buildings around him. \u00a0The area once extended all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}