New Year Special Double Issue •• •• aCl lC Cl lZen January 4-11, 1980 national publication of the Japanese American Cit~zens League ISSN: ()()3(}8S79 I Who)eNo. 2,075 I Vol. 90 25¢ U.S. Postpaid /lS¢ per copy $ Official Hong Kong Government Photo. /; " JI / ;II Shown are "boat people" crammed, standing or sitting, into smaller boats. They risk their lives on the open sea, on journeys of over 1,000 miles sometimes lasting several weeks. City of Refugees.... By <l.JFFORD UYEDA Special to the Pacif"1C Otizen Group itineraries are often unimaginative. Deviation What followed was over an hour of briefing with pho­ "Is there a paper you can write for?" he asked. from the rigid schedule is 'frowned upon The British ' tos and detailed official data. "HK is a City of Ref­ "JACL has a pUblication called The Pacific Citizen guide assigned to the recent JAlrFriendship Tour to ugees," said Mr. Roads. "Since 1946 our population has which reaches its 30,000 members," I replied. China was no exception multiplied more than three times. Since 1949 over a mil­ He picked up a phone and called. ''What are the chances of seeing a refugee camp?" I lion people crossed the border from China into HI<. In Shamshuipo Camp is one of seven refugee camps inquired. 1979 alone, 70,000 "boat people" anived in HK. We have operated by the HI< Government. Helen (my wife) and I "Thafs off-limits," the Britisher replied. ''You'll need a never turned refugees away," he said. got there by crossing over to Kowloon and then hailing a special pennit, and that would require at least six The boat refugees have ~ SO-SO chance of reaching HK, cab ride. months." the stonn and the pirates account for most of the losses. Mr. J.K. Reid, the camp administrator, was expecting Since the exodus began, following the fall of Saigon in us. ''You are free to go wherever you like, talk to anyone The morning was free. In the afternoon a "harbor tour" 1975, over 225,000 boat people have been lost at sea. In and take any pictures you wish to take." was scheduled for the group. After breakfast I walked HI< harbor alone 365 bodies have been picked up. "I thanked him and walked out into the open yard. The into the Hong Kong Government Administrative Build­ About 8Oo/c of the the boat refugees entering HK are of security guard who escorted us to the administration ing and pushed through a door marked "linmigra­ ethnic Chinese origin After processing through a crude office left us. tion Infonnation Services." and crowded shelter provided at the dockside they are * '" '" "I would like to inquire about the refugees prob­ moved to centers which were fonnerly military camps, There was an obvious language barrier. I spotted two Chinese security officers, and went to them for help. lems in Hong Kong," I said to the secretary. She escorted schools and factory buildings. Soon one of them returned with a young Vietnamese girl me to a gentleman behind a huge desk by the window. ''Will it be possible to visit a camp?" I asked. The harbor of Hong Kong stretched out in panoramic Mr. Roads thought for a moment "A pprmit is usually in her early twenties. She was a supervisor of the camp view behind the officer. granted only to selected newspaper people," he kindergarten She spoke excellent English. man, Behind closed doors in various buildings were classes Mr. DavidJ. Roads was a fairly large muscular in ~11""·'-::-~ 1'I,js afternoon a British reporter will be appearance but with gentle eyes. admitted as a reporter." I reminded him who I was, a in sewing, Western cooking, English language, health "I would like to learn how Hong Kong. (HI<) is taking cares. We entered each one to observe. Japanese American on a tour about to enter the People's ------~C~on~tin-u-~~o-n =~-~~~ care of the Indochinese refugees," I said Republic of China. , ****************************************************************************** * ** ***; JULY 28 - AUGUST 1 28 weeks till the 1980 JACL Convention: JACK TAR HOTEL. San Francisco 2-Pacific Citizen New Year Issue I January 4 - 11, 1980 ----------------------__________________ By Jin Konomi For decades the Japanese have carried were on the market-wooden propellers, ContrIbuting PC Columnist the double burden of keeping up with the beautifully polished and shellacked; land­ West and keeping alive some of their old ing wheels of aluminum; wings of wire way of life. Ane: I think they have managea stretched with beautiful colored silk and admirably. But in recent years they have sized with gum Arabic; bearings for the begun to feel the strain One by one the propellers, and so on. In view of the Japa­ A Thing About Bamboo little traditional things that used to give nese businessmen's reputation for being Japanese life its unique chann are being always on their toes and putting money of the men so honored was a basket maker dropped by the wayside. Bainboo artifacts making angles on a cueball, it was strange of Kyoto. His medium, naturally, was I are becoming scarce in Japan itself as that none of them came out with ready-to­ bamboo. much as in America. assemble kits, or even a how-to book. We HAVING a thing about something is a II ill had to design individual plane by guess state of mind a few degrees this side of and hunch, and learn aerodynamics by psychotic obsession, but I do not apologize In the 19th century a culture so de­ Some time ago as I read Eric Sloan's trials and mostly errors. Since the compo­ for mine. People have it about many pendent on a material such as the bamboo "An American Boy's Diary" I kept on think­ nents were too ~~pensive, we made our things. Mine lately has been bamboo. I was unquestionably of a lower order than ing how fortunate it was that we had bam­ parts ~ith ow hands. Bamboo was the have been remembering back to my child­ that of the West, with its steam-power boo to play with. It seemed as though the standby material. We made fuselages hood days in which bamboo played such technology and accumulated heritage of material was everywhere, ready to hand with bamboo beams and bamboo struts, varied and important roles. In fact life centuries in imposing monuments of stone. or free for the taking. And what a variety held together with thread and glue, then without bamboo in those days in Japan It was inevitable that bamboo should have of playthings we used to make. Bulk for covered with Japanese paper and sized was as unthinkable as life without plastics come to symbolize the crude and flimsy, bulk, weight for weight, bamboo was lighter with gum Arabic. Wings were made the today here and the world over. or at best, the quaint, in the East. But even and stronger than wood, and had more same way. And, miraculously, the planes There is a story about a man who took it in the post WW2 years, the Western mind spring. Its tubular form was just the thing flew, on rubber band power. into his head to make a shakuhachi with was still carrying the sneering set it had we needed, for all sorts of purposes. Bow There was no interim of uncertainty as I his own hands. This primitive instrument taken on from a century of unchallenged which produces such sweet notes and prejudice. haunting music out of five holes on a bam­ So the West spoke of the Bamboo Curtain, boo tube is frightfully expensive, but aIr in its view a comic-pathetic ersatz for the pears simple enough to make. So he went real thing, the Iron Curtain, behind which, into the bamboo grove behind the house, and in ways that were dark, the heathen selected one with the right ctrrVature at "Chinee" were up to some vain pseudcr the crown, and went to work. Predictably Marxian tricks. And the Americans still he bungled it. Not to waste a good materi­ used to make snide remarks about Japa­ al, he decided to make chopsticks, and nese houses of mud, bamboo and paper. again bungled the job. In a final attempt to It was a pity the Westerners did not salvage he made hundreds of toothpicks. know that the mud of a Japanese house A rather stupid story, but I suppose it was no ordinary mud but was a mixture of will serve as an illustration. Bamboo was earth and a strong mucilage derived from ubiquitous and abundant; it was versatile; the seaweed tsunomata (Chondrus ocel­ but it was not as easy to handle as it seemed. latus); that the Japanese made the most From large to small, crude to delicate, lavish uses of prime timber, just to get the the range of uses made of bamboo was wood with the kind of grains they fancied. truly astounding. The raingutter, conduit The Western view took no account of the to the garden pond, furrings for the mud affinity between man and nature in Japa­ wall, the well sweep, the pole by which the nese life, that what it considered japanese bucket was lowered and raised, posts for backwardness was often a deliberate the tokonoma, the small alcove in the al­ choice. The Japanese set a high value on BAMBOO FLOWER VASE: This flower vase was made by Chikuunsai Tanabe, master ready small zashiki, that added so much craftsmanship, but they loved the mater­ weaver of bamboo in Japan.