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started in 1997. Grant Hagiya went to a forum on Japanese American culture that the Japanese American National Museum hosted. He thought that the dialogue that started was great, but it needed to continue. Since then, a small group of people from non-profit organizations, churches and temples, and universities met informally to talk once a month. They just got together on their lunch hours to talk about their lives. They represented the diversity of the Japanese American community in Southern California. The participating members have been in flux, some have joined, some have moved away or moved on, but the goals have remained the same. From the beginning, the idea was to talk about what made Japanese Americans "Japanese Americans". Who should be included in the JA identity? It was agreed that there definitely is a Japanese American culture, or cultures. So, the questions center around values, "What make Japanese Americans who they are?" Are there positive and negative cultural values? Should we, as communities, perpetuate and promote certain values? Living JA was involved in the "Ties that Bind" conference in Los Angeles in 1998, a conference which brought together Japanese American community members and leaders from all over California, the West Coast, across the country, and even one from South America. Using a series of skits, Living JA tried to bring different dilemmas to light to illustrate the shared inherited, and cross cultural values which coexist in the lives of Japanese Americans. This, our latest project, a series of essays, is along the same lines. It is an interactive project to promote dialogues to move the community toward a conscious evaluation of our lives and culture. Please email us!
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