Japanese-Americans Stung by Vandalism at Center

Members of a judo class were shocked when they arrived recently at a Japanese-American community center in Norwalk and discovered “Go Back to Asia” and other epithets smeared on the walls in white paint.

It was the third time in a week that the center had been vandalized. Written on one of the blackboards was, “Sorry We Trashed Your Place,” but it was the racial graffiti that stirred painful memories for some of the older members of the Southeast Japanese Community Center who recall being taken from their homes during World War II.

George Kato, 58, a member of the center for 20 years, remembers the feeling. “There were many families from our center that suffered during that period,” he said of the 1940s, when Japanese and Japanese-American people were sent to U.S. government internment camps.

Kato and other members of the cultural center believe that resentment of the economic rise of many Asian immigrants may be at the root of the vandalism.

“People are being (misled) about the power of Japan and Japanese-Americans living here,” Kato said. “We don’t want to identify with this. Japanese children have been born and raised here in America.”

On Halloween night, more than 15 members had their car tires slashed. A day earlier, vandals had sprayed fire extinguishers on the floors and on the walls of the center.

There had been other acts of vandalism at the two-building center since it opened during the 1920s, but nothing to rival what occurred Nov. 7.

“They came through one of the windows and scattered records . . . all over the floor,” Kato said. “They used gallons of paint we had in the storage room and brooms to paint all over the building.”

Although they are frustrated, members say they are not thinking of moving the center. They feel a strong sense of history with the area and its people.

“After all, we’ve been there for 60 years,” Kato said. “Our pioneers purchased this property for our people to get together.”

Kato said the center, which is open to people of all backgrounds, has more than 300 families and attracts members from Monterey Park, East Los Angeles, Whittier, Huntington Beach and other areas of Orange County.

It provides classes in dance, floral arrangement, singing, kendo, judo and karate, and has senior citizen meetings and classes for children.

“We’ve been trying to teach children the value of respect to their neighbors,” Kato said. “We want the children to learn to be good citizens.”

Angered and frustrated by the vandalism and graffiti, center members are seeking help from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.