Part 2 >>

Adolescence over a turbulent decade

The I Hotel was formerly the International Hotel located in Manila Town, San Francisco, and was an apartment building mainly housing low-income Filipinos.

The I Hotel was an essential low-cost hotel for Filipinos who came to America in search of a better life in the 1920s, and by the 1950s, the hotel was home to about 10,000 Filipinos.

"I Hotel"

In December 1968, the hotel's owner, Milton Meyer, notified the residents to vacate the building to turn it into a parking lot. By this time, the only part of Manila Town was the I Hotel. Labor groups, churches, and activists protested to protect the hotel, which had provided cheap lodging for the elderly. As a result, Milton Meyer leased the hotel to the United Philippines Association (UFA), but a suspicious fire broke out in the hotel the day before the contract was signed, killing three people. The contract was suspended. There was a strong suspicion of arson, but both Meyer and the city of San Francisco treated it as an accident, and the city ordered the company to demolish the building. A subsequent campaign resulted in the hotel being leased to UFA for a limited period, but in the early hours of August 4, 1977, 300 armed police officers broke through the barricades of several thousand people surrounding the hotel, forcing the last 50 residents out.

The I Hotel brings to mind the 1983 documentary "The Fall of the I-Hotel" by Chinese film director Curtis Choi. Filmed in real time, this work became a hot topic in the Asian community, and Choi set a milestone in Asian documentary filmmaking. The scene of forced eviction depicted in the final chapter of Yamashita's "I Hotel" is as powerful as "The Fall of the I-Hotel" and is powerful even when read in print.

However, Yamashita's I Hotel is not just about the events that took place at the hotel. The story vividly depicts what happened in the Asian American community and what people thought in the 10 years from 1968, when the Asian American civil movement began, to 1977, when the hotel fell.

The method is the same as his previous book, Circle K Goes Around, with events from each year laid out in easy-to-understand chronological order, and the book is a mixture of essays, stories, plays, movie scripts, comics, illustrations, etc. Furthermore, the book is peppered with quotes from Confucius, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Frantz Fanon, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda Marcos, Nelson Mandela, Richard Nixon, and others, giving the reader the feeling of holding a grand sketchbook in his hands.

Various proper nouns are real names where it is considered appropriate, and pseudonyms are used where it is not. In the case of pseudonyms, there is the fun of guessing the real names. It took 10 years of research to write this book, so the volume is overwhelming, and even I, who have had some interest in Asian American history and culture, did not know much about it, so it was very difficult to read.

It was a tough read, but I thought to myself. Yamashita was born in 1951. The years from 1968 to 1977 were her most impressionable years, when she went from high school to college and then to Brazil. This book is not just a record and introduction of the most turbulent decade for Asian American society, but also a reflection on how she lived through that time and confirms where she is now. With that in mind, I felt like I understood her a little better.

Through thorough interviews, Yamashita weaves a multi-layered story by selecting, or being forced to select, the voices of his subjects. This is Yamashita's history and truth, but readers can also share part of that truth and reflect on themselves. As I read, I was one of the people who did this work.

For the past year and a little, I have been writing this series on Japanese Americans, hoping that their perspectives might be of some use to us Japanese people, but for now, I would like to conclude the series with this installment. Thank you to everyone who has read it.

(Titles omitted)

Karen Tei Yamashita's works (in English)
* Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Coffee House, 1990
Japanese translation: Beyond the Rainforest, Hakusuisha, 1994
* Brazil-Maru, Coffee House, 1992
Abridged translation of "Brazil Maru (excerpt)" from Subaru, July 2008 issue
* Tropic of Orange, Coffee House, 1997
Abridged translation of "Orange Tropic of Capricorn" 10+1 No.11 1997
* Siamese Twins and Mongoloids, Yellow Light, Temple University, 1999
Japanese translation: "Siamese Twins and the Yellow Race" My Mystery, Iwanami Shoten, 1997
* Circle K Cycles, Coffee House, 2001
Excerpt from "Circle K Goes Around" www.cafecreole.net 1997
* I Hotel, Coffee House, 2010

References
* "Kensei Gijuku, a proud institution, travels to America" ​​by Yasuharu Miyahara, Kodansha, 1988
* "Special Interview with Karen Tei Yamashita," Current Affairs English Studies, July 1995 issue
* "The Latitude of the Artist" Ryuta Imabuku + Karen Tei Yamashita "10+1" No.11 1997
* "Urashima Tamatebako Museum" Karen Tei Yamashita, The Promised Land/America, Misuzu Shobo, 2000
* "Traveling Voices" by Karen Tei Yamashita, "Searching for the 'Self'", Iwanami Shoten, 2002
* "Blood Type" Karen Tei Yamashita www.cafecreole.net 2004
* Asian American Writers, Sugiura Etsuko, Suiseisha, 2007
* "Challenges of Japanese Brazilians in Karen Tei Yamashita's 'Brazil Maru': An Ecofeminist Perspective" by Nobuko Shimazu, Kyushu Institute of Technology Academic Institutional Repository, 2007
* "Gentleman's Agreement" by Karen Tei Yamashita, Subaru, July 2008 issue
* "Community of Immigrant Voices" by Ryuta Imabuku, Subaru, July 2008 issue

*This article is a reprint of the 13th installment of the column series "From the Perspectives of Two Countries" in Renso Publishing 's online magazine "Kaze," which features information about new books, such as articles linking new books to current issues and daily topics, as well as monthly bestsellers and review columns on new books.

© 2010 Association Press and Tatsuya Sudo