The Rafu Shimpo - L.A. Japanese Daily News

Royal Host
By RYOKO NAKAMURA and AUDREY SHIOMI
Rafu Staff Writers
Saturday, August 5, 2006

Every year, the Nisei Week Committee selects a new president to oversee the numerous activities and events held during the two-week Nisei Week festival. This year the committee welcomes Michelle Suzuki, the first president who has also worn a tiara as a Nisei Week Court member.

Jun Nagata/Rafu Shimpo
Michelle Suzuki

A publicist by trade, Suzuki leads a young team of volunteers through what she hopes will be another successful year. This month The Rafu sat down with Suzuki to discuss the upcoming festival and what challenges lie ahead. The following is an excerpt of the conversation:

RAFU: Tell me about yourself. Where were you born and where did you go to school?

MS: I was born in Northern California and grew up in Monterey. I came down to Los Angeles in 1986 to go to UCLA. My major was English.

RAFU: How did you get involved in the Japanese American community? Were you always hanging out with JA friends?

MS: There was a small group of JAs that lived in Monterey. I grew up attending a Japanese American Christian church and did a lot of JA activities even though we were a really small community.

So when I came down to UCLA I expanded my scope, so I wasn’t as involved in a lot of Japanese American groups. I still went to a JA church but as far as extracurricular activities it was a broad scope. I was in a Greek sorority, involved in student government, and so Nisei Week was one of my first involvements in Los Angeles.

RAFU: When did you first become involved?

MS: In 1993 when I ran for Nisei Week Court. Interestingly enough, I’m the first court member to become president of the organization.

RAFU: Why did you think to join?

MS: To get involved with the community. I had a friend who herself had run back in the day, and it was a great experience for her. She got to travel and I thought, “Why not?”

RAFU: How was it like being a part of the Nisei Week Court in 1993?

MS: It was amazing, which is why I came back. I was able to travel. I went to Japan and met friends that I still have today. Just getting to know the Little Tokyo community, understanding that this was here, getting to know community members, it was an amazing experience.

RAFU: What did you learn from the experience?

MS: Basically to appreciate my community and also that the JAs have such a long history here in Los Angeles. To me that was really special, especially to have Little Tokyo here so close to City Hall. And just the importance of JAs here in the Southern California community.

RAFU: Has anything changed since 1993?

MS: A lot has changed. The great thing is there’s a lot of younger people more involved in the committees and so I think we bring new energy and new ideas. Little Tokyo has changed since 1993. New businesses, new residences being built up. With all the new people we’re interested in bringing a broader scope of events.

The JA community has really spread out since ’93. Marukai wasn’t in Orange County in ’93. Where everyone used to have to come to Little Tokyo to find Japanese items, they don’t have to anymore. They can stay within their communities. So we envision Nisei Week as having different events to bring the community back.

RAFU: Specifically, what sort of new events will there be?

MS: This year we’ve partnered with the Japanese Student Network. They’re going to be having a Japanese matsuri on the second weekend of August, which is really exciting because they’ll bring traditional Japanese elements to the festival. Not just Japanese American. We’re mixing the two together. We’re working on having a professional food-eating contest, which will bring a wide variety of people. Last year we did a sumo tournament, and we’re going to continue with a sumo demonstration this year.

RAFU: How are you reaching out to the people outside the JA community?

MS: We have ads, media releases, posters. We also made postcards and are leaving them at different businesses. We’re on MySpace and also on Friendster. JSN as well. There’s a Japanese version of MySpace and that’s how they’re promoting.

RAFU: What did you learn from last year’s festival? Did you think it was a success?

MS: I do. From last year we did learn to open ourselves up to working with other groups, which is why this year we’re excited to bring JSN in. This year we’ve also moved our anime festival to Little Tokyo Shopping Center. So we’re bringing in all of Little Tokyo into Nisei Week. We feel we want to promote everybody. Not just First and Second streets, but the whole community. Next year we can hopefully work with Honda Plaza.

RAFU: What would you say to people who think Nisei Week is too long? It’s not just one-day festival. Some people get confused by the schedule. Some people have to come all the way from Orange County to get here. What would you say to these critics?

MS: Well, we have events for everybody. The first and second weekends we bring in different aspects of Japanese and Japanese American culture that everyone can enjoy … Our goal is bringing people into Little Tokyo, so we don’t see having the festival in two weekends as a detriment, we see it as a positive.

RAFU: What are the highlights of this year?

MS: It’s hard to choose just one. We’re bringing back the fashion show this year with Tadashi, who now has an international presence. He does Miss Universe, and he’ll be launching his sportswear line at our festival. It’ll be the first time the public will see that line. Then there’s our sumo demonstration, our anime festival… I’m just looking forward to the whole festival.

For me, the highlight has been collaborating with some many wonderful people and organizations, and just having the same goal in mind of bringing people in and showing them our Japanese and Japanese American culture.

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