Juneteenth: Seeds of Hope (Audio)
The ACCJ Journal sat down with CIC founder Tim Rowe in the bustling Toranomon Hills networking hub to learn more about how he went from sharing a space with friends to leading a community for entrepreneurs that includes more than 1,000 companies at centers in eight cities around the world.
Legacy Foundation Japan's LaTonya Whitaker shares inspiration and plans to celebrate this important American holiday and build bridges between the US and Japan.
Ahead of the Juneteenth holiday, we sit down with LaTonya Whitaker, executive director of The Legacy Foundation Japan, to talk about plans for the foundation’s Seeds of Hope gala at Tokyo American Club.
As an entrepreneur, the Mississippi native is well known to many in our community for Soul Food House, the comfortable and delicious oasis of authentic Southern food in Azabu-juban. But her work extends far beyond those flavors. In this interview, LaTonya shares her experiences learning about the history of June 19, the inspiration for the gala (now in its second year), and how the business community can get involved.
Learn more about the Seeds of Hope Gala
Learn more about The Legacy Foundation Japan
Plants and Trees
A stone monument, two or three feet tall, with a simple inscription stood before me. It read: “plants and trees.” Somokuto, as they are known in Japanese, are monuments concentrated mainly in Okitama, a region in southern Yamagata Prefecture in Tohoku, the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Adam Fulford shares more.
Finding the true nature of somokuto in Yonezawa
A somokuto monument inscribed with the Chinese characters for “plants and trees” stands in a forest on the outskirts of Yonezawa City. (Photo: Plat Yonezawa)
A stone monument, two or three feet tall, with a simple inscription stood before me. It read: “plants and trees.” Somokuto, as they are known in Japanese, are monuments concentrated mainly in Okitama, a region in southern Yamagata Prefecture in Tohoku, the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
I first became aware of somokuto in 2014, when I visited the small community of Nakatsugawa, in the town of Iide, also in Yamagata. I was there as a judge in a national beautiful village contest, and my hosts felt that somokuto might interest visitors.
I was certainly intrigued. Although the phrase somoku (plants and trees) occurs in Buddhist sutras, I was told that the stone monuments were erected by members of the local community, mostly in centuries past and without the direct involvement of shrine or temple representatives.
But for what purpose? At the time, relatively little information was available about somokuto online, but I interpreted them in my own way, as an opportunity to say “please” or “thank you” when entering or leaving the forest.
Later, I became a community consultant in Iide and started to consider the souvenir potential of somokuto. Under the guidance of a local pottery instructor, I made several batches of ceramic mini-somokuto.
With his help, I also made a batch with a group at Denden, a facility in Iide for those with intellectual disabilities.
But I still knew little about the origins of somokuto. And so, when Ruth Jarman of Jarman International invited me to Yonezawa to spend an afternoon learning about somokuto with Yohei Sano, an expert on the subject, I leaped at the chance.
Left: The oldest somokuto in Yamagata dates back to 1780 and is found in the Tazawa district of Yonezawa City.
Right: Ceramic mini-somokuto produced by Denden in Iide Town. (Photos: Plat Yonezawa)
Sano and I went first to Shiojidaira, the site of a once-thriving logging community in the Tazawa district of Yonezawa. Here, I saw the oldest of the 140 somokuto in Yamagata (there are only about 20 elsewhere in Japan). It dates back to 1780.
In those days, the forests of Shiojidaira were a source of “official” firewood and timber for Yozan Uesugi (1751–1822), a famous local lord whose later admirers would include US President John F. Kennedy. After Uesugi’s large mansion in Edo (now Tokyo) burned to the ground in 1772, timber from Shiojidaira would have been used to rebuild it. A few years later, more would have been needed after a big fire in Yonezawa.
For the people of Shiojidaira, a bare mountainside must have been shocking. Have we done something unforgivable? Anxious thoughts of this kind may have culminated in the erection of the first somokuto as a requiem, perhaps, for lost greenery.
Sano explained that, as the years went by, interpretations of somokuto began to shift. They came to be seen as an opportunity to express gratitude to the forest, and later as a reminder to safeguard nature.
My own view of somokuto may be somewhat out of sync with their true nature, but if I’d never encountered them, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know Sano, an ideal recipient of the small gift that I gratefully presented to him: a mini-somokuto from Denden.
Spirit of Yozan
The death of a close friend at college prompted Tohoku native Hiroaki Miyajima to pursue a career in advertising in the United States. Having returned to his hometown of Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, in 2011, he is now part of a local business collective whose mission is to secure the town’s future prosperity. The Ukogi collective, established by Miyajima and several other Kojokan graduates, channels the spirit of Yozan in a bid to grapple with the issues facing Yonezawa and many of Japan’s rural areas.
How a samurai reformer inspires a new generation to take the lead and succeed
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The death of a close friend at college prompted Tohoku native Hiroaki Miyajima to pursue a career in advertising in the United States. Having returned to his hometown of Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, in 2011, he is now part of a local business collective whose mission is to secure the town’s future prosperity.
Place of Inspiration
Those not familiar with the Tohoku region, in the far north of Japan’s main island of Honshu, may be excused for being unaware of Yonezawa. But this landlocked town has inspired some of the nation’s most successful executives and one of the United States’ best-loved presidents. When John F. Kennedy was asked after his inauguration to name a Japanese figure whom he respected, to the surprise of the Japanese press corps he answered with the name Yozan, a clan leader who ruled the domain of Yonezawa during the 18th century.
Yozan Uesugi inherited a Yonezawa impoverished by profligate leaders and entrenched interests. Heavily influenced by his teacher, Heishu Hosoi, who saw it as the duty of rulers to put the interests of their domains above their own, Yozan swore an oath to restore the prosperity of Yonezawa and its people. He is highly admired for his radical economic reforms and being an exemplar of frugality.
In Yonezawa, the figure of Yozan looms large, and in no place more so than Kojokan High School, which he founded in 1776. The school seeks to instill a sense of service and importance of action summed up by one of Yozan’s most famous sayings: “For all things, try and you will succeed; do not try and you will not succeed. Lack of success is merely due to lack of trying.”
Intellectual Foundation
The Ukogi collective, established by Miyajima and several other Kojokan graduates, channels the spirit of Yozan in a bid to grapple with the issues facing Yonezawa and many of Japan’s rural areas. The name Ukogi is that of a deciduous shrub that Yozan promoted for use in making hedgerows, while the edible leaves can serve as a food source in times of famine. Use of the shrub symbolizes the importance of creative thinking and self-reliance, which Yozan stressed to his people.
Collective member Yohei Sano, who helps with the family fish market, has a background in legal philosophy and studies local history in his free time. Known as The Professor, he is a quiet contrast to the ebullient Miyajima and provides Ukogi’s intellectual foundation. Synthesizing the virtues and lessons of the past, he is developing the philosophy of a restoration based on sustainable development and employing public–private sector cooperation. Put simply, Sano said, “I want to make Yonezawa a place to which the next generation will want to return and make their life.”
The speed of change in Japan can often be glacial, but Yozan overcame the powerful social and economic forces of the 18th century to restore the prosperity of Yonezawa. Ukogi is aiming to instigate a second restoration and make Yonezawa a place that once again inspires beyond its borders.
Of One Blood All Nations
There is ample scholarship around Meiji-period Japan and the United States that John Bingham did more to shape America’s initial diplomatic relationship with Japan than any other American. In his biography of Bingham, former ACCJ Executive Director Sam Kidder contributes significantly to that body and makes a persuasive case for the US minister to Japan from 1873 to 1885.
John Bingham: Ohio Congressman’s Diplomatic Career in Meiji Japan (1873–1885)
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I often pass by a wall on which hang portraits of the US Ambassadors to Japan in chronological order. I am drawn to it because I have known a few of them. By comparing the portraits, one can trace the evolution of photography and fashion through the centuries. As the calendar rolls back into the 19th century, the image quality declines until it becomes clear that the portrait is a grainy copy. One of the earliest and most recognizable portraits is of John Bingham, US minister to Japan from 1873 to 1885, the subject of Sam Kidder’s latest book Of One Blood All Nations.
Diplomatic Difference
There is ample scholarship around Meiji-period Japan and the United States, and Kidder’s biography of Bingham contributes significantly to that body. But it also goes further. He makes a persuasive case that “John Bingham did more to shape America’s initial diplomatic relationship with Japan than any other American.”
A leading figure in post-Civil War Reconstruction, Bingham was an Ohio Congressman and one of the prosecutors in the Lincoln assassination case. He was author of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides equal protection under the law.
Without question, Bingham had an accomplished life before coming ashore in Yokohama. As Kidder’s book details, Bingham’s innate decency, sense of duty, and energy led him to build the framework of the two nations’ diplomatic relationship while overcoming obstacles in nearly every direction.
The author shows the perplexing diplomatic and political knots that bound key issues surrounding the bilateral relationship, and how Bingham untied them. His hard-won success elevated the United States’ relationship with Japan from among its ties to other nations.
Bingham inherited a poorly housed and staffed US mission, with far-flung and nearly frontier consulates and incoherent administration. By management talent and diplomatic skill, he left behind an effective mission that was well networked with Japanese officials, influential, and trusted. His personal integrity and example played a key role in the rise of US prestige in Japan.
Context Matters
Diplomacy is sometimes more a prism than a window, and Bingham’s experience in Congress helped him measure what he could do to advance the bilateral relationship against the United States’ political realities and mood of the time.
To this part of the biography, Kidder brings truly impressive work tracing Bingham’s family, faith, and political connections to provide the context for, and limits of, Bingham’s personal political power. Bingham drew on his contacts for trusted advice, to staff key positions with competence, and for personal support.
Distinct from biographies by others, Of One Blood All Nations displays the author’s understanding of Bingham’s faith as the compass of his behavior and decisions. This is insightful and important. Other historians sometimes default to religious caricatures or shorthand about “beliefs of that period.” Kidder accepts Bingham as he was: an industrious but reserved man whose abundant intellect was yoked with an equal weight of modesty. Bingham’s personal diligence, dislike of ostentation, and his integrity distinguished him from other foreign diplomats of the time.
This diplomatic biography is an entertaining read. Bingham contends with many of the same issues—and character types—encountered in modern diplomacy and expatriate life: managing, or suffering as a result of, lags in communication with the capital; judging between when an immediate decision is required and when to wait; and bridging misperceptions as the only person with a foot in each world.
Bingham is not an unknown historical figure but, until now, rarely has his period in Japan been explored. As the book’s conclusion explains, Bingham’s papers and family were scattered, which makes Kidder’s work even more impressive. Faced with these challenges, another writer might have filled in the blanks with speculation. But Kidder set himself the more difficult task of understanding the subject in context. He does not embellish Bingham’s portrait, but restores it so that its long-lost detail and color emerge.