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"Japanese American Team Spirit," is a multimedia gallery of photos and artifacts from the Chicago Nisei Athletic Association (CNAA), a collection of sports leagues organized by Japanese American community leaders from the 1940s to the 1980s. The gallery is based on an exhibition which debuted at the Chicago Historical Society in October 2003. It takes a look at the earliest years of the CNAA, showcasing the organization's basketball leagues through archival photos and audio commentary from former participants.
 At the end of World War II, 30,000 Japanese Americans left the internment camps and settled in Chicago. Living in this vast and unfamiliar city, many younger, second generation Japanese Americans (or Nisei) felt anxious, disoriented, and isolated after making the transition from the confining camp environment. It was vital that they be able to engage in recreational and social pursuits – in other words, to have fun and make friends. To meet this demand, the Chicago Nisei Athletic Association was formed. The CNAA developed into a hub of activity within the Chicago Japanese American community during the postwar period. CNAA offered basketball, softball, volleyball, bowling, golf, and tennis to hundreds of eager participants. The organization waned in the second half of the 1950s as its members began growing older and focusing on other things. It witnessed a resurgence in the 1960s, as third generation Japanese Americans (or Sansei) entered their teen years. Many churches were team sponsors, and groups outside of the Japanese American community, especially Chinese Americans, became involved in league play. Swimming and track & field were incorporated as activities, and by 1973, the CNAA even had its own newsletter. After four decades of operation, the organization dissipated in the late 1980s as the last of the Sansei came of age. A successor of sorts, the Sansei-Yonsei Athletic Association, began offering youth sporting activities in a much more limited capacity during the 1990s, and still operates today (the word yonsei refers to fourth generation Japanese Americans).
This multimedia gallery takes a look at the earliest years of the CNAA, and showcases the organization's basketball leagues. Each photo is accompanied by a brief audio recording of a former CNAA participant sharing his or her recollections. These recordings are taken from interviews conducted by Alec Yoshio MacDonald in 2004 with Aiko and Yosh Amino, Jane and Richard Hidaka, Tak Hiyama, Tom Mayahara, Jim Matsumoto, Shig Murao, Tsune Nakagawa, and Chiye Tomihiro. Continue to Gallery |
Shortly after the 1980s’ Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWIRC) hearings in Chicago, Yoji Ozaki lead discussion groups for Japanese American senior citizen residents at Heiwa Terrace. These watershed hearings gave psychological permission to former internees to finally discuss their camp experiences. As was the case in many other Japanese American communities, these discussions provided a much needed opportunity to come to terms with past traumatic events. Later, in the early 1990s, Scott La France from the Chicago Historical Society asked the Japanese American community for its help in developing the exhibit “Chicago Goes to War, 1941-45.” Yoji Ozaki responded and the Japanese American relocation story was included in this major exhibit. Following this experience with the community, La France saw a need for formalizing historical documentation and recommended forming a Chicago Japanese American Historical Society.