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Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009

Making a cultural connection: Summer camp focuses on Japanese history, heritage.

David Unruhe is the first to admit that Cressey Elementary School, a tiny, aging campus on Merced County's northern edge, isn't exactly the ultimate vacation destination.

Still, it's where the father of two from Auburn has chosen to spend his summer breaks every year since 1997.

Twelve years ago, Unruhe signed up with his wife and children to take part in Tomodachi Gakko, Friendship School in Japanese. It's a weeklong summer camp that aims to teach kids from kindergarten through eighth-grade about Japanese history and culture.

But it's not like most summer camps, and it's not just for little ones. Gakko is a collective effort carried out exclusively by families of the children involved. Behind every child who participates there's at least one parent volunteer who helps plan and carry out the year's program.

Essentially, it's a cooperative. Besides a little help from local chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League, the camp is paid for entirely by the families involved.

"I think that's my favorite part about it," Unruhe said Thursday, sitting at Cressey on a blue picnic bench next to the swings. "I like the collective effort. I like that it's a group of adults coming together to pass something important to their kids. There's very few things left like that these days."

Unruhe's children attended Gakko every summer for seven years until they aged-out around 2004. But he and his wife still come to help out.

"We just can't stop," he said. "All these families that participate -- it's like we're all family now."

This summer's Gakko, which ended Friday, is extra special. The program is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

About 60 children attended this year. Most trace their heritage to Japan, but families of other ethnic backgrounds also take part.

Besides classroom lessons about Japanese history, including the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the week's activities included art projects, music, cooking, games, martial arts and language study.

In one Cressey classroom Thursday morning, kindergartners learned about traditional block-printing art. Next door, a group of third-graders learned how to say greetings, numbers and days of the week in Japanese.

Outside, fifth-graders learned kendo, an ancient martial art.

Just across the school yard, a group of eighth-graders took turns pounding a glob of sweet rice the size of a basketball with large wooden mallets to make mochi, the beloved Japanese treat.

A little later the children practiced for the taiko drumming display they were to perform Friday at Gakko's anniversary celebration. More than 200 current and former Gakko participants were expected to attend.

"I like the cooking lessons the best because you get to eat after," said 9-year-old Keeton Janisch, who's been coming to Gakko since he was a first-grader.

Keeton and his mom come from Monterey for the program every year, he said. They stay with Keeton's grandparents in Turlock while they're here. His grandpa was born in Japan.

"We do lots of cool stuff," Keeton said. "We learn about the past, like what it was like when all the Japanese people had to go away because of Pearl Harbor."

The local Gakko was started a quarter-century ago by four Japanese-American moms living in northern Merced County who wanted a way to pass their heritage to their children. They'd heard about Gakko programs in San Jose and the Bay Area, so they called them.

"They told us, 'If you build it, families will come,'" said Chris Kubo, a mother of five from Cortez and one the local Gakko founders. "They were right."