Kokoro no Gakko, an annual one-week program dedicated to the culture and arts of Japan, wrapped up its 37th year Friday during an open house at the Watsonville Buddhist Temple.
Formed in 1989, the school, which translates to School with a Heart, welcomed 53 students, grades kinder through six.
Five days of lessons covered traditional Japanese activities, including bonsai, ikebana, origami, calligraphy, cooking, language arts and music.
One highlight of the course was a visit from 97-year-old Janice Tao, who—along with her family—was rounded up with Pajaro Valley people of Japanese descent and sent to a detention camp during World War II.
Around 120,000 people were relocated and incarcerated in 10 concentration prisons, with at least two-thirds of them being American citizens.
Tao told a group of fifth graders that she was a grade school student at Pajaro School when her family rented and ran a strawberry farm where Aladdin Nursery now stands on Freedom Boulevard.
Tao said the news of the Pearl Harbor attack was blaring over a radio on the streets of Pajaro the day after the event.
“When I went to school the kids were calling me Jap; it was one of the worst days of my life. And I know there’s some of this still going on today. One thing I’ve learned is that you have to fight for your life.”
When her family and others were rounded up and shipped off to the detention centers, she said, “We could only take what we could carry.”
In the camps she said, “There was nothing to do. My enjoyment was reading books; I love to read. There were arts and crafts; there was a lot of talent there. But overall, there was not much to do.”
After internees were released four years later, Tao’s family first moved to Los Angeles, then Watsonville.
Friday’s event treated a crowd of more than 250 people to choral works and dances punctuated with theatrics and more. The gathering, headed up by principal Melissa Eguchi-Song, included a raffle and potluck meal.
Gakko is a parent-cooperative that is largely fueled by the students’ families and facility support of the Buddhist Temple.
Performance directors Denise and Bob Gómez have taught at Gakko for years and have traveled to Watsonville’s sister city in Japan, Kawakami, seven times. The couple helped orchestrate and choreograph, through guitar playing, poetry and singing, and six stage works that represented each grade.
