Residents, leaders saddened by vandalism of monument
To the dismay of many in San Jose’s Japantown, vandals spray-painted red graffiti overnight on a granite monument erected years ago to honor Japanese immigrants.
Jasmine Rast, the owner of Roy’s Station Coffee and Teas, said her family discovered the spray-painted monument Feb. 8. The monument was painted with two monikers: “DEKO” and “JBF.”
The Issei Pioneer stone — one of three landmarks on the corner of North Fifth Street and Jackson Street — honors the first generation Issei pioneers who made the arduous journey from Japan to Santa Clara Valley more than a century ago. The 11,000-pound granite rock was brought over from Inujima Island and given to San Jose as a gift from its sister city, Okayama, Japan.
The stone serves as a “permanent tribute to the courage and perseverance of the Issei pioneers who settled in San Jose’s Japantown,” according to the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose.
Ryan Kawamoto, copresident of the Japantown Community Congress, said that the recent vandalism of the monument, while tragic, “reminds us all of this hopeful message that much like how the defaced monument stands tall, our community’s resilience and spirit will persevere.”
Rast doesn’t believe the incident was racially motivated, but she sees it as another sad and frustrating sign of what the city’s Japantown community must face in the midst of an already trying time. On top of the defacing, Japantown has seen an uptick in petty crime in recent months, with thieves breaking into about half a dozen businesses.
“I think everyone’s’ emotions are very raw right now,” Rast said. “All of the businesses are suffering due to COVID and everyone is trying to do the best we can to keep our heads above water and make a living.
“This is just one more thing we have to deal with.”
Rast and her sister are collecting security camera footage from Japantown businesses. They plan to submit the footage to the city’s police department with the hopes of identifying the suspect responsible for the vandalism.
Councilmember Raul Peralez, who represents the district and recognized the monikers from graffiti painted elsewhere in the downtown area, called the monument’s defacing “extremely discouraging.”
“I don’t care where it is, when you’re out there defacing property, you are in the wrong,” Peralez said. “But when you go so far as to do it on a historic monument like this, in my mindset, that just takes it to a whole new low.”
Over the past month, Peralez and his team have been developing a program that would offer rewards to people who unanimously provide tips to the city on the the identity of prominent graffiti artists across the city.
Peralez hopes to launch the program in the coming weeks as a way to “make an example of how we can band together to try and stop it,” he said.
“Our hope is if we can actually show that there are real consequences to these actions.”