After 80 Years, Group Says a Sad Sayonara

Nearly 80 years after a Los Angeles kindergarten teacher began a youth club to lure children of Japanese immigrants off the streets, her grateful students paid tribute to her at a poignant luncheon Saturday that also marked the group’s disbanding.

“We are so proud and thankful for what Miss Nellie Oliver did,” said Ets Yoshiyama, chairman of the group, which came to be known simply as the Olivers in her honor.

“She literally picked up kids off the streets and formed this club,” said Harry Yamamoto, 80, a member of Oliver’s 1925 kindergarten class at Hewitt Street School in Little Tokyo. “She was a wonderful lady--an angel.”

Oliver, who died in 1947, never married. But the tall white teacher with an aristocratic bearing had a special place in her heart for children of Japanese immigrants who were idling away their time on the streets of Little Tokyo while their parents toiled long hours at work.

And the youngsters, almost all boys, took to her.

Yamamoto, whose family owned a hotel in Little Tokyo, said belonging to the athletic club saved him from mischief.

“I was always getting into fights,” he said.

By today’s standards, what these “wild” kids of Little Tokyo did in the 1920s may seem harmless. But back then, the misdeeds were considered serious and the boys credited Oliver with improving their character at a time when they needed help.

Jack Kunitomi, an 84-year-old retired schoolteacher, remembers roller skating into small businesses on 1st Street with his friends and sneaking into a Japanese theater by the side exit after a friend got in with a ticket.

Oliver always attended club meetings and served refreshments that the students relished.

“We would have hot chocolate with marshmallows--it was so good,” said Kunitomi. “We have fond memories.”

After their meetings, the youngsters would escort Oliver to 1st and Alameda streets, where she caught a streetcar going west, he said.

“Every time we had a meeting, she would sit with us,” Yamamoto said. “Sometimes she would chew us out for chewing gum. She would tell us about [the evils of] smoking, though most of us didn’t smoke.”

Using her own money, she began organizing the youngsters into eight athletic youth clubs in 1917. They not only played, and excelled, in sports, they also learned about American food, good manners and parliamentary procedures. Their sports teams came to be known as the Seniors, Juniors, Midgets, Tigers, Cubs, Mustangs, Broncos and Beavers.

“When you talk about Japanese American history, the Olivers are it,” said Yoshiyama, a retired hair salon owner. “We all grew up in Little Tokyo and attended Daiichi Gakuin,” the first Japanese language school in the continental United States.

The Olivers’ athletic prowess is legendary. They often went to the San Francisco Bay Area to compete with counterparts there.

“It’s hard to tell when you look at them now, but they were athletes,” said Yoshiyama.

The World War II years interrupted the Olivers, as Japanese Americans were rounded up and interned. Some lost contact with Oliver.

But every year since 1960, the Olivers, whose average age is 80, have honored her by holding a reunion.

On Saturday, surviving members and their spouses got together for one last time.

“It’s like a farewell,” said Yoshiyama.”It’s been a long journey. It’s been fun seeing all the old-timers once a year and shaking hands.”

“But our numbers are vanishing,” said Elmer Suski, 84, a retired auto mechanic who now lives in Indio.

And there is no group among the younger generation interested in carrying on the tradition, said Kunitomi. “They are not as loyal to the cause as we are.”

The men said their teacher was a visionary who knew the importance of working with immigrant children, long before it became fashionable.

They recalled fondly watching Oliver teach immigrant mothers from Mexico, Japan, China and Russia how to prepare American meals in the upstairs quarters of the Japanese language school they attended.

Betty Yamamoto, who has been an ardent supporter of the group as a spouse, said she is sad that such an institution has to disband.

“They’re too old,” she said. “They can’t handle details; they’re forgetful.”

Over the years, the Olivers have given scholarships to promising Japanese American athletes. On Saturday they gave $1,500 scholarships to two basketball players.

“It’s an honor to receive the award at the last meeting,” said Alemany High School senior Kate Beckler.

“It’s sad that we have to disband, but a lot of us are in our twilight years,” said Yamamoto.

“It’s shikataga-nai [it can’t be helped],” said Chiyo Yamamoto, using the Japanese term for accepting stoically what can’t be changed.

Yamamoto, whose husband Yampo, 82, is an Oliver, said the group should be proud of its long record of honoring its teacher.

“It has been quite an undertaking,” she said.