“Benkyodo” & “ATOMIC CAFÉ” Discussion and Q&A

On September 10, 2023, JANM hosted the Los Angeles Premiere of “Benkyodo: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town” and a screening of “ATOMIC CAFÉ: The Noisiest Corner in J-Town”. Akira Boch and Tadashi Nakamura, the former and current directors of JANM’s Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center, directed these two short documentaries that explore themes of gentrification, displacement, and community power with humor and heart. Director Tadashi Nakamura was joined by Nancy Sekizawa (“Atomic Nancy”) and Eryn Kimura (Producer, “Benkyodo: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town”) in a conversation moderated by Sean Miura (Producer, Tuesday Night Project).
ABOUT THE FILMS:
“Benkyodo: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town” (2023)
Directed by Akira Boch and Tadashi Nakamura
Ricky and Bobby Okamura, the current owners of Benkyodo mochi shop, make a difficult decision to close their family business. The Japanese pastry shop, a landmark for Japanese Americans and Asian Americans in the Bay Area, is one of two mochi shops currently open in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently 115 years old, the business has endured the anti-Asian laws of the early 20th century, Japanese incarceration, redevelopment of the 1960s, and San Francisco’s notorious high costs of living. The unsurmountable economic pressure, coupled with the brothers’ desire to preserve their Japanese heritage, family business, and community space, create an age-old conflict many children of diaspora face-preserving their culture or submitting to the economic forces of racial capitalism.
“ATOMIC CAFÉ: The Noisiest Corner in J-Town” (2020)
Directed by Akira Boch and Tadashi Nakamura
Presented by Little Tokyo Service Center
When the punk rock scene was exploding in Los Angeles during the late 1970s, an unlikely family-owned restaurant in Little Tokyo established by Japanese Americans returning from America’s World War II concentration camps, became one its most popular hangouts. That’s when Sansei “Atomic Nancy” with her “take-no-prisoners” punk makeup and demeanor took the café over from her parents and cranked up the jukebox. Infamous for its eclectic clientele-from Japanese American locals and kids from East LA to yakuza and the biggest rock stars of the day- the Atomic Café became an important part of LA’s punk rock history.
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Japanese American National Museum
100 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
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