Posted on: Sunday, October 13, 2002

Sale of Japanese center opposed

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Supporters of the Japanese Cultural Center said yesterday they will ask center members to vote against the sale of the Mo'ili'ili building until the board of directors has convinced them less drastic means of dealing with financial trouble have been eliminated.

"We do not contest the seriousness of the financial situation faced by the Center, nor do we fault the board members in any way in regard to the center and its programs," said Fujio Matsuda, a former center president and spokesman for the Committee to Save the Center. "However, we do question the remedy they have proposed and the rationale and process by which they reached the conclusion."

The center is $9 million dollars in debt and could face foreclosure.

Center president Susan Kodani said the board has found a buyer for the building for $11 million, but that a confidentiality clause prevented her from releasing the name. Proxy solicitation is under way to get members to approve the sale, and a meeting is scheduled for Oct. 18.

Matsuda said members who oppose the sale should choose Walter Tagawa or Albert Miyasato and make sure the forms are returned by Oct. 17.

Those two proxies will make sure the sale is halted until other options have been fully researched and and the finding reported to the membership, committee members said.

"The center has not had a broad, community-based fund-raiser in recent years to generate needed funds," Matsuda said. "We believe that at a minimum, the board owes the members and the countless donors, here and abroad, a full explanation of why this drastic step is necessary. A formal apology is also due."

Matsuda made his comments in the courtyard of the 8-year-old Japanese Cultural Center, flanked by two former center chairmen and two dozen other supporters, half of them dressed in Kendo bogu and carrying bamboo shinai used moments earlier in a martial arts class at the center's Kenshikan Kendo Dojo.

The fate of center programs, such as the dojo, built to specifications for Kendo with a specially constructed floor, is in question, Matsuda and his supporters said. No assurances or plans for their continuation were offered by the board.

Of great concern is the fate of the center's museum, which houses the records and artifacts of Hawai'i's early Japanese immigrants, Matsuda said.

"We must have a place where we can go to share our culture," he said. "A place to see how the immigrants lived and what they accomplished."