Isleton’s Cultural Center Piece

Years ago, Jean Yokotobi envisioned a park in Isleton.

It would be a park of great beauty, featuring a fountain, cherry trees and hand-crafted tile artwork.

It would be a place celebrating Asian-American culture, featuring a Kansho bell used in Buddhist services.

Most of all, it would be a place of learning. Visitors would learn about the 442nd Regimental Combat team that served valiantly in World War II. They would learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and read about the remarkable Toy/Chinn family, merchants and leaders in Isleton for more than a century.

Today, Yokotobi’s vision is reality.

The Asian American Heritage Park opened this spring at 37 Main Street in central Isleton, just a few paces from the Sacramento River. 

As parks go, it is fairly compact, just 3,000 square feet. Yet it holds many treasures.

In fact, the word “park” does not do this new space justice. It has no swings or picnic tables. 

Yet it is a unique place to see, touch, feel and learn. 

Visitors find it a welcome place to relax. The water feature and tile work are designed by Yoshio Taylor, a celebrated artist and professor. The Kansho is suspended in an exquisite wooden temple-style structure. A Japanese stone lantern is placed nearby.

There are cherry and Japanese Maple trees and benches where visitors may rest and reflect. Commemorative bricks form a stylish base next to the fountain.

And there are stories.

Informational panels are placed throughout the park. Meticulously researched and written by Yokotobi and a band of volunteers, the panels tell stories of both hardship and heroism. 

One tells of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese-American soldiers who served in World War II. Known by their motto, “Go For Broke,” the team became the most decorated  U.S. fighting unit based on its size and length of service.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned all Chinese laborers from entering the country is also described. So is the story of Wong Kim Ark, whose court case in 1898 affirmed citizenship to those born in the United States.

Another panel tells of Executive Order 9066, created during the racist hysteria of World War II,  forcing Japanese-Americans on the West Coast into internment camps. Panels include QR codes and links for further information.

For those who want to learn more about local history, the Isleton Museum is next door, housed in the Bing Kong Tong building, dating to 1926. The building was used as a Chinese Language School. The Asian Heritage Park now occupies the site of the school’s playground.

Isleton’s rich history reflects the agrarian background of the Delta itself, where thousands of Asians were employed in canneries, packing sheds, orchards and fields. Though the Asian populations of the Delta have decreased through the years, Yokotobi believes their hard work and determination should not be forgotten. 

She first visited Isleton in 1965 and was taken by the history, the unique buildings, the vibrant culture. 

After a career in social service, she moved to Isleton in 2004 and has been its champion since. She has served as president of the local chamber of commerce and is publisher and editor of Delta Life Magazine. She’s also a founding director of the Delta Education Cultural Society, the driving force in creating and maintaining the park.

For Yokotobi, one of the joys of creating the park with a circle of friends and supporters was inviting college students to help with research.

“They had very little or no knowledge of the history of the Japanese and Chinese communities here. But as they studied it, they understood the uniqueness and the importance of it all, and they became passionate about it.”

Yokotobi is both a dreamer who nourished a vision, and a gung-ho pragmatist who made it happen.

She lives next to the park in an upstairs apartment. At night, with the park aglow in subtle lighting, she likes to stroll over and reflect on the men and women who are honored at the park, and those who helped her create it.

“The people we are remembering worked so hard, they had such perseverance. They were determined to move forward, but not for themselves.

“It was for their children.”

The park is open from 11-5 p.m. each day. For more information about the park, visit deltaecs.org. To learn about the Isleton Museum, check out isletonmuseum.com.