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Serving San José State University since 1934 Tuesday, April 6, 2010
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Volume 134, Issue 32
90 years young with ‘pep’ in his step Uchida continues to coach judo club Donovan Farnham Staff Writer Looking past the pile of shoes and sandals outside of Room 202 of the old gym, past the judo club team practicing throws and joint locks and across the worn padded floor of the gym is Yoshihiro Uchida. Uchida, the namesake of Uchida Hall, founder and head coach of the SJSU's judo program, turned 90 on April 1, and he shows up to every practice Monday through Friday. Joe Aceto, an SJSU alumnus and judo team member, said that seeing coach Uchida show up to practice every day is inspiring even at his age. "He's the youngest 90-yearold I've ever seen," Aceto said. "He's a very, very lively 90-year-old. He's still full of pep and it's refreshing to see." Open University student
Conor Driscoll said he thinks that Uchida represents what a judo practitioner should be. "He's very much an embodiment of judo in that you never stop working and keep pursuing," Driscoll said. "Even in coaching and his ancient years, he's still able to keep coming. It's part of his routine." The program was started by Uchida in 1940, according to the SJSU Judo Web site. Uchida said he was hired to help teach the future sport of judo to police students and potential soldiers for World War II, and the sport was a way to condition them for future service both stateside and abroad. At the time, Uchida said he was 20 years old and a student at SJSU. "I was very fortunate to get it," Uchida said. "Besides, I was working my way through college so they gave me $30 a month, which was to me a big amount, so I could pay for my room and board. Of course this was in an era when I paid $15 a month."
When World War II started and Executive Order 9066 allowed the government to move immigrants with political ties to Germany and Italy and all Americans of Japanese decent into camps, the Japanese American community had their rights striped away, said Alex Yamato, a social science professor. The Spartan Complex West building was used as the first step in the mandatory relocation of Japanese Americans in the area, and it was renamed Yoshihiro Uchida Hall in 1997, Yamato said. "I don't think they were aware of that legacy because of Mr. Uchida's success as a judo coach and his contributions as a coach here," Yamato said. "I think it's kind of ironic." When Order 9066 was given, Uchida's family and the Japanese community were moved, he said. "The irritating thing was at that time there wasn't such thing as civil rights," Uchida said. "They thought the Consti-
tution would protect you, but you got to have someone that would really stand up for it. When the war started, my parents were put in the camps and I was drafted into the service. It was really a ridiculous kind of thing." Uchida said he was drafted into the Army and served as a medical technician. He said he gave vaccinations to soldiers as they were going off to the war front along with other odd jobs the Army would have him do. Beyond his medical position in the Army, Uchida said military life would have him perform tasks such as dishwashing and cleaning up movie theaters. These jobs never put a rifle put in his hands even after he graduated from basic training. "I learned a lot about hard work in there," Uchida said. "It was hard work, but it was discriminating work. All the other guys they had doing it
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Minority LGBT groups rising on campus Andrew Martinez Staff Writer Several new student social groups are geared toward serving the LGBT community at SJSU. Groups such as Queer and Asian, El Pais and Urban Pride provide a forum for those who identify as queer within communities of color, said Matthew Cadena, president of Q & A. Q & A is a student organization for those who identify as queer and Asian, Cadena said. El Pais is a student group for those who identify as queer and Latino, and Urban Pride serves queer persons who come from an urban environment where being open about one’s sexuality may not be safe, said El Pais president Steven Prudencio. Different cultures yield their respective customs and taboos, Cadena said. He said these subgroups are a way for queer people of color to identify themselves and commune outside of the mainstream or white gay perspective that is more widely represented. “People tend to be open in different ways,” he said. “Some-
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one might have a different cultural upbringing than an American upbringing.” Cadena said he is half Korean and half Mexican and is active in both Q & A and El Pais. Manuel Vasquez, a post-baccalaureate credential student,
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People tend to be open in different ways.
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Matthew Cadena President of Q & A
said that El Pais addresses the ways in which issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender roles and machismo influence the Latino community. “These issues have a unique way of affecting individuals,” said Vasquez, vice president of El Pais. Similar issues are also relevant to Q & A participants as well as Urban Pride, Vasquez said. El Pais’s first event was the
LGBT Latino Panel last semester and was attended by more than 40 people, Prudencio said. The panel discussed religion, culture and homosexuality in Latin communities, as well as understanding the interpretations that labels, such as gay or bisexual, take in different cultures, he said. Prudencio said the panel was a success, considering it was the group’s first event and it was well attended. El Pais, Q & A and Urban Pride are relatively new student clubs, Prudencio said. To become an official student group, Prudencio said a prospective group needs at least eight members. He said the three groups officially started in the Fall 2009 semester. El Pais currently has about 10 active members who attend meetings, but school schedules and midterms create a challenge of student involvement, Vasquez said. Vasquez said the modest membership could be because of hesitation to join the group. “The basic attitude in the Latin community toward queer
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Tax season sneaks up on SJSU students Kevin Hume Staff Writer Income tax season is here, and SJSU students are struggling with finishing their taxes as the April 15 deadline approaches. “It’s actually not that easy,” said sophomore biology major Jason Corey. Corey said he has always done his taxes in years past, but this year things were complicated because of his scholarships. “I have scholarships for the first time and I didn’t make much money,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out what portions are taxable and non-taxable because any scholarship or grant money used toward my living expenses is taxable, and I’m trying to figure out what that is.” Khoi Phan, a junior hospitality management major, said he wasted time trying to get his taxes done last year. “I thought I was supposed to do income taxes and I went through it,” Phan said. “But then, it wouldn’t let me turn it in online because I only worked half a year and it wasn’t enough money for me to be eligible to do the taxes. I basically wasted two days.” Phan said he was doing them himself this year after his siblings declined to help him. “I’m just trying to do it myself, no software or anything, just whatever the book tells me to do,” he said. “I’m trying to go step-by-step, and it gets kind of difficult.” Phan said taking his taxes to a tax service is a hassle
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people is that it is not something that you openly embrace or accept,” Vasquez said. Some of Vasquez’s goals include getting the word out, finding more members and working with other cultural organizations, he said. Vasquez said that El Pais currently operates as a social group, but that he would like for them to become politically active. Junior photography major Luis Canales said that the ethnic LGBT subgroups are good for discussions and fellowship, but hopes they don’t sidetrack the goals of the larger LGBT organization, QTIP. “I wish that they were all more active politically,” Canales said. Canales said he is concerned with issues of gay marriage going by the wayside. Prudencio and Vasquez said they are planning for El Pais to participate in a march for immigrant rights that aims to abolish discrimination in current U.S. immigration laws and help those individuals who may be persecuted in their home country based on sexual orientation.
Yoshihiro Uchida, who is the current head coach of the SJSU judo club and coached the first U.S. olympic judo team in 1964, turned 90 years old on Thursday.
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