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Forbidden love

by Robyn Israel

Mixed marriages certainly don't elicit surprise or shock in modern-day society, especially in the Bay Area. Open a newspaper, and it's not uncommon to hear of John Smith marrying Kim Ono, or Steve Williams wedding Grace Ito.

But when Gunjiro Aoki and Helen Gladys Emery announced their engagement in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 10, 1909, the news sparked outrage and contempt. Within a week of the engagement, California passed a bill that added Japanese to the list of Asians and other races forbidden to marry whites.

Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu will bring that story of forbidden love to life on Saturday at Dinkelspiel Auditorium when they perform "Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend." Presented by Stanford Lively Arts, the piece will feature storytelling by Wong Aoki and music by Izu. In keeping with Asian-style performance, the San Francisco couple will weave together theater, music and dance, along with video and projected historic images.

"It's nice when you have a story that's so emotional and dramatic, you let the audience feel it through music and movement," said Izu, who plays the acoustic bass and the ancient Chinese sheng, a multi-reed instrument. "They're part of the experience."

A post-performance discussion, which is free and open to the public, will be moderated by Rick Yuen, assistant dean of students and director of the Asian American Activities center at Stanford University.

The piece chronicles the story of Wong Aoki's great-uncle, Gunjiro, who followed his older brother, Chojiro, to San Francisco. Chojiro, who hailed from Nagano, had been invited to California in 1897, under the auspices of the Episcopal Church. As one of the first Japanese immigrants, he worked with Archdeacon John Emery of Grace Cathedral.

"My grandfather was a high-class guy, who came from a privileged family," said Wong Aoki.

Chojiro later sent for his younger brother, Gunjiro, to join him in California. Gunjiro initially settled in San Francisco's Japanese mission, but when the 1906 earthquake hit, he moved in with Archdeacon Emery. There the twenty-something man studied Christianity -- and Helen, Emery's daughter, a playwright with whom he fell in love. And she, in turn, was captivated by the dashing and handsome kendo master.

"They were fascinated with each other," Wong Aoki said. "And it was a great time to fall in love. The East had opened to the West, and people were intrigued by Asian culture and fashion, like kimonos and fans. Gunjiro and Helen thought they were in vogue."

The news of the couple's engagement made front-page news for a month in all four San Francisco dailies: the Chronicle, the Examiner, the Bulletin and the Call. In interviews, the couple proclaimed their love. "Can't you just understand? I love him," Emery told one newspaper reporter.

"What is the color of love?" Gunjiro asked a Japanese newspaper.

But the situation grew more violent. One day, when Gunjiro and Emery were sitting having tea in San Francisco's Ferry Building, they were approached by vigilantes, who came after Gunjiro. He escaped by jumping out of the second story.

"He was like Jackie Chan!" Wong Aoki marveled.

The couple, who married in Seattle in 1909, paid a heavy price for their union. Emery lost her American citizenship. And they could not find acceptance in either the Asian or the Caucasian communities, forcing them to live nomadically throughout their marriage. Even Wong Aoki's grandfather was banished by the church to Salt Lake, where he became a sharecropper.

"They didn't anticipate being treated like such pariahs," Wong Aoki said of the high-class couple. "It was a shock that neither community would take them."

Anti-Asian sentiment grew even stronger during the couple's marriage, laying the foundation for the Japanese internment during World War II. The Anti-Asian League, a San Francisco-based coalition of 200 labor organizations, proclaimed that businesses would be fined $50 per day if they hired an Asian worker. They used the Aoki marriage to exploit their cause, and even hired scientists to proclaim that the human race would devolve if the races were mixed.

When their first child, Sophronia, was born, one newspaper described the baby girl as having straight hair and slanted eyes, with the mouth the daintiest of Cupid bows. "The combination is a horrible blunder, the face neither yellow nor white," the story proclaimed.

In 1921 Stanford psychology professor Lewis Terman tested the five Aoki children, to see whether they were inferior, as the Anti-Asian League had proclaimed. They turned out to be geniuses. But days later, the league put pressure on Stanford to retract the statement, and the university complied, stating it was an unauthorized test.

The couple remained together for 23 years, until their eldest son, John, asked Gunjiro to leave, frustrated by the family's poverty and its constant burden of shame. Gunjiro complied, and died about a year later.

"I think he died of a broken heart," Wong Aoki said.

For Wong Aoki, the production of 'Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend" is akin to a mission, enabling her to share the story that remained a hidden secret in her family for many years. Indeed, she only uncovered the tale four years ago, when her then 106-year cloistered cousin, Sadae Aoki, alluded to a family scandal that had happened when she was 16 years old.

"It was a family gathering, and everybody wanted to hush her up," Wong Aoki recalled. "It made me want to find out more."

Wong Aoki researched the story at the San Francisco Public Library and traveled to Utah and Japan, uncovering the hidden details. She also combed through the archives of the Episcopal Church, with the assistance of Reverend John Rawlinson.

Since premiering in 1998 at San Franscico's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, "Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend" has been performed across the nation. The piece, Izu said, has touched a spark for a lot of mixed-race couples.

"We see them sitting in the audience for 15 minutes after it's over. It really makes them think," Izu said.

Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu will perform "Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend" tonight at 8 p.m. at Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Tickets are $28/$32; half-price for young people 15 and under; discounts for students. Tickets are available through the Stanford Ticket office at Tresidder Memorial Union or by calling (650) 725-ARTS. They can also be ordered online at http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

What: "Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend," performed by Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu. Presented by Stanford Lively Arts.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium

Cost: Tickets are $28/$32; half-price for young people 15 and under; discounts for students. Tickets are available through the Stanford Ticket office at Tresidder Memorial Union or by calling (650) 725-ARTS. They can also be ordered online at http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

Info: Call (650) 725-ARTS (2787) or visit http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

E-mail Robyn Israel at risrael@paweekly.com