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39-413: Basement’s original mission was steeped in language suggestive of community grassroots mobilization. The goals spoke of "trying to understand ourselves and our communities; trying to provide resources to serve our people.” Specific objectives included community service education programs, including language classes, media such as a monthly magazine and newsletters. Basement’s formative years became shaped by

78-603: A J.D. magna cum laude from New York Law School . He served on the faculties of New York University School of Law , Western New England College School of Law , and the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa . Iijima died of a rare blood disease at age 57, on December 31, 2005. Iijima authored or co-authored many legal articles, including: Mako (actor) Makoto Iwamatsu ( 岩松 信 , Iwamatsu Makoto , December 10, 1933 – July 21, 2006)

117-859: A South Korean lieutenant. He appeared in an episode of the series The Time Tunnel as Lt. Nakamura in 1967. He appeared in an episode of the series Kung Fu as Wong Ti Lu in 1972. In 1974, he appeared in the Ironside episode "Terror on Grant Avenue". He appeared as a Japanese chef in the Columbo episode "Murder Under Glass" (1978). He was the blind philosopher Li Sung in two episodes of The Incredible Hulk . He also appeared on an episode of Magnum, P.I. entitled "The Arrow That Is Not Aimed" (1983). Mako also appeared in an episode of F Troop . He appeared as Lo Sing, fighting Bruce Lee 's Kato character in The Green Hornet episode "The Preying Mantis". He played

156-753: A community-wide demonstration against police brutality at City Hall. In addition to early members as urban designer/artist Danny Yung, dancer/choreographer Eleanor Yung, and singer-songwriters Charlie Chin, Chris Iijima, and Joanne Noboku Miyamoto , Basement attracted other artists, many emergent, some politically active; these  included photographer Corky Lee ; muralist and visual artist Tomie Arai ; poet Fay Chiang ; painter Arlan Huang; multimedia artists Larry Hama and Nina Kuo ; musician Jason Kao Hwang ; actor Tzi Ma ; playwright Frank Chin ; and writers Henry Chang and Jessica Hagedorn . Community activists included physicist Michio Kaku , and Robert Takashi Yanagida. This list, truncated as it is, does not embrace

195-643: A couple of years. Basement’s initial projects included the Asian American Resource Center, which sought to compile information and resources on Asian American history and communities; and Bridge Magazine, a seminal quarterly publication that discussed relevant Asian cultural and political issues in the US and aboard. It was at this juncture that Basement began expanding its ambit to include more artistic endeavors. Basement’s emphasis on media, including Bridge ’s inclusion of art and creative writing, worked as

234-673: A group of young urban planning students from Columbia University, including Danny N.T. Yung who had helped form the Chinatown Study Group leading to the Chinatown Report 1969, Basement Workshop legally incorporated in 1970. As suggested by its name, Basement began in a tenement-like basement at 54 Elizabeth Street, later moved to a space at 22 Catherine Street, and then to a loft at 199 Lafayette St. Its community arm, Community Planning Workshop (CPW) moved to 22 Catherine St. from at 1 East Broadway, where it held ESL and citizen classes for

273-520: A group of young volunteers, mostly Asian-American. In the mid -1970s when Basement members were caught up in fervent discussions and debates over the direction of their core organizational mission, whether it should be more a political or arts organization, CPW volunteers remained tied to addressing some of Chinatown’s more elemental needs. These volunteers, who tended to be more service-oriented, gravitated towards CPW, some after having participated in various other or Basement-sponsored community activities, as

312-441: A loose and disparate group of visual, performing and spoken word artists, writers, and politicized community advocates. Some were drop-ins, while others committed themselves for longer stretches. Some shared either compatible or competing loyalties with other community initiatives, such as community education activities, the promotion of affordable health care services, and the pursuit of Maoist political ideology. Regardless, many of

351-745: A minor role in the psychological thriller Pacific Heights along with Matthew Modine , Melanie Griffith and Michael Keaton ; Yoshida-san in Rising Sun ; Mr. Lee in Sidekicks ; Kanemitsu in RoboCop 3 (1993); and Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He also appeared in some Japanese television dramas and films, such as Masahiro Shinoda 's Owls' Castle and Takashi Miike 's The Bird People in China . Mako

390-569: A teenager he became acquainted with painter Hiroshi Honda . Though he faced racial discrimination , Iwamatsu bonded with his high school peers over baseball , and was scouted by the Cleveland Indians . Though he had an interest in dramatics, Iwamatsu did not believe an artistic career was financially viable, and enrolled in the Pratt Institute School of Architecture while working in his father's print shop. He later enlisted in

429-540: Is an endowed fund supporting cultural and economic diversity at the Manhattan Country School where Iijima taught for ten years. Iijima was born in New York City in 1948 to Takeru and Kazuko Iijima. His parents, both Nisei , or second-generation Japanese Americans, were active in promoting Asian American and general civil rights issues, helping to form Asian Americans for Action (the first such organization on

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468-797: The U.S. Army during the Korean War , he trained in acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and later co-founded the East West Players . His role as Po-Han (his second credited role on film) in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles saw him nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other various roles included Kichijiro in the 1971 film adaptation of Silence , Oomiak "The Fearless One" in The Island at

507-589: The U.S. Army in November 1953 and served until October 1955, during which he performed in plays for his fellow soldiers. He then trained at the Pasadena Playhouse and adopted the mononym Mako , as he found most people had difficulty pronouncing his full name. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1956. Mako's first film role was in Never So Few (1959). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as engine-room worker Po-Han in

546-460: The Asian American community in different ways, and this often depended on when and how they connected with Basement. Yet many were left with a profoundly personal yet collective sense of what it meant to be Asian American, particularly in the 70s and 80s through the lens of art, politics, community activism, and youthful idealism. In the Asian American arts community, certainly, Basement's influence

585-520: The Basement members were themselves in the discovery stages of their own personal development and artistic direction as they sought to redefine and affirm a proud Asian American identity and heritage in a society that continued to marginalize Asian American groups. By offering inspiration, Basement emboldened many to test their own creative vision, whether personal or collective, within an activist context of racial injustice and political oppression. Started by

624-835: The Census as "Other" suddenly realized that they had an identity, a history, and a place at the table." Iijima sang a song from the album on the Mike Douglas Show , co-hosted with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on February 15, 1972. Iijima was a founder of Asian Americans for Action , one of the first Asian American-focused civil rights organizations of the 1960s. Iijima later became a law professor and wrote about discrimination against Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and members of other racial groups. A documentary on Iijima's life, A Song for Ourselves , by Tadashi Nakamura premiered on February 28, 2009 in Los Angeles. The Chris Iijima Fund

663-580: The Chinatown Health Fair in 1972, and Basement’s own daycare center and arts program, Children at Basement. Basement’s various other arts projects and programs included silk-screening, dance choreography, photography, film workshops, and acting workshops, as the one taught by Mako , fresh from his Tony-nominated role in the 1976 Broadway musical, Pacific Overtures . Basement also sponsored community arts exhibitions and various school- and youth-based arts programs. Basement Workshop’s evolution embodied

702-712: The East Coast) and the United Asian Communities Center. Iijima earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1969. As a student, he was involved in the Columbia University protests of 1968 against the Vietnam War ; he is wearing a hat, immediately to the left of Mark Rudd , in a famous Life Magazine photograph of students in the office of president Grayson Kirk . He was a teacher at the Manhattan Country School from 1974-84. In June 1988, he received

741-889: The Top of the World (1974), Akiro the Wizard in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He was part of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim 's 1976 Broadway musical Pacific Overtures , which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical . Later in his career, he became well known for his voice acting roles, including Mr. Yamaguchi in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie , Aku in

780-511: The United States, leaving Mako in the care of his grandmother. Because his parents lived on the East Coast, they were not interned during World War II ; instead they opted to work for the U.S. Office of War Information and were later granted residency. They arranged for him to join them in 1949, when he was fifteen years old. Iwamatsu's father owned an art studio in New York City, and as

819-663: The character Lin Duk Coo in an episode of The A-Team . He guest-starred in an episode of season one of Frasier as well as in an episode of Tour of Duty as a Vietnamese scout. He also was a guest star in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk vs. The Cobra". He guest-starred in the Walker, Texas Ranger episodes "Heart of the Dragon" (1997) and "Black Dragons" (2000), and appeared on Charmed in 2003, creating magic for Chris (played by Drew Fuller ). He

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858-632: The company until 1989. Mako's Broadway career included creating the roles of the Reciter, the shōgun , and the Chicago-based inventor of the rickshaw , in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim 's Broadway musical Pacific Overtures , for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical . Mako's landlord at the time, Jerry Orbach , was also nominated for his role in Chicago ; both lost, however, to George Rose from

897-678: The ending theme of Dexter's Laboratory and voiced Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender from 2005 to 2006 . He had a guest appearance in the Nickelodeon film Rugrats in Paris: The Movie as the boss of Coco. He guest-starred in The West Wing episode " A Good Day " as an economics professor and former rival of President Bartlet . He was also featured in Season 3 Episode 13 of The Facts of Life , entitled "The Americanization of Miko". Mako made his video game debut with

936-454: The entire cadre of unnamed artists and community advocates whose participation helped give contour to Basement’s complexity. One of Basement’s original objectives included offering English classes. Often overlooked within Basement’s range of creative initiatives, CPW became Basement’s community arm. CPW held weekend English language and citizenship classes for adult Chinese immigrants, taught by

975-571: The film The Sand Pebbles (1966). Other roles include the Chinese contract laborer Mun Ki in the epic movie The Hawaiians (1970) starring Charlton Heston and Tina Chen ; Oomiak, the Inuit guide, in Disney's The Island at the Top of the World (1974); Yuen Chung in the film The Killer Elite (1975) directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Caan, Robert Duvall, and the martial artist Takayuki Kubota ;

1014-512: The first four seasons of Samurai Jack (2001–04), and Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender ( 2005 – 06 ). He died on July 21, 2006, at the age of 72 from esophageal cancer . Mako was born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe , Japan, the son of children's authors and illustrators Tomoe Sasako and Atsushi Iwamatsu, better known by their pen names Mitsu and Taro Yashima . In 1939, his parents, who were political dissidents, moved to

1053-573: The group Yellow Pearl ; their 1973 album, A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America (originally recorded on Paredon Records now Smithsonian Folkways was an important part of the development of Asian American identity in the early 1970s. AsianWeek columnist Phil Tajitsu Nash stated that when hearing the album or Yellow Pearl perform live, "From Boston to Chicago to San Francisco to Honolulu, Asian-derived people who had been classified in

1092-448: The impetus for attracting a wider group of young Asian Americans seeking a uniquely Asian American artistic expression. (The magazine lasted from 1971 to 1978.) In 1972, Basement Workshop published the iconic visual arts collection, Y ellow Pearl . Designed as a record album-size boxset of portfolio artwork, Yellow Pearl included poetry, song lyrics, and visual art. Basement offered both a kind of mental and physical space which fostered

1131-515: The initiation of projects that later morphed into separate and independent artistic and cultural endeavors. In this spirit, Yellow Pearl was soon followed in 1973 by the independent release of the record album, "a grain of sand" , with songs written and sung by Chris Iijima, Joanne Nobuku Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin. Amerasia Creative Arts, formed around this time in 1973, became Basement's visual arts arm. It produced publicity materials, including various graphics and posters for community events, including

1170-893: The larger trajectory of Asian American resistance art and culture. Over its decade and a half, Basement catalyzed the development of numerous other initiatives and organizations, including the Asian American Dance Theater , Asian American Arts Centre , Asian CineVision, Godzilla Asian American Arts Network , and the Chinatown Historical Project, which eventually led to the formation of the Museum of Chinese in America . By 1986 when Basement closed, it had developed four distinct arts and community silos: Asian American Resource Center; Bridge Magazine; Amerasia Creative Arts; and Community Planning Workshop. Even as it ended in 1986, its legacy endures. Basement impacted its members and

1209-527: The limited roles available to Asian-American actors, Mako and six others formed the East West Players theater company, first performing out of a church basement. During the company's 1981 season, to coincide with the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians ' hearings on redress , Mako exclusively produced plays about the Japanese American incarceration. He remained artistic director of

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1248-411: The limited run of the play Shimada in 1992. Mako appeared on the television series McHale's Navy several times, playing Imperial Japanese officers, soldiers and sailors. In 1965, he appeared on Gidget as a member of a rival surf group. He later appeared on the television series M*A*S*H , playing multiple roles such as a Chinese doctor, a North Korean soldier, a South Korean medical doctor and

1287-621: The revival of My Fair Lady . Mako recalled being awoken at 4:30 in the morning after the Tony ceremony by Orbach, who was shouting from the floor below: "Hey, Mako! What the fuck happened? I can't believe it; we lost to a fucking revival!". Mako reprised the role and directed the musical's production with the East West Players, and further reprised the role in a production at the San Jose Civic Light Opera in 1991. He also starred in

1326-1022: The role of the goblin Grubjub in Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003). In the same year, he also voiced General Han Yu Kim in True Crime: Streets of LA , Masataka Shima in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun , and various voices in Secret Weapons Over Normandy . In 2004, Mako voiced the narrator in the game Wrath Unleashed , and Aku in Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku . Mako was married to actress Shizuko Hoshi , with whom he had two daughters (both of whom are actresses) and three grandchildren. Mako died in Somis, California , on July 21, 2006, at

1365-640: The sorcerer Nakano in Highlander III: The Sorcerer ; Jackie Chan 's uncle/sifu in Chan's first American movie The Big Brawl (1980); the wizard Akiro opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the two Conan movies Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer ; the confidant to Chuck Norris ' rogue cop in the thriller An Eye for an Eye (1982); the Japanese spy in the comedy Under the Rainbow . In 1990, he had

1404-513: Was a Japanese-American actor, credited mononymously in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako (マコ). His career in film, on television, and on stage spanned 5 decades and 165 productions. He was an Academy Award , Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee. Born and raised in Kobe , Mako moved to the United States after the Second World War , where his dissident parents had moved to escape political persecution. After serving with

1443-542: Was cast as the historic Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the epic drama Pearl Harbor (2001). He also had a role in Bulletproof Monk (2003). In 2005, Mako had a cameo role in Memoirs of a Geisha . Mako's last leading role was in the film Cages (2005), written and directed by Graham Streeter . He voiced Master Splinter in the film TMNT , released posthumously in 2007 as his final credited role. In 1965, frustrated by

1482-402: Was far-reaching. Basement ignited, incited, engendered, and influenced: members and those on the periphery injected, rejected, refused, and infused; and ultimately the Asian American community received and conceived. Chris Iijima Chris Kwando Iijima (1948–2005) was an American folksinger, educator and legal scholar. He, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto , and Charlie Chin, were the members of

1521-401: Was the voice of Aku , the main antagonist in the animated series Samurai Jack for the first four seasons produced from 2001 to 2004, and again in the series finale which used his original audio. He also voiced Achoo (a parody of Aku) and the annoying alarm clock Happy Cat in a Samurai Jack -parodying episode of Duck Dodgers entitled "Samurai Quack". He provided the introductory voice for

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