Japanese Museum Cuts Ties With Theater Troupe Over Name

BURBANK —  The Japanese American National Museum has severed its ties with a theater company whose director deliberately chose a racial slur as the acronym for his acting troupe, officials said this week.

The nonprofit Japanese American Players, or JAP, had planned to donate all proceeds from its bilingual production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”--which is set to open Friday at the Gene Bua Theater for Life in Burbank--to the museum in downtown’s Little Tokyo.

But six weeks ago, after posters went up and complaints from the Japanese American community started pouring in, the museum abruptly withdrew its support and requested its name be deleted from all materials.

Theater director Ross MacKenzie said the production’s goal was to increase communication between Japanese and Americans. He knew the term was highly charged, he said, but he chose it anyway.

“It’s nice sometimes to stir the pot,” MacKenzie said.

Posters advertising the performance include an explanation of the acronym in small print, stating in part: “We purposely chose the initials J.A.P. to expose any derogatory meaning stemming from the World War II era. We hope to help bring an end to any prejudice they represent. Words only have the intrinsic value we give them. We are looking forward to bringing our two cultures together for a common goal.”

But the name has prompted threatening phone calls to MacKenzie’s home and to the owner of the small theater where the production is to be staged. MacKenzie is considering hiring a security guard opening night to protect his cast, he said.

Museum spokesman Chris Komai said the museum bore some responsibility for the flap because the troupe was upfront about the acronym but museum staff members did not red-flag it. But once the posters were out, he said, it became clear the museum would not be able to accept money from the troupe. There are no estimates of how much money the production would take in.

“There were people in our community who called immediately and said, ‘What the hell is this?’ ” Komai said. “They saw the posters and were very upset.”

Ken Narasaki, a fourth-generation Japanese American who works as literary manager for the East West Players, said the name is unforgivable.

“Every fight I ever got into when I was a kid someone called me a Jap,” said Narasaki, 42. “My parents were called Japs when they were shipped off to internment camps. The cry that went through California that got the Japanese shipped off was, ‘A Jap is a Jap is a Jap.’ We weren’t humans, we were Japs.”

Theater owners Toni and Gene Bua have also asked MacKenzie to change the troupe’s name.

“The Japanese Americans are very upset,” Gene Bua said. “And Ross is not moving on this at all. He has a contract with us. He has a right to express himself however he sees fit. I understand his right to do what he is doing. I also understand their right to express how they feel about it. We feel for both sides of this thing.”

MacKenzie said he knows the use of the acronym may leave him with an audience made up primarily of Japanese nationals who are not offended by the term, which has been used pejoratively against Americans of Japanese ancestry since the 1880s when Japanese began immigrating to the U.S.

World War II inflamed the prejudice, resulting in the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans by the U.S. government.

MacKenzie refuses to back down. He plans to place large posters in the window of the theater explaining the name. He and his actors also will send letters to those who have expressed outrage with the name, reiterating the troupe’s mission and asking that people refrain from violence.

“We sent out a letter to appease them,” MacKenzie said. “But this is a 1st Amendment thing. We’re going to go ahead with the name.”

In the bilingual production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” when Jekyll drinks the potion that turns him into his evil self, Hyde, he starts speaking Japanese. Or vice versa. Audiences can choose to see the 80% English or 80% Japanese version of the play, which will be performed for five weekends starting Friday.

MacKenzie said he chose “Jekyll and Hyde” because everyone knows the Robert Louis Stevenson story.

“I hope people will leave the theater having enjoyed it as a theatrical experience,” MacKenzie said. “I want them to realize there is no us and them. There’s only we.”