Gidra 2.4 (April 1970)
Editorial: Marks One Year of Gidra:
"Gidra is one year old this month and it seems appropriate, on this occaions, to critically review and evaluate the accomplishments of the past year and to restate the goals and purposes of Gidra in light of the experience gained.
"Our initial objective was to bring about understanding through the exchange of ideas. We felt that any idea or opinion deserved to be heard, regardless of the language used. We soon found, however, that people got hung-up on the language and would consequently ignore the ideas expressed. the furor created by the use of 'profanity' during the recent Asians Americans for Peace rally in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, is an example of how people react so strongly to the language that they forget the ideas being expressed.
- ARM and Order, by Alan Ota and Carol Hatanaka.
- Long Beach Asian Studies. Update on the struggle to establish Asian American Studies as Cal-State Long Beach.
- Birth, by Bear. A retrospective on a year of Gidra, with short statements by key players, including Tracy Okida (credited with naming Gidra), Colin Watanabe (regular staff writer, who was also a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical Engineering at the time), and Mike Murase, among others.
- Strange Case of Mr. Ching, by Colin Watanabe
- Amerasian Pancakes. Announcement of upcoming Amerasian Pancake Breakfast fundraiser in Crenshaw.
- Asians for Peace, by Henry Hayase (Yale University, New Haven)
- Peace, Or Else, by Yuji Ichioka
- Community Day Dream by Tracy Okida
- Changes by Jo. A work of fiction describing growing political conscious and the rejection of pacifism.
- Column by Warren Furutani. On the Japanese language in the U.S. and the need for an ethnic press
- Yellow Brotherhood by Seigo Hayashi. A story about the decline of a youth organization -- many of its most active members are in college, and the organization is losing steam.
- Letter to the Editor from Glenn Omatsu: "East Coast Asians." A report on the growth of Asian American Studies and activist groups on the east coast. Mentions Asian Americans for Action (AAA). Also different chapters of Asian Americans for Political Action (AAPA), including the chapter at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College.
- Analysis of AAA. Unsigned. Announcement of activities of Asian Americans for Action in New York City. "As we enter the new year of 1970, Triple A thought it might be appropriate to analyze the first eight months of our existence. From the ten or twelve people who attended those first April meetings, we have grown to the poitn where we can assert that we have the beginnings of a movement. Concretely, we have accomplished much in the time between April and December. Together with a few other groups -- notably the Committee of Returned Volunteers -- we have brough the issues of Okinawa and the U.S. Japan Security Treaty to the attention of the American people for the first time. We have organized two demonstrations, one in New York and one in Washington DC, focusing on that issue.
- Aion Finally Arrives, by Vivian and Carol. A review of Aion 1.1.
Poems:
- Diary by Glenn Hayashi
- A State of Mind by Juzu T. Jifu
- "Who am I?" by Hashi
- "And when spring comes again, I will be free." by Lloyd Kajikawa
- "America / The Name ideal ; lost... / the reality ... decadence, oppression" by Ronnie Ohata