August 10 - 16, 2020

August 10 - 16, 2020 Vol. 28 No. 31

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$1.10 goes to vendor

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Arts & (Home) Entertainment

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SportsWise

The city is beginning to open back up, but most Chicago events and gatherings are cancelled until further notice. We are replacing our usual calendar with recommendations from StreetWise vendors, readers and staff to keep you entertained at home!

Getting back into the groove.

Cover Story: the end of wwII

With the Japanese surrender on Aug. 14, 1945 – VJ Day or Victory over Japan Day – World War II was finally over and Chicagoans flocked to State Street for the biggest party in its history. In the last year of the war, the U.S. turned more resources to the Pacific; the combination of air, land and naval operations countered overwhelming Japanese defenses to bring the war to an end, according to an exhibit at the Pritzker Military Library. And Chicago played a role in helping up to 20,000 Japanese Americans who had been interned in camps during the war resettle into new lives.

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From the Streets

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Inside StreetWise

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The Playground

A proposed ordinance before the Chicago City Council would require the Chicago Housing Authority to maintain a 97 percent occupancy rate and 60 day turnover of vacant units, with a preference for medically vulnerable people who need to move from congregate facilities in the wake of the coronavirus.

StreetWise mourns the passing of Vendor Charles Edwards, well known for selling StreetWise at the Walgreens at the intersection of Chicago and Michigan Avenues.

ON THE COVER: Revelers celebrate the end of World War II in front of the Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street in downtown Chicago. THIS PAGE: Newspaper debris after the downtown party tells the story. Both photos courtesy of the Chicago History Museum.

Dave Hamilton, Creative Director/Publisher

dhamilton@streetwise.org

StreetWiseChicago @StreetWise_CHI

Suzanne Hanney, Editor-In-Chief

suzannestreetwise@yahoo.com

Amanda Jones, Director of programs

ajones@streetwise.org

Julie Youngquist, CEO

jyoungquist@streetwise.org

Ph: 773-334-6600 Office: 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL, 60616

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ARTS & (HOME) ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS Since being stuck inside, which shows have you been watching? Which movies? Have you read any good books lately? Any new music releases have you dancing in your living room? StreetWise vendors, readers and staff are sharing what is occupying their attention during this unprecedented time.

To be featured in a future edition, send your recommendations of what to do at home and why you love them to: Creative Director / Publisher Dave Hamilton at dhamilton@streetwise.org

Support Local Artists!

Glenwood Avenue (Mobile) Arts Fest The popular Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest (GAAF) returns to Rogers Park for its 19th year in a new format to comply with COVID-19 safety guidelines prohibiting large public gatherings. This year on Saturday and Sunday, August 15 and 16, from noon to 4 p.m., the festival becomes the Glenwood Avenue (Mobile) Arts Fest, taking place as four two-hour tours of the streets of Rogers Park surrounding the Glenwood Avenue Arts District at Glenwood and Morse Avenues. Local musicians including the Urban Rhythm Band and the Joyce Renee Walker Band will perform live on a mobile stage along with large-scale video screens showcasing GAAF artists’ works, which will be available in “booths” in a corresponding virtual festival. Brief stops along the GAAF mobile tour routes will allow residents to enjoy art and music at a safe distance along the sidewalks and from the windows of their homes. The festival encourages the community to support local artists and businesses within the Glenwood Avenue Arts District in Rogers Park. The Chicago Bluesmobile will travel the festival route on Friday, Aug. 14 from 6-9 p.m. for a festive kickoff. Festival tour maps and the virtual festival layout linking to artists’ booths is available at www.glenwoodave. org.

(HOME) ENTERTAINMENT

Document your Life!

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Chinese American Museum of Chicago’s ‘Together Against COVID-19” Together Against COVID-19 is an ongoing special collection “with the goal of recording the experiences and stories of individuals, families, and organizations during these unprecedented times.” You can submit your experience or story to covid19@ ccamuseum.org with the subject “Together Against Covid-19 Collection." Please include your contact information, including full name, organization or community if applicable, email, phone number, and mailing address.

Play an Instrument!

Live Lesson Masters Live Lesson Masters is a network of acclaimed musicians offering online classes to those wanting to learn an instrument. The artists take on students of any skill level and proceeds are used to support struggling musicians and personnel who cannot tour during this time. Among the masters offering up their skills are member of the Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein, Umphrey’s McGees’ gutarist Brendan Bayliss and keyboardist Joel Cummings, Trey Anastasio Band saxophonist James Casey, acclaimed steel pedal guitarist Robert Randolph and jazz funk pianist Robert Walter. Learn more at www.livelessonmasters.com/music -Recommended by StreetWise contributor Kathleen Hinkel

A History Lesson!

Lunch & Learn: The Final Months of World War II The final months of World War II were some of the most tumultuous in US history: a beloved President, Franklin Roosevelt, had died suddenly, leaving an unprepared Harry S. Truman to take his place. While fighting raged in the Pacific Theater, the war in Europe was coming to its conclusion as Allied forces continued to liberate nations under Axis control.

Hear more about this riveting moment in history from an expert, Dr. Kristen Burton, Teacher Programs and Curriculum Specialist at The National WWII Museum and host of their podcast on the final months of World War II, "To the Best of My Ability." Dr. Burton’s "Lunch & Learn" program will guide the audience through the last moments of a war that changed the world.

The event takes place August 14 at 2 p.m.; register online at ilhmec.org, the website of the Illinois Holocaust Museum. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to access the program.

Enjoy Virtual Theatre!

Goodman Theatre Intergens Virtual Performance On August 14, time TBA, 20 participants aged 14 to 40 create original devised work that considers the perspectives of all ages in this acclaimed annual program that unites high school students, working artists and lifelong learners. The current session includes eight young artists, nine GeNarrations participants and three Goodman Theatre staffers. FREE.Learn more at goodmantheatre.org

Distance Yourself!

W hat better way to spend this unprecedented and frustratingly uncertain time than disassociating! It’s not in my nature to brag, but I have absolutely nailed it. Here’s the perfect recipe to pass the time and avoid getting stuck in an endless rabbit hole of what ifs and whens and, perhaps most insidious of all, the whys. Step 1. GET HIGH. Straight forward and freshly legal, if you’re only going to follow one step, make sure it’s this one. Step 2. Put on an excellent reality escape – lazy docudramas? Yes! Trash reality TV? Gold star. I am currently working my way through the Marvel movies in the Marvel universe order. It’s the perfect amount of blather and action and NONE OF IT IS REAL. Step 3. Get yourself a Diamond Painting. I had never had the pleasure before lockdown, but from the moment I started, I knew I had found the perfect antidote to that feeling of not doing enough and not wanting to do more. It’s similar to a paint by number, but you poke thousands of sparkle diamonds onto a weird 8-bit photo of a cat riding a unicorn through the heavens. Highly recommended!

-Recommended by StreetWise reader Michelle Himsalam .

-Compiled by Dave Hamilton

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Vendors Russ Adams, John Hagan and Donald Morris chat with Executive Assistant Patrick Edwards about the world of sports.

SPORTSWISE

Getting

back into the swing of things

Donald: All right, folks, let’s give it up for SportsWise!

We’re still not in full effect, but we’re headed there and, I for one, am excited and ready to do this.

Russ: You and me both, Don. It’s real good to get back together on these pages again with the knowledge that we’re eventually going to get our rhythm back.

John: Agreed. I’m glad we’re all good.

Patrick: I am, too. I mean, I wasn’t too worried, but we’ve had a couple of our brothers go down recently—Charles Edwards and Lawrence Anthony—so I’ve learned that every time I see someone, I’m going to treat that person as if it could be the last time I see him.

Russ: Yeah…

Donald: Definitely R.I.P. A brief moment, y’all. All right, so let’s get to it. John, what are you thinking about where we are in the sports world?

John: Thanks, Don. Well, I have to get right to it: Baseball is weird right now.

Don: What do you mean?

Russ: Shoot, he might be talking about the cardboard cutouts behind home plate!

Patrick: Yeah, now that threw me, too. I hadn’t even read that’s what they were going

to do.

John: I knew it, but it was still a trip. And from the players’ perspective, hitting a home run can’t feel right to them without having any fans— Donald: Well, now, they got fans— Russ: Just cardboard fans!

John: But, yeah, even on top of that, no one gets a souvenir. The Cardboards ain’t getting it!

Donald: Russ, I see you over there. What you got going on in your brain with where we are in the sportsworld?

Russ: I, for one, am so excited that baseball is back. The other day, I watched the first game of the season between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

Patrick: I watched a lil’bit of that. I missed baseball, too.

Russ: I know, right? Shoot, it was nice to see the balls fly-

ing around, pitchers throwing 100 miles-an-hour—Yes, baseball is back! Right now, I’m multitasking: Doing this show as well as watching the Cubs play now. Go, Cubs.

Donald: I missed baseball, too. Don’t know if I even realized it until now. But, Russ, what do you think about the game not having any noncardboard fans?

Russ: Well, I’m okay with it, you know? I mean, I watch the game anyway—not watch the fans—so, shoot, I’m still enjoying the game.

John: So you’re saying you just don’t care?

Russ: Pretty much, man. I don’t care about others' opinions; fans or no fans, I’m there. I love my sports.

Donald: I got you, Russ. So, Patrick, what you got for us?

Patrick: Thank you, Don. Well, the cardboard people

did throw me. But I realize after a month of watching these cardboard people, we won’t even “see” the fans anymore. The way the Cubs are going, I don’t give a blank what’s going on off the field.

(Laughter all around.)

Patrick: Basketball. I’m looking forward to it. The funny thing is just like the fans situation in baseball, there will be an effect; in fact, it may be worse with basketball. Because basketball is so up and down so much quicker with, I believe, more exciting plays, it’s going to be weird not to hear the fans get up and roar.

But, like Russ, I’m excited for baseball, for sports. We might be good, y’all.

Donald: Agreed. That said, thank you all for joining us.

If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail us at pedwards@streetwise.org.

WHERE THE PROTESTS END, OUR WORK BEGINS. For nearly a century, we’ve been working to promote racial justice. Help us achieve it once and for all.

UntilJusticeJustIs.org

The Largest Party in

the 75th anniversary of the night chicago

by Stella Kapetan

Chicagoans in August 1945 were eagerly awaiting official news of the Japanese surrender to the Allies that news outlets had been reporting for weeks was imminent and would end World War II. People were weary of the war that had begun more than three years earlier when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. More than 11,000 servicemen and women from Cook County and 400,000 nationwide were dead, according to the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.

The average Chicago block had seven of its own in the service. Finally, on Tuesday, August 14 at 6 p.m. CT, President Truman announced the surrender. “No force on earth could stop what happened then,” the Sun newspaper reported at the time. Within minutes 10,000 Loop workers poured out of office buildings, restaurants and hotels and flooded the sidewalks and streets, the Chicago Tribune wrote. Thousands more who were headed home after work turned around and went back. Others from the city, suburbs and surrounding area hopped onto trains and streetcars and into their cars and rushed down to join the festivities, while factories that were involved in wartime production sent busloads of their employees.

It was natural for people to gravitate to downtown to celebrate what is known as V-J Day, Perry Duis and Scott LaFrance wrote in their book, “We’ve Got a Job to Do, Chicagoans and World War II.” It had been the scene of military parades, rallies, outdoor prayer services and other emotional events the government staged throughout the war to boost and sustain morale.

While the celebration occurred throughout downtown, the center was State and Madison streets. The Daily News reported that by 8 p.m., “In a four block area bounded by Madison, Clark, Randolph and State sts. police estimated a million persons were poking each other with elbows and shouting into everybody’s ears. Nobody apologized. Nobody wanted an apology.” And more were on their way. The party lasted well past midnight. And it was loud.

Revelers of all ages, from adolescents to the elderly, cheered, sang, danced and jittberbugged in the streets accompanied by drums, noisemakers, clackers and tin horns under a blizzard of wastepaper, confetti, ticker tape and bags of water that fell from office building windows. Five sailors and three nurse cadets started a conga line at State and Madison streets.

Several hundred people joined them until the line stretched for several blocks. Also on State Street, two women who had managed to find large drums led a two-block long parade.

Firecrackers popped and “dishpans and spoons became musical instruments,” the Daily News reported.

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Meanwhile, there were other spontaneous expressions of joy.

Servicemen kissed women. And women kissed servicemen, leaving them with lipstick smeared faces.

While many streets were officially closed to traffic, others were effectively shut down by the crowds. Trapped drivers joined in the fun by honking their horns. The Chicago Tribune reported that by 8 p.m., “Some of the traffic policemen gave up and went into restaurants,” while others were swept up by the crowds.

Over on Madison Street, just west of State Street, the fire department responded to a false alarm at the McVickers Theater. “When the truck moved away, a score of spectators were clinging to it," the Daily News reported.

Bar owners had agreed that they would close their businesses as soon as the surrender was announced in anticipation of the rowdy crowd. “But there was an abundance of liquor in bottle dimensions” the Daily News reported. “It was better than going to a saloon and cheaper. Anybody who wanted a drink could get it from the guy jostling him. Service was swell.

Some of those with bottles had brought along paper cups.”

Sailors on Randolph Street put their bottles of beer to good use by extinguishing a car fire.

Despite the throngs and free flowing liquor, “It was a carnival of clean fun,” Chief John Prendergast of the uniformed police told the Daily News. The estimated 800 policemen had little to do “except look on and smile at the celebrants,” the Chicago Herald American reported. Trolley car wires were disconnected from overhead wires "but the motormen and conductors didn’t seem to mind,” according to the Daily News. The seven first aid stations set up to treat minor injuries saw few people. And the Red Cross treated 200 people for fainting, minor injuries and heart attacks by 11:30 p.m. the Chicago Tribune wrote.

At dawn, the last of the partygoers staggered home, and city workers started clearing the debris from the streets.

In the weeks leading up to V-J Day, while Chicagoans knew the war’s end was near, many feared there would be a return to Depression era unemployment with the expected elimination of thousands of war-related jobs. But while they were celebrating on that August night 75 years ago, the only thing that seemed to be on their minds was that their loved ones away at war - many for years - were coming home.

Downtown History

oans celebrated the end of world war II

LEFT TOP: At the White House, President Truman announces Japan's surrender. Abbie Rowe, Washington, DC, August 14, 1945 .

LEFT BOTTOM: Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay. Behind Gen. MacArthur are Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright and Lt. Gen. A. E. Percival.

Although some of the Japanese were attired formally, in tails and top hats, MacArthur specified daily service dress for the Americans, reportedly saying, "We fought them in our khaki uniforms and we'll accept their surrender in our khaki uniforms."

Lt. C. F. Wheeler, September 2, 1945.

Both photos courtesy of the National Archives.

RIGHT: Revelers celebrate the end of World War II in front of the Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street in downtown Chicago.

Photo courtesy of the Chicago History Museum.

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The Pritzker Military Library celebrates the end of WWII with

'The Allied Race to Victory'

by Suzanne Hanney

Anniversaries are always important, and with the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II on August 14, “we believe you should pause for a moment and think about what has gone before and educate those born more recently for whom it is historic memory,” said Rob Havers, Ph.D, president and CEO of the Pritzker Military Library, regarding its current exhibit, “The Allied Race to Victory.”

As the tide turned for the Allies in 1944, the last year of WWII, the United States shifted resources to the Pacific.

Combined air, land and naval operations countered overwhelming defenses to bring the war to the Japanese main island and end it.

The 75th anniversary, Dr. Havers said, is one of the last where World War II veterans are still with us. “We are on the cusp of living memory rolling over into actual history and there is something terribly poignant when you come face to face with an individual who lived the service you are teaching on.”

The Pritzker Library chose to cover the war with Japan “because we felt that it has often gotten lost in the shuffle, but it was a very crucial part of World War II. Looking back from the vantage point of 75 years, it seems inevitable the Allies would triumph, but it didn’t seem that way at the time,” Dr. Havers said.

Instead, Americans lived with uncertainty – much like today’s struggle with COVID-19. “The war against Japan wasn’t decided conclusively until the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.”

U.S. military units that had finished fighting in Europe in spring 1945 were on standby for an invasion of Japan.

Estimates were that a million US personnel could be lost.

“There is no escaping the manner of those casualties are horrific,” Dr. Havers said. “The context at the time was that the U.S. was conducting conventional raids on the mainland,

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inflicting casualties at the same rate as Hiroshima. There was little debate in the minds of military and political leaders in the U.S. about the absolute necessity not of burning civilians but of ending the war because every day casualties were going on, on both sides.”

Seizure of the Mariana Islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian in July and August was the first Allied success of 1944. The islands provided airfields within range of Japan. In the corresponding Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost nearly all its carrier-based aircraft.

In September 1944, the U.S. began an assault at Peleliu in the Philippines, territory it lost in 1942 when Japanese defeated a joint force of Americans and Filipinos. Gen. Douglas MacArthur had fled, but promised to return.

Retaking the Philippines was the largest campaign in the Pacific; after success at Peleliu, soldiers advanced on the island of Leyte on October 20 and on the largest island, Luzon, on Jan. 9, 1945.

Simultaneously, Marines under Adm. Chester Nimitz drew ever closer to Japan, landing at Iwo Jima in February 1945 and Okinawa in April 1945.

In the last two months of 1944, the Air Force began using the new B-29 bomber on Japanese military-industrial targets. In January 1945, the strategy switched to low-level, indiscriminate firebombing, which took the lives of 300,000 civilians in the final months of the war. On August 6, after the Japanese had refused unconditional surrender, the Allies dropped an atomic bomb -- equivalent to 2,000 B-29s – on Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people. When there was still no response, a second atomic bomb was dropped August 9 on Nagasaki, killing 13,000 people. On the afternoon of August 15, the Japanese accepted unconditional surrender. The United States began occupation of Japan that month and the formal surrender was signed September 2 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay.

October 20, 1944 - Leyte Led by the firepower of the U.S. 7th fleet, Allied forces stormed ashore at 10 a.m., but the Japanese sent reinforcements from Luzon over the next two months.

October 23 - 26, 1944 The Battle of Leyte Gulf Possibly the largest naval battle in history involved 200,000 personnel: combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy off the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon.

As U.S. forces made their way ashore, the Imperial Navy sent its remaining six carriers – bereft of planes – to lure the US 3rd fleet into open waters and its more heavily armed battleships. But more accurate American gunnery, combined with advanced submarine warnings and U.S. Navy air superiority, sank four Japanese carriers and 22 other battleships, destroyers and cruisers. The U.S. Navy lost six ships, including three carriers, to “kamikaze” suicide bombers.

Map courtesy of the Pritzker Military Library and Museum.

h

INSETS: TOP: Army reinforcements disembarking from LST's form a graceful curve as they proceed across coral reef toward the beach."

Laudansky, Saipan, ca. June/July 1944.

'

BOTTOM: Flag raising on Iwo Jima, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press, February 23, 1945.

Both photos courtesy of the National Archives.

Jan. 9, 1945 - Luzon Landing on the northern Philippine Island, the 6th Army faced little resistance because the Japanese Army had withdrawn to the jungles. General MacArthur moved south to Manila, Corregidor and Bataan to liberate American and Filipino POWs. The battle for Manila destroyed the city and left 100,000 civilians dead.

Navajo “code talkers” had been in the Pacific campaign since Peliliu and played a major role on Iwo Jima, according to the National World War II Museum website. Fluent in both their own language and English, they used 26 Navajo terms that stood for English letters and also specific terms: “besh-lo,” or “iron fish,” for example, for “submarine.” The enemy was never able to break their code.

February 19, 1945 - Iwo Jima Almost equidistant from Guam and the main Japanese island of Honshu, Iwo Jima was strategic for staging air attacks and refueling.

Following two months of aerial bombing and two more days by sea, Marines landed. But anticipating the invasion, Japanese soldiers had created 11 miles of protective tunnels, bunkers and pillboxes.

Marines gained ground inch by inch, often within the tunnels themselves. After the 36day battle, the Marines had lost 7,200 men, the Japanese 21,000.

April 1 - June 22, 1945 - Okinawa Okinawa was the Japanese high command’s last stand for the homeland. The Allies invaded at dawn on Easter with 1300 U.S. and 50 British ships.

The Allies won on the beaches, but the Japanese had withdrawn into caves in the rugged Shuri hills. On April 7 the battleship Yamato was sent to launch a surprise attack on the U.S. Fifth Fleet and to annilhilate American troops pinned down at Shuri. Instead, Allied submarines spotted the Yamato and alerted the fleet, which bombarded and sank the ship.

Fierce battles for the hilly terrain continued April 26 to May 6. On Hacksaw Ridge, Cpl. Desmond T. Doss was an Army medic, a conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon and who rescued 75 wounded comrades. The movie “Hacksaw Ridge” (2016) tells his story.

The largest Japanese “kamikaze” attacks of the war sank 26 Allied ships and severely damaged 168; almost 40 percent of the US dead were sailors lost to these attacks. But intense fire from the U.S.S. Mississippi and fighting on land forced the surrender of Shuri Castle in late May. Accepting futility, Japanese General Ushijima and his chief of staff General Cho committed ritual suicide on June 22, which ended the battle.

Americans lost roughly 14,000, the Japanese 77,000. Up to 150,000 Okinawan civilians died: some burned beyond recognition, some suicides and bodies never recovered.

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The end of world war II leads to 2o,ooo

Japanese american resettler

by Suzanne Hanney

Michael Takada’s dad was a Boy Scout and a football player -a high school senior in Los Angeles at the beginning of World War II -- when all of a sudden, he became “the enemy.”

“There’s nothing like hearing, ‘your family has days to settle your affairs and report to an assembly center,’” said Takada, whose grandparents, father and uncle were among as many as 120,000 Japanese Americans interned in camps during the war. His dad received his diploma in May 1942 at the Santa Anita racetrack assembly center – where the family slept in the stalls for the thoroughbreds – before going by train to a camp in Granada, Colo.

The injustice was that, “My dad was an American citizen," as were two-thirds of detainees. His immigrant grandparents, however, had been unable to become naturalized citizens, because U.S. law did not allow Asians to do so until the 1950s.

Meanwhile, “no person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States was ever convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during the war,” according to NPS.gov.

Takada believes his dad did everything he could to minimize his time in the camp by volunteering to go on work details, which were encouraged because of the wartime labor shortage. He cut sugar beets and he did factory work, ranging farther and farther east. He kept finding himself in Chicago and, as the elder of two sons, brought his parents here after the war.

People of Japanese ancestry numbered just 400 in the 1940 census but an estimated 20,000 in 1946-47, said Takada, who is chief executive officer of the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC). As the second largest city in the U.S., Chicago offered a wide range of manual labor and for some, the chance to be sponsored to attend college and become a white-collar worker or professional. There was also affordable housing at the time in Hyde Park, Kenwood, around Clark and Division Streets, and in Uptown.

“The story I remember my father telling me was that he worked at International Harvester and after a period, Oscar Mayer. He was brought along by friends and then he brought his friends.

My mom and dad actually met at this organization.”

Known as the Chicago Resettlers Committee until 1954, JASC was founded in 1945 by a former camp internee who took a job at the YMCA of Chicago, and others. The organization helped people coming out of the camps set up a bank account, find an apartment, learn English. It also provided cultural activities like festivals – Boys’ Day and Girls’ Day – that elders and kids were used to, “seemingly little milestones that happen in peoples’ lives, but if you’re coming to a new area, it’s nice to find a community that celebrates in a familiar way.”

Takada’s mother had been born in Japan but went to college in Kansas on a scholarship that was part of postwar recov-

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ery efforts. She would travel and when she came to Chicago, visited JASC to help with translation. “She raised four kids and was a classic stay-at-home mom. She went back to school and ended up teaching Japanese to Americans and families like myself,” then became an administrator with District 65 in Evanston.

His father, now 95, started at the Chicago City Colleges in the early 1950s (even though he feared he was too old) and then transferred to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, where he received a degree in mechanical engineering. He always had his parents with him: at the first house he and his wife bought in Uptown, where his grandparents had a floor to themselves, and then in Evanston.

Takada remembers that his grandfather loved gardening most.

“He ended up ’til he died working at the University of Chicago Quadrangle Club, tending the rose garden. He would schlep down from the North Side to Hyde Park every day on the L. He was a force.” His grandmother worked for a time at Reynolds Aluminum on the northwest side.

As a third-generation Japanese American, Takada could not get information from his father about the early 1940s until his children approached their grandfather when he was in his 70s. “It became clear it was really important to the kids,” and to Takada’s surprise, his father opened up.

When immigrant elders – the “Issei” – reached their 70s and 80s, JASC shifted its mission to serve them with adult day services, homemaker services, even activities to alleviate iso-

proposed ordinance rs in chicago seeks better use of housing during pandemic lation. In the 1980s, JASC answered the need for senior housing by starting a subsidiary that built the 200-unit Heiwa Terrace at Lawrence Avenue and Sheridan Road in Uptown in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

A proposed ordinance before the Chicago City Council would require publicly subsidized housing to maintain a 97 percent occupancy rate and a 60-day turnover of vacant units due to the coronavirus pandemic.

During a July 28 press conference, Ald. Chris Taliaferro, chief sponsor, described new housing in his West Side 29th ward that sat vacant for nearly a year before it was occupied. “It’s important that we partner with the Chicago Housing Authority and the community to identify this stock and permanently house the medically vulnerable. It’s unfathomable that we sit on unoccupied homes while some people are on the street or in congregate housing.”

Takada himself has been CEO of JASC for the last six years, following a 30-year career in financial services. He’s living and working in Uptown, three blocks from his family’s first house.

“As my youngest graduated college, I decided I would like to spend my energies in a different way. I was lucky to find the opportunity to lead this organization because it’s so much a part of me and I really believe in it, giving back to my community. I love it, I’m really blessed.”

BELOW: Heiwa Terrace, 920 W. Lawrence Ave. Brian Lee photo.

“Basically, we have to understand we must protect the most vulnerable members of our community, because our communities are an interconnected set,” said Don Washington, executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative. “We are only as secure as they are. It’s not only a moral objective but a public health obligation.”

FROM THE STREETS

ABOVE: Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly Center from San Pedro.

Evacuees lived at this center at the former Santa Anita race track before being moved inland to relocation centers. Clem Albers, Arcadia, CA, April 5, 1942. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The ordinance would also create a 20 percent preference for medically vulnerable people who need to move from a congregate living facility – a shelter, nursing facility, detention center or jail -- to avoid life-threatening exposure to the virus, said Ald. Walter Burnett, a co-sponsor.

“We need to address all the unique special characteristics and weaknesses in our infrastructure. It’s just like when you are running for your car in a downpour, it only works if all the doors are closed,” said W. Susan Cheng, Ph.D, M.P.H. of the Illinois Public Health Association Executive Council.

According to the proposed COVID-19 Public Health Housing Ordinance, the coronavirus has killed more than 1,700 Chicagoans, 77 percent of whom are African American and Latinx. In addition, 1 in 4 (25 percent) of residents in homeless shelters have tested positive for the virus and many of them are medically vulnerable.

Debra Miller of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus lived in a shelter 10 years ago and said they are not safe for people with multiple illnesses like herself. “When you are in the shelter it is one big room and you are at risk of being so close to people because your bathrooms are shared: maybe only three for 40 women and they have to be cleaned after each use.”

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A fond farewell to Vendor Charles Edwards

by Alyssa Panganiban

Charles Edwards always had “a friendly attitude and always … a smile as he greets folks, no matter what the weather happens to be,” said his customer Vada at the southeast corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues. “I always enjoy our brief conversations …how inspiring it is to visit with this kind gentleman who has such great pride in his work with StreetWise.”

Mr. Edwards, who died the weekend of July 25, was born Oct. 23, 1954 to Willa Mae Edwards and Charles Edwards on the West Side of Chicago. He grew up in Robert Taylor Homes, on the South Side, what he called “one of the worst projects.”

Mr. Edwards worked most of his life. He dropped out of DuSable High School four months before graduation because of the beatings that happened there every day. “I was drafted into the Marine Corps in 1971 when I was 18 years old. That experience was something else.

I never held a weapon before I got drafted. I was never involved with gangs growing up, and they tried to recruit me. I did a little over four years in the Marines. I did my bootcamp in San Diego, and I’ve been all over California and Vietnam. I got shot in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam, on my right side, and I developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A 10-year-old kid shot me. They were training little kids over there.

INSIDE STREETWISE

“When I came back from the war, I had 4th stage cancer. I caught prostate cancer there because of Agent Orange. Agent Orange was used to spray off the enemies who hid in the trees, wearing camouflage. I was taking radiation therapy, but I’m still at fourth stage. I was told by my doctor that if I wasn’t at 3rd stage, there was nothing he could do for me. So it looks like I’m not going to be around too long,” he said in the July 29-Aug. 4, 2019 edition, nearly a year before his death.

14

“I’m in this wheelchair because I’m weak and cancer takes away all my strength and appetite. The doctor told me if I don’t start walking regularly, I could lose my legs. I’m only in this chair when I’m in a lot of pain. Normally, I try to walk with a walker and a cane. But I can feel my health slowing down. When I came back from the war, I used to get 45 percent health benefits, and I want 100 percent health benefits.

I served this country and now it’s time for them to serve me. No one could imagine what I went through over there. I’m entitled to my benefits, and I want my readers to know that.

“StreetWise is one of the best jobs I have ever had. Veronica, one of my best friends, pushes me here when I’m in pain and brings me to work, and then she goes to her spot. My spot is a great spot. I’m on Michigan and Chicago Avenues. A lot of my customers ask about me!

I care about them, and they care about me. They give me Christmas presents. and birthday presents. I’m out there every day, so I get to see regular customers.

“The conditions at my nursing home are terrible. There are people stealing my clothes, and I had to go get a new wardrobe with the money that I saved from working at StreetWise. I’ve caught people red-handed on my floor. I can’t wait to get out of that place. I’m looking to get my own apartment with my girlfriend, Viola Jackson. We met at Robert Taylor; we’ve been together 30 years last February and I am going to marry her before I die. We have a daughter, Ketta Jackson, and a grandkid, Larriana Jackson, who live all the way on the South Side.”

Photos by Allie Mahoney and Kathy Hinkle.

Streetwise 7/6/20 Crossword To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

Sudoku

©2020 PuzzleJunction.com

34 Poseidon’s 9 Terrace domain 10 Horse holders 35 Clairvoyance, 11 Sandwich e.g. filler 38 Plaudits 12 Deep black 13 Darn, as socks 43 Compass pt.

44 Head or neck 18 Make ready, wear briefly 46 Trues up 22 Aerodynamic 48 Face-off, of 24 Moppet sorts 25 Keep n 50 Aches 26 Demolish 51 Recycle 27 Numbers 52 Notability Floor cleaner game 53 Food Spring bloom 28 The Nile and thickener Subspecies Mississippi 54 Connect have them Acid 55 “Go away!” neutralizers 30 Less 56 Berkshire Gator relatives hazardous school Rolling in 31 Happening 57 At rest 32 ©2020 FormerPuzzleJunction.com dough Copyright 60 “___ so fast!”

Speaker Durable wood 61 Egg cells Colorado Gingrich 62 Timid native 33 Elec. units Started a lawn All excited Needles, in a way Primary Stars Ark builder Coastal raptors Affirm See 33 Across

Copyright ©2020 PuzzleJunction.com

©PuzzleJunction.com

Solution Puzzle Answers last week's

Solution

Solution

Find your nearest StreetWise Vendor at

PuzzleJun

Crossword

Across 1 Stag 5 Paradise 9 Blue-pencil 13 Water holder 14 Energy 16 Ocean motion 17 Restaurant posting 18 Building block 19 Riding the waves 20 Having a cover, possibly 22 Deli side 24 Lunch meat 25 Kind of school 27 Be theatrical 29 City near Düsseldorf 32 “___ show time!” ©2020 PuzzleJunction.com 34 Wander 36 Agreement 57 Conceal 8 Male 37 Before bum or 59 Pointer aristocrats bunny 62 Play disaster 9 Gr. letter 38 Animal Farm 64 Invitee 10 Rumpled author 66 News bit 11 Inspiration 40 ___ Gang 68 Razorbills 12 Squad comedies 69 Good 15 Enlarge, as a 41 Lacking judgment hole completeness, 70 Bunsen burner 21 Sea bird as a report 71 Take a break 23 Fret 43 Fabrication 72 Dispirited 26 Game fish 44 Meager 73 Extinct bird 28 Pull 46 Escort’s 29 Heroic poem offering Down 30 Gravy, e.g.

47 NY club 1 Skirt feature 31 Certain 48 Foil’s relative 2 Blown away albums 49 Actress Balin 3 Nevada city 33 Colossus 50 West Pointer 4 Horn 35 Blue bloods 51 Marina sights 5 Dodge 37 Heavens 53 Den denizen 6 Who ___ that? 38 Electrical 55 “Give it ___!”

7 Psyches unit

39 For fear that 41 Fulton’s power 42 Shellfish 45 The Matrix hero 47 Espoused 49 Supplied 50 Auto 52 Labels 54 Consumed 55 At a distance 56 Bond 58 Bingo relative 60 ___ von Bismarck 61 Proceed crookedly 63 Cal. hours 65 Compass pt.

67 Jacket type

www.streetwise.org

How StreetWise Works

Our Mission

Orientation Participants complete a monthlong orientation, focusing on customer service skills, financial literacy and time management to become a badged vendor.

Financial Literacy Vendors buy StreetWise for $0.90, and sell it for $2. The profit of $1.10 goes directly to the licensed vendor for them to earn a living.

Supportive Services StreetWise provides referrals, advocacy and other support to assist participants in meeting their basic needs and getting out of crisis.

S.T.E.P. Program StreetWise’s S.T.E.P. Program provides job readiness training and ongoing direct service support to ensure participants’ success in entering the traditional workforce.

THE PLAYGROUND

To empower the entrepreneurial spirit through the dignity of self-employment by providing Chicagoans facing homelessness with a combination of supportive social services, workforce development resources and immediate access to gainful employment.

Soluti

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PREV

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I E WS APR with c 2 - APR 12 ode ST

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WISE

THE CHICAGO PREMIERE

THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF

MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON James Ijames Directed by Whitney White By

The recently widowed “Mother of America”—attended to by the very enslaved people who will be free the moment she dies—takes us deep into the ugly and thorny ramifications of America’s original sin.

RADICALLY VULNERABLE, OUTRAGEOUSLY HILARIOUS

APRIL 2 – MAY 17 | steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 MAJOR PRODUCTION SPONSOR

2019/20 GRAND BENEFACTORS

2019/20 BENEFACTORS