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{ "url_title": "Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn", "title_sort": "flynnnikki", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Nikki%20Sawada%20Bridges%20Flynn/?format=api", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Nikki%20Sawada%20Bridges%20Flynn?format=api" }, "modified": "2024-01-09T04:09:19", "title": "Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn", "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div id=\"databox-PeopleDisplay\">\n <table class=\"infobox\" width=\"200px;\">\n <tbody>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Name\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Born\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n February 11 1923\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Died\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n February 7 2003\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Birth Location\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Gardena, CA\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Generational Identifier\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n <p>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Nisei/\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n </p>\n </td>\n </tr>\n </tbody>\n </table>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-People\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n FirstName:Noriko \"Nikki\";\nLastName:Flynn;\nDisplayName:Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn;\nBirthDate:1923-02-11;\nDeathDate:2003-02-07;\nBirthLocation:Gardena, CA;\nGender:Female;\nEthnicity:JA;\nGenerationIdentifier:Nisei;\nNationality:US;\nExternalResourceLink:;\nPrimaryGeography:;\nReligion:San Francisco;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Noriko \"Nikki\" Sawada Bridges Flynn was a San Francisco-based activist who advocated for civil liberties, equality and democracy.\n </p>\n <div aria-labelledby=\"mw-toc-heading\" class=\"toc\" id=\"toc\" role=\"navigation\">\n <input class=\"toctogglecheckbox\" id=\"toctogglecheckbox\" role=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" type=\"checkbox\"/>\n <div class=\"toctitle\" dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\n <h2 id=\"mw-toc-heading\">\n Contents\n </h2>\n <span class=\"toctogglespan\">\n <label class=\"toctogglelabel\" for=\"toctogglecheckbox\">\n </label>\n </span>\n </div>\n <ul>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-1\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Family_Background_and_Early_Life\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 1\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Family Background and Early Life\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-2\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Marriage_and_Activism\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 2\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Marriage and Activism\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-3\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Redress_and_Later_Life\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 3\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Redress and Later Life\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-4\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#For_More_Information\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 4\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-5\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Footnotes\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 5\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n </ul>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Family_Background_and_Early_Life\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Family_Background_and_Early_Life\">\n Family Background and Early Life\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n She was born Noriko Sawada in Gardena (Los Angeles County) on February 11, 1923, to Japanese immigrant parents, Ashiko and Ura Sawada, farmers who grew strawberries and green beans on leased land in Southern California. Her father arrived in the United States in 1901 at the age of twenty-six. After working on railroads and in agriculture as an itinerant laborer for ten years, he had finally saved enough money to get married. Her mother, the daughter of a wealthy rice merchant, was a\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Picture_brides/\" title=\"Picture brides\">\n picture bride\n </a>\n who met her husband for the first time when she arrived at the port of San Francisco in 1918. According to an account of her family history that Flynn published in\n <i>\n Ms. Magazine\n </i>\n in 1980, Flynn's mother had a difficult past she hoped to leave behind in Japan. At age sixteen, she had gotten pregnant by a neighbor's son, bringing shame upon her family, but the child died when he was two years old.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n It was not until her cousin, an acquaintance of Ashiko Sawada's, who had immigrated to the United States, presented her family with the opportunity to marry and move abroad, that she saw that she would have another chance at life.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Flynn's father had left a first wife behind in Japan in 1901 and since he was not able to send back enough money to support her, the couple divorced in 1909. He labored for ten years on railroads and as a migrant farmworker, saving enough money by 1918 to sponsor a new wife. By then he was forty-six years old and requested an introduction to an older woman, one \"who would not be likely to run off with a bachelor younger than he.\" She was thirty-six.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n [3]\n </a>\n </sup>\n The couple began a life of farmwork in California and bore two children: a son, who died as an infant, and Noriko, born in 1923.\n </p>\n <p>\n In 1942, Flynn had just completed her first year at Santa Monica College when her family was forcibly detained at the concentration camp in\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Poston_(Colorado_River)/\" title=\"Poston (Colorado River)\">\n Poston\n </a>\n , Arizona, where they remained for three years. Flynn's invalid mother required constant attendance, which burdened the nineteen year old to the point of a suicide attempt in camp. After the war, Flynn moved to Berkeley and became politically involved with the AFL-CIO and the Berkeley Interracial Committee, and also worked with the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/War_Relocation_Authority/\" title=\"War Relocation Authority\">\n War Relocation Authority\n </a>\n to help other Japanese Americans\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Return_to_West_Coast/\" title=\"Return to West Coast\">\n resettle back along the West Coast\n </a>\n . For twelve years she assisted Charles Garry, a lawyer whose clients included leading political dissidents and radicals such as Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. She later claimed that her years of incarceration and her realization of the many injustices of American society as a major influence on her decision to become an activist. Flynn would dedicate her life supporting a wide range of causes, including union rights, fair treatment of immigrants and racial, gender and sexual equality.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n [4]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Marriage_and_Activism\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Marriage_and_Activism\">\n Marriage and Activism\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n In the 1950s, Charles Garry introduced her to Harry Bridges, a well-known San Francisco labor leader who helped found the International Longshoreman's and Warehouseman's Union, at a cocktail party to raise money for the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers' Union.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n [5]\n </a>\n </sup>\n On December 7, (Pearl Harbor Day) 1958, the two went to Reno, Nevada, intending to get married, unaware that the state still had miscegenation laws in effect. When the clerk refused to issue them a marriage license, the affair became a struggle for their civil liberties. Mr. Bridges protested, saying that his bride was an American, born in the United States, while he was the foreigner. News accounts quoted the clerk as saying,\n <i>\n It's not a matter of where you were born. It's the blood. It's against the law here.\n </i>\n After much media coverage of the challenge, including an article in\n <i>\n Time\n </i>\n magazine, they were married on December 11, 1958. The Bridgeses remained married for thirty-one years, a marriage that was built on their passionate political work that including international travel and the chance to meet with world figures such as Nikita Khrushchev and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref6_6-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref6-6\">\n [6]\n </a>\n </sup>\n They had one child, Katherine Bridges (Wiggins).\n </p>\n <p>\n Before the war, Flynn had attended one year at Santa Ana Junior College, but her education was cut short suddenly by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Executive_Order_9066/\" title=\"Executive Order 9066\">\n Executive Order 9066\n </a>\n . In 1973, Flynn went back to school when she was fifty years old, enrolling in creative writing courses at San Francisco State. Over the next decade, she wrote three autobiographical pieces; two that were eventually published in national magazines: \"Papa Takes a Bride\" which appeared in\n <i>\n Harper's\n </i>\n and \"Memoir of a Japanese Daughter\" which was published in\n <i>\n Ms. Magazine\n </i>\n . Her writing also won accolades; she received the University of Missouri's \"Penny Award\" for literature. She was also well-known for her wit and humor, and was proud to have placed one year in the top entries of San Jose State University's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for composition of \"the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.\"\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Redress_and_Later_Life\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Redress_and_Later_Life\">\n Redress and Later Life\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n As the movement in the 1970s and 1980s to address the injustices of the World War II American concentration camps grew, Flynn joined in the efforts for\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Redress_movement/\" title=\"Redress movement\">\n redress and reparations\n </a>\n . After the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Civil_Liberties_Act_of_1988/\" title=\"Civil Liberties Act of 1988\">\n Civil Liberties Act\n </a>\n passed in 1988, mandating reparations checks of twenty thousand dollars each to the camp survivors, Flynn used part of these funds to hire a white gardener. Two years later, at the congressional ceremony held in San Francisco, Flynn read a long poem entitled \"To Be or Not To Be: There's No Such Option,\" which received an emotional response and she claimed \"purged\" her.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref7_7-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref7-7\">\n [7]\n </a>\n </sup>\n As a core member of the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/National_Japanese_American_Historical_Society/\" title=\"National Japanese American Historical Society\">\n National Japanese American Historical Society\n </a>\n based in San Francisco, she was instrumental in planning a landmark exhibition at the Oakland Museum in 1990 titled \"\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Strength_and_Diversity:_Japanese_American_Women,_1885%E2%80%931990_(exhibition)/\" title=\"Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1885–1990 (exhibition)\">\n Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1885-1990\n </a>\n .\" Flynn was equally active with the Japanese Women's Group and the Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition, which honored her in 1988 with their \"Asian Woman Warrior\" award.\n </p>\n <p>\n When she was seventy-two, Flynn married a second time, this time to Ed Flynn, past president of the Pacific Maritime Association and a former political cohort of her first husband, Harry. For the wedding, she purposefully chose to hold the ceremony on May Day (May 1), 1994, also known as the International Workers' Day, at the Olympic Club because the San Francisco city attorney had recently won a lawsuit against the club, forcing it to admit women as full members.\n </p>\n <p>\n Flynn was also a passionate advocate in memorializing and continuing her husband Harry Bridges' legacy and helped endow the Harry Bridges chair on labor at the University of Washington's Center for Labor Studies and successfully persuaded the San Francisco Port Commission to name the plaza in front of the Ferry Building \"Bridges Plaza.\"\n </p>\n <p>\n She died February 7, 2003, in Palo Alto, California.\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Patricia_Wakida/\" title=\"Patricia Wakida\">\n Patricia Wakida\n </a>\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Wakida, Patricia\n </div>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Bigelow, Catherine.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/NORIKO-SAWADA-BRIDGES-FLYNN-Civil-rights-2634931.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n \"Noriko Sawada Bridges Flynn obituary.\"\n </a>\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n , February 9, 2003.\n </p>\n <p>\n ———.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n \"Facetime / Nikki Bridges Flynn.\"\n </a>\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n , September 23, 2001.\n </p>\n <p>\n Earl, Phillip I. \"Nevada's Miscegenation Laws and the Marriage of Mr. & Mrs. Harry Bridges.\"\n <i>\n Nevada Historical Quarterly\n </i>\n 37 (Spring 1994): 1–17.\n </p>\n <p>\n Matsumoto, Valerie J. \"Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn and What Comes Naturally.\"\n <i>\n Frontiers\n </i>\n 31.3 (2010): 31–40.\n </p>\n <p>\n Sawada, Noriko [Noriko Sawada Bridges]. \"Memoir of a Japanese Daughter.\"\n <i>\n Ms. Magazine\n </i>\n , April 1980, 70.\n </p>\n <p>\n ———. \"Papa Takes a Bride,\"\n <i>\n Harper's,\n </i>\n December 1980, 59.\n </p>\n <p>\n ———. \"To Be or Not to Be: There's No Such Option.\"\n <i>\n Hawaii Herald\n </i>\n , May 10,1990.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Noriko Sawada. \"Memoir of a Japanese Daughter,\"\n <i>\n Ms. Magazine\n </i>\n , April 1980, 70.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Valerie J. Matsumoto. \"Nikki Sawada Bridges Flynn and What Comes Naturally.\"\n <i>\n Frontiers\n </i>\n 31.3 (2010): 31–40.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Noriko Sawada. \"Memoir of a Japanese Daughter,\"\n <i>\n Ms. Magazine\n </i>\n , April 1980, 70.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Catherine Bigelow. \"Facetime / Nikki Bridges Flynn.\"\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n , September 23, 2001.\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\n </a>\n . Accessed August 30, 2014.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Catherine Bigelow. \"Facetime / Nikki Bridges Flynn.\"\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n , September 23, 2001.\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\n </a>\n . Accessed August 30, 2014.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref6-6\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref6_6-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Phillip I. Earl. \"Nevada's Miscegenation Laws and the Marriage of Mr. & Mrs. Harry Bridges.\"\n <i>\n Nevada Historical Quarterly\n </i>\n 37 (Spring 1994): 1–17.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref7-7\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref7_7-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Catherine Bigelow. \"Facetime / Nikki Bridges Flynn.\"\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n , September 23, 2001.\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Facetime-Nikki-Bridges-Flynn-3325699.php\n </a>\n . Accessed August 30, 2014.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20240418160804\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.019 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.025 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 242/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 2105/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 276/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 6/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 3337/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 17.673 1 -total\n 39.39% 6.962 1 Template:Databox-People\n 18.80% 3.323 1 Template:Reflist\n 8.09% 1.430 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 7.83% 1.384 1 Template:Published\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:2077-0!canonical and timestamp 20240418160804 and revision id 35890\n -->\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"toplink\">\n <a href=\"#top\">\n <i class=\"icon-chevron-up\">\n </i>\n Top\n </a>\n</div>", "categories": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/People/?format=api" ], "sources": [], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Patricia%20Wakida/?format=api" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Nikkei%20Style%20(film)/?format=api", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Nippu%20Jiji%20(newspaper)/?format=api" }