442: The Voice of the Asian American Movement
How a group of UCLA students paved the way for Asian American journalism with 'Gidra'
The cover of Gidra from March 1972.
Illustrated by Richard Tokunaga, courtesy of Gidra and Densho
Words by Samantha Pak
The 442: A JoySauce column named after the military unit, designed to school you (in all the best ways) on accomplished Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of the past. Asians have been shaping American history, culture, food, politics, identity, and more for centuries—it’s time we acknowledge what’s been left out of most textbooks.
Have a historical tidbit you’d like to share? Let us know!
Asians have been shaping American history, culture, food, politics, identity, and more for centuries—though many of these prominent AAPI figures in history have been left out of most textbooks. Thus, we give you "The 442," a JoySauce column named after the military unit, designed to school you (in all the best ways) on accomplished Asian Americans of the past.
Have a historical tidbit you'd like to share? Let us know!
Before JoySauce and other outlets focused on Asian American and Pacific Islander stories, there was Gidra, a monthly newspaper that ran from 1969-1974.
The publication was started by a group of students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who wanted to create an Asian American community newspaper. After the school’s administration told them it wouldn’t fund their idea, the five students—Dinora Gil, Laura Ho, Tracy Okida, Colin Watanabe, and Mike Murase—each pitched in $100 to produce the paper, according to Densho. Okida came up with the publication’s name, which is a reference to King Ghidorah, a giant three-headed dragon from the Japanese Godzilla film franchise.
Gidra launched in April 1969, a year after UCLA alum Yuji Ichioka coined the term “Asian American.” It was a new idea at the time, designed to unify the disparate groups of people with Asian ancestry (something we’ve come to recognize since as potentially problematic, as Asian Americans are obviously not a monolith). The publication became the self-proclaimed “voice of the Asian American movement,” as people were beginning to “explore the concept of Asian American identity,” according to UCLA. Staff reported on the fight for ethnic studies on college campuses as well as the rise in activism within Asian American communities.
The paper was initially based in the school’s newly formed Asian American Studies Center, but its popularity grew quickly and within a few months, Gidra moved to an office in Los Angeles’ Crenshaw neighborhood. This prompted a broader scope of coverage to include the city’s greater Asian American community. The paper also expanded its contributors to include writers, illustrators, and production staff (all of whom were volunteers) beyond UCLA students.
Staff members, who were often activists themselves, wanted the newspaper to “help increase the political consciousness of its readership,” according to UCLA, believing they could help change the world. They wrote articles about Vietnam War protests happening in the city, while helping to plan and lead those same anti-war demonstrations.
“We thought we were going to have a revolution, and we would do it in our lifetime,” co-founder Murase said in the article. “We thought we could get rid of capitalism and get rid of racism.”
The paper’s staff also encouraged unity with other “Third World” (minority) groups.
With very few Asian American history texts at the time, Gidra provided space for people to explore and learn about their own history. In 1973, the paper focused an entire issue on Manzanar. It included articles on the history of the former concentration camp, as well as a recent pilgrimage to the site.
In his book, The Asian American Movement, William Wei writes that the paper’s readers were the first generation to see themselves as Asian American, and despite its limited distribution, copies of Gidra “managed to find their way to readers living in isolated communities.” He describes the publication as the “first radical Asian American newspaper,” and often “the main communication link between Asian American activists working on common causes in different parts of the United States.” This enhanced efforts of community organization because it unified the movement and Asian Americans as a whole.
Gidra also inspired others. According to UCLA, staff members connected with students in other California schools in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as those as far as Ohio and Toronto. From these relationships, those students created AAPI-focused publications at their own universities.
The final issue of Gidra was published in April 1974, five years after its first issue hit the stands. Its run came to an end as life (graduate school, full-time jobs and starting families) intervened for the staff. According to Densho, a group of original Gidra staff members, along with some younger folks, came together two decades later to produce a 20th anniversary issue and 10 years later, another group published five new issues that ran from 1999 to 2001.
In 2019, UCLA and USC students launched Gidra Media, a website that pays tribute to the original newspaper.
The entire run of Gidra is available on the Densho website.
Published on October 20, 2022
Words by Samantha Pak
Samantha Pak (she/her) is an award-winning Cambodian American journalist from the Seattle area and co-editor in chief for JoySauce. She spends more time than she’ll admit shopping for books than actually reading them, and has made it her mission to show others how amazing Southeast Asian people are. Follow her on Twitter at @iam_sammi and on Instagram at @sammi.pak.