“Row, Don’t Drift” Documentary Shares Yoshi Kubo’s Legacy, Inspiring SJSU Alumni to Advocate for Social Change

When Dan Kubo graduated from high school, his father Yoshi told him a story he would never forget.

"He told me, 'I went to prison, and I want to tell you about it," says Kubo, who attended San José State in the 1970s, where he met his wife Chris and joined a group of Asian American activists who mobilized to support the San José Japantown community. "He told me, 'I've been to federal prison because I didn't go into the draft.'"

The elder Kubo was one of 120,000 people of Japanese descent who were forcibly evicted in February 1942 per Executive Order 9066, a federal law enacted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Kubo and his family had to leave their California farm for an incarceration camp in Colorado, where many incarcerees were forced to choose between military conscription or imprisonment. When Kubo refused to show for a military physical, arguing that he could better serve the country on the family farm under an agricultural deferment, he was arrested and sent to federal prison in Arizona.

"He told me that whatever I do, I should take responsibility," says Dan. "What he really taught me was, if you believe in something, go for it. It gave me license to become an activist myself."

More than eight decades later, Yoshi's story has been captured in "Row, Don't Drift," a docudrama directed by Karina Ezitis Turner that features dramatized reenactments alongside family interviews, archival materials and historical footage. The film's title refers to a maxim Yoshi repeated in his letters home: "Row, don't drift" alludes to choosing the path that feels right, even if one has to walk it alone.

The short documentary, which premiered in Merced, California, near the Kubo's family home in Cortez, in late 2025, will be circulating the Bay Area later this year.

Progressive Asian American Coalition brought Spartans together

In the film, Dan and many of his family members share their father's stories. His wife Chris Kubo, '74 Biological Science, who he met at San José State, contributes her perspective as a Japanese American raised in American schools in Japan, who moved to California at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in 1969.

"Growing up in Japan, I didn't know anything about the internment camps," says Chris. "We heard a lot of war stories; my mother grew up in Tokyo and she remembered when they were firebombed. But coming to California was a culture shock."

Chris didn't feel she had a place at San José State until she was invited to join Progressive Asian American Coalition (PAAC), a student organization dedicated to serving the Asian American community on campus and beyond . She soon saw that she had a role to play in helping shape the social landscape of SJSU, as well as the community beyond campus.

"We were basically a group of social misfits," says Dan. "Our focus became creating an Asian American Studies Department. One of the things that drove us was the fact that we didn't know much about our own history. If you look in the history books, there was maybe a paragraph or two at most."

Together with PAAC, Chris and Dan sought out opportunities to support the Japantown community, and specifically the community organization Asians for Community Action (ACÁ). a mile north of campus. As many aging Issei (first-generation or immigrant) and Nisei (second generation) Japanese Americans navigated life in the years following incarceration, they needed assistance with social services, housing and healthcare. They partnered with the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin and the Wesley United Methodist Church, both on North Fifth Street, to survey the needs of the Japanese American community, often visiting non-native English speakers, including those in prison, to inform them of local resources.

Advocating for Japantown seniors

Many of ACA's efforts came as a direct result of the organizing skills students learned at San José State, where in 1973 the Asian American Studies minor was officially created. As ACA members graduated and moved on to lead other initiatives, Dan and Chris worked with Santa Clara County social worker Clara Abe to bring together 19 Japanese American organizations to establish the Japanese American Community Senior Services of San Jose in 1974. Now called Yu-Ai Kai, the organization of friendship and love, the senior center recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of serving seniors in Japantown.

"We never imagined that our work would turn into this center that still exists today," says Chris. "Centers like Yu-Ai Kai are not unique in the Japanese American dream; there were already well-established programs in San Francisco and the East Bay. There were other organizations who were models for us, groups that we collaborated with from time to time. The Mexican American and African American movements helped us, too. They helped us see that we have our own identity, and that we can work together to make change."

Over the past 50 years, the Kubos have stayed connected to the Japanese American community in San José while cultivating a thriving community in Cortez, a Central Valley town where for years they farmed almonds and grapes. Chris dedicated her career to serving as a classroom teacher as well as a resource specialist while they raised five kids on the farm. Now partially retired, the Kubos lease their acreage to a northern California nursery while maintaining a strong connection to taiko, a tradition of Japanese drumming that combines art, movement and music. They have often hosted Roy and PJ Hirabayashi, '77 MUP, cofounders of San José Taiko , for artistic retreats.

Regardless if they are teaching, farming, participating in SJSU Day of Remembrance and Asian American Studies alumni activities or promoting their new film, the throughline to the Kubos' ethos is clear: They believe in the impact of sharing cultural histories, especially through art, to plan a sustainable future.

Dan says that he shared many of his father's diaries and documents with the filmmaker to make sure that "succeeding generations could understand what went on" during World War II. He wants "Row, Don't Drift" to counteract the prevailing narrative about stoicism in the Japanese American community during that painful period of history. His father's refusal to capitulate to the draft while his family was unjustly incarcerated is evidence that, as Dan says, "that image of smiling through the war is not really true."

"What's been really heartwarming for us is to know that there is another generation of people who are activists," says Chris. "They give us hope for the future, knowing that they are aware of their history, and that they can express themselves through art."