Ten volunteers from the Peña Adobe Historical Society greeted 160 park visitors and guests on Saturday, August 1st as we celebrated Japanese American History of the Vaca Valley.

Welcoming park visitors under lanterns strung about the park, Heidi Varian began the day’s activities with an introduction of Japanese culture to a crowd of eager listeners. Suisun’s Kashinoki Taiko drummers delighted the crowd with the first of two performances, followed by Fairfield’s John Takeuchi who spoke to the crowd of his experience, as a young boy of 5 years old, living with his family in an internment camp in Arkansas in the summer of 1942.

The Solano Master Gardeners chatted with park visitors about thepark’s restored Willis Jepson Native Plant Garden and shared information about gardening. 5th generation Peña descendents, Cecelia Peña and Darlene Stewart spoke with visitors in the Adobe their great great grandfather built. 

After David Gonzalez led the Shishi Mai Lion Dance to the music of a bamboo flute, park visitors stopped at booths hosted by local Japanese family members who shared the history of kimonos, tea, drum making and traditions of their families.

A graduate of the Vacaville Parks and Recreation Origami classes, 13 year old Lily Vandergraaf shared her talent for the ancient art of paper folding and taught park visitors origami.  The day’s celebration concluded with a final performance of the Taiko drummers under a towering oak tree.