GENERATIONS OF COMMUNITY JAPANESE-AMERICAN CENTER EXPANDS.

Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer

Ever since Harold Muraoka was a young man, a brick building on a quiet Pacoima street has offered social services and a sense of belonging for thousands of Japanese-Americans.

Back then, the San Fernando Valley Japanese-American Community Center, built in the late 1950s, was a place Muraoka could meet others like himself, others who had lost belongings, businesses and homes to the internment camps years during World War II.

Today, the public center still teaches Japanese cultural arts and oversees 29 groups including a judo school, a language school, a Buddhist temple and several churches. On most days members can be found making ceramics, trimming bonsai trees, learning folk guitar or practicing aikido.

The center also provides such services as crisis counseling and free food distribution.

Membership has grown over the past four decades to about 4,000 people. That amounts to nearly a third of all Japanese-Americans living in the Valley, according to the 1990 census.

But the center itself, consisting of a gymnasium, a kitchen and a few offices, had remained the same up until now. Small and aging, it made it harder for leaders to attract more members, particularly younger folks, Muraoka said.

``After the war, there was a need for Japanese-Americans to stick together because there was a lot of prejudice,'' said Muraoka, a 66-year-old retired supervisor of general services for the city of Los Angeles living in Northridge. ``Gradually things have changed. What we're aiming for is trying to get the young people involved.''

Muraoka hopes a new, long-awaited addition, a 7,000-square-foot building donated by Lockheed Corp., will mark a turning point in the center's history.

The building was dedicated to the center's founders, mostly gardeners and nursery workers, in a ceremony Saturday. It will primarily be used as a dining room and includes a conference room and a computer lab.

The building was offered by Lockheed through an acquaintance of member Michael Motoyasu, a 42-year-old funeral home executive from Saugus. It took four years of research, planning, paperwork and permits to make the expansion a reality, he said.

``We needed it desperately to serve the community,'' he said. ``Now, with the new addition, we can grow.''

Younger Japanese-Americans like himself, who are far more assimilated than the center's founders, are finding that getting involved to help carry the center's tradition has its rewards, Motoyasu said.

``We're soul-searching, we're starting to have children and we're looking for heritage,'' Motoyasu said. ``My children go to schools where there aren't a lot of other Japanese-Americans. And that's OK. But I want my children to have somewhere to go when they're in search of their culture.''

The older generation needs to do its part too, Muraoka said.

``In the past there was a reluctance to reach out to the younger generation,'' he said. ``But the older generation has to listen to the younger. We're finding out that their ideas are really progressive and worth listening to.''

In the meantime, for existing members, the new building brings convenience and professionalism, members say.

It means those who come for free hot lunches on Fridays, mostly elderly men and women, won't have to pull out heavy folding tables and chairs in the gymnasium for some 150 diners and then scramble to put them away each week. It means private meetings won't have to be held outside the building, and many may get their first crack at the Internet.

``It's exciting. Now we can get more people to come for hot meals,'' said Yuko Ito, a bilingual aide who has worked at the center for 10 years. ``A lot of people come to the center and enjoy games and music. It's very important to them.''

Much of what the center has today has been made possible through donations and the tireless volunteers who recruit companies to help, said Bill Richards, the center's director of human services.

In addition to the Lockheed building, donations include rows of seats from an airport, fresh fish from a sport-fishing group and a glossy gym floor from an athletic association.

The rest comes from members' own pockets.

``They save up their money. They're very determined,'' Richards said. ``People feel ownership here, and once people feel ownership there's no stopping them.

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