REST IN PEACE AT LAST GRAVES CENTER OF DEBATES.

Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

OXNARD - Two cemeteries - one established nearly a century ago for the area's Japanese community, the other created even earlier for members of a local Masonic lodge - sit derelict on a sliver of land, flanked by a century-old windbreak of eucalyptus and gum trees.

Local preservationists would like to see the neglected cemeteries between Pleasant Valley and Etting roads transformed into a landscaped park and historical monument that reflects the area's agricultural roots and cultural divides.

``The Japanese are part of the history of Ventura County,'' said Ken Nakano of the Japanese American Citizens' League, who chairs a committee on the cemetery. ``We just want to preserve what's already there and not destroy it.''

The Port Hueneme Masonic Lodge established a cemetery in 1885, and burials took place there regularly for about 20 years until Ivy Lawn Memorial Park opened in Ventura. Today, about two dozen granite headstones poke through the weeds on the unfenced property.

About 90 years ago, the lodge provided a tiny, triangular piece of property to the Japanese community for use as a cemetery. The 1913 Alien Land Act prevented Asians from owning property in the state, and many cemeteries accepted only Caucasians.

At least 129 Japanese, many of them unmarried farmworkers, were buried there between 1913 and the early 1960s. Wooden posts painted with Japanese characters, a few with faded Christmas wreaths or plastic flowers at their base, mark many of the graves.

Only a sagging chain-link fence separates the dusty cemetery from the traffic that whizzes past nearby. A lone palm tree surrounded by bare dirt makes up the cemetery's landscaping.

``It's an eyesore as it is now,'' said Nao Takasugi, a former Oxnard mayor and state assemblyman whose two sisters were buried in the cemetery in the 1930s. ``Here's an opportunity for the city to spruce this area up.''

Although everyone involved maintains that the cemetery properties are in desperate need of revitalization - they currently don't even have a water supply or trash service - no one can agree on who should take responsibility for the project.

``Everyone wants to do something, but nobody wants to pay for it,'' Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said. ``I don't know what the ultimate resolution will be.''

Nakano and Blinn Maxwell, an Oxnard attorney representing the Masonic Cemetery Association, which still owns both properties, want the city to take over the land.

But Mayor Pro Tem Dean Maulhardt said he would be loath to make such a commitment, even though a subcommittee of a city revitalization team recommended that Oxnard acquire the cemeteries.

``I'm willing to see what we can do about those properties but not to the point that the city takes it over and becomes responsible,'' Maulhardt said.

Nakano would like to tie the cemetery proposal to the city's plans to widen Pleasant Valley Road, which officials see as becoming ``a gateway to the city'' with the realignment of Highway 1. The widening project calls for removing about 40 of the 50 eucalyptus trees near the cemeteries.

Because the trees are designated a county historical landmark, the city must provide mitigation for their loss. Officials propose erecting a wrought-iron fence separating the cemeteries from Pleasant Valley Road and pledging $30,000 for new landscaping within the project's boundaries.

The cemeteries themselves don't fall within those boundaries, city officials said.

The City Council is set to vote Tuesday on a ``negative declaration'' - a statement that the widening project will have no significant impact on the area's resources.

Between the two cemetery properties lies a two-acre lot owned by Frank Naumann, a descendant of one of Oxnard's pioneer agricultural families. Nakano and Maxwell say the parcel is needed for a parking lot and visitors center for the proposed park.

Naumann has other plans. He also would like to see the cemeteries become a historical park, but hopes to build housing on his property.

A compromise would ensure that the cemetery's history is preserved and demonstrate that attitudes toward Asian-Americans have improved, said William Maple, a member of the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board.

``It's one of the very few chances we have to document this kind of discrimination,'' he said. ``Do we have to sweep it under the rug? Maybe it's a chance to show we've changed.''

Andrea Cavanaugh, [phone]

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color in Simi edition only) Ken Nakano, cemetery committee chairman for the Ventura County Japanese American Citizens' League, is shown at the Oxnard Japanese Cemetery, which he hopes can be renovated.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(2) This historic photograph shows a group gathering for a Memorial Day service at the Japanese Cemetery in 1916.

Map:

(ran in Valley edition only) Japanese Cemetery

Masonic Cemetery