Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Al Nakatani waits for Saratoga High School students to enter the gymnasium for his talk about his son, Guy Nakatani.

Saratoga High remembers AIDS activist Guy Nakatani

Students plant a Japanese maple in his honor

By Tim Persyn

When his HIV infection robbed him of the ability to fight for his own life, Guy Nakatani fought for the lives of the noninfected. For two years, until his death from AIDS in 1994 at the age of 26, Nakatani spoke about HIV/AIDS prevention at high schools around Santa Clara Valley, including Saratoga High School.

On April 24, Saratoga High dedicated a Japanese maple in Nakatani's honor as a part of the school's HIV/AIDS Awareness Week. The dedication included an address by Nakatani's father, Al, who devotes time to the cause of HIV/AIDS prevention.

The elder Nakatani said his current work in HIV/AIDS issues includes trying to reach those young people who continue to take risks despite knowledge of HIV/AIDS and how it is spread. He said his son suffered from the low self-esteem and unhappy feelings that lead young people to high risk behavior.

In particular, Guy had concerns about his race and sexuality.

"I was never aware of what Guy was going through," Al Nakatani said. "I was never denigrated for being Asian because I grew up in Hawaii, and I didn't know what it was like to grow up gay." Guy grew up locally and attended San Jose's Leigh High School.

"My kids were troubled and I didn't know," Nakatani continued. "I want to get at the fragile kids."

The family had lost a second son to AIDS before Guy's death.

Al Nakatani commented on how high-risk behavior can be prevented in young people.

"If kids are unhappy they need to find somebody they can talk to about their troubles," he said. "They shouldn't have to go through life feeling alone."

Guy first learned he was HIV-positive in 1988. When he became too ill to work, he decided to speak to young people about HIV/AIDS prevention. He kept speaking until his physical condition wouldn't allow him to go on.

Pam Dunnett, adviser to the Healthy Lifestyles committee at Saratoga High School, remembered Guy Nakatani's work with students there.

"Guy's presentations were the best education students will ever get on HIV/AIDS," Dunnett said.

"He didn't preach to the kids," she continued. "He was able to pass information on to teenagers, and they listened. He told the kids that it doesn't matter how you got it--it's a disease that affects all of us."

During Al Nakatani's speech on April 24, he played a tape of one of Guy's presentations. In the tape, Guy came across as forthright while speaking powerfully.

"You can't tell me you're not afraid of getting this disease," Guy said on the tape.

Later, his rage bubbled to the surface. "I'm angry that in the first two years of this disease we did nothing."

He explained that his illness had left him blind in one eye, and that on bad days he would vomit and experience diarrhea.

Saratoga High student Lynn Wasserman remembers what it was like to hear Guy Nakatani speak.

"He really spoke to you as a person; he wanted you to become aware," Wasserman said.

"His message was that it can happen to anyone, and that you have to be careful and make good decisions."

Another Saratoga High student, Annie Shain, added, "His talks were more about making students aware rather than telling them what to do."

Dunnett explained that over the course of Guy's talks at the high school, students watched him go from being fit and healthy to being confined to a wheelchair and only weighing about 90 pounds.

"In his last speech, he was pleading with them. He had tears running down his face," she recalled. Nakatani's last address at Saratoga High was in January of 1994. He died the following month.

In addition to his work with students, Guy Nakatani spoke with his father in parent groups. These groups gave parents a chance to express themselves.

Now the father is carrying on for the son.

"Al continues to send Guy's message," Dunnett said.