If the recent Abercrombie and Fitch T-shirts depicting negative stereotypes of Asians represents the continuing racism against "the model minority," then "Pearls on Sand," a choral concert about the Japanese American experience, hopes to provide an antidote.

The concert, which will take place at Schoenberg Hall on Saturday, features the Los Angeles Chamber Singers doing works by Toru Takemitsu, faculty composers Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse as well as former and current UCLA students. Though focused mainly on Japanese culture, the concert distinguishes itself as not representing Japan itself.

"This is not a program about Japanese music. It's about Japanese Americans. That's a very special subculture," said Paul Chihara, a music composition professor who also maintains a career as a film and concert composer.

Chihara is a "nissei," or a first-generation child of Japanese American immigrants. For him, the racism against Asian Americans was all too real. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Decision 9066, allowing for the relocation of Japanese Americans, many of whom were citizens.

"They took my father away at the beginning of the war. I never saw him until after the war," said Chihara, who was only four years old at the time. "I remember mom crying because daddy wasn't there."

Yet Chihara's piece, "Minidoka" (named after the place in Idaho where Chihara's family was relocated), is not a political statement nor is it a straight-forward elegy of victimization. In fact, Chihara retains fondness for his years at Minidoka.

"For me, it was like summer camp that lasted for four years," Chihara said. "I remember that I didn't want to leave and I wanted to go back. After we got used to it, we were safe. But in white society, I was the only Asian in my class and everyone was very hostile because of the war against the 'Japs.'"

"We were aware of the atrocities at Nanking," Chihara added, referring to Japan's invasion of China in 1931. "On one hand we were victimized by relocation, but our cousins were over there victimizing others. It was this strange identity crisis. We were both proud and ashamed of our country at the same time."

While an important aspect, the concert is not just about war. Krouse's "River of Stars" uses erotic poetry text from contemporary Japanese women poets. Korean Kay Rhie, a graduate composition major, uses her piece to comment on Japan from a Korean perspective.

The encore will be a choral medley of various musicals about Japan. Titled "Japan on Broadway," Chihara has arranged Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado," Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures," and Chihara's own musical, "Shogun," into a piece that shows how stereotypes of Asians have progressed on the Broadway stage.

"We're changing and softening the stereotypes or maybe we're creating new ones, but at least it's becoming more a part of the focus," Chihara said.