![WHAT IS THE “WH...]()
My “Why” on this day is: WHAT CAN I DO AND THINK ABOUT TODAY THAT WILL GENERATE GREAT GRANDCHILDREN THAT ARE: Self Reliant, Responsible, Kind and Joyous Contributors to their community?
I generally sleep well, but last night I was awake at 3am thinking about my WHY questions. Why is the OMOIDE writing program important to me. Why do I want to work to raise money so the Japanese Cultural and Community Center will be impacting our community for the next 100 years?
Last Sunday evening I brought two new neighbors from Guadalajara, Mexico, with me to a Seattle Symphony Community Concert at the Benaroya in downtown Seattle. The reason I asked my neighbors to attend was because I wanted them to learn about some of our Japanese in America experience.
The evening’s experience was the collaboration of composer Paul Kikuchi putting wings of sound to our OMOIDE (memories) stories of Executive Order 9066. In 1942, 110,000 of us with as little as 1/16 Japanese Heritage living in the west coastal states of Washington, Oregon & California were incarcerated. Families could only take what they could carry, leaving their homes and businesses.
Why is it important to capture and remember the stories of such a tragedy in American History? Why are we writing stories that will impact the 5th grade?
Today, I’m listening to a podcast by Navy Seal, Jocko Willink, who explains why he writes children’s books. He is explaining how his older daughter wasn’t learning her times tables in school. It dawned on him that she would benefit from some of his Navy Seal training. Subsequently, he chose to write a children’s book about dealing with “bullying” which became a best seller. The most satisfying review was from an adult woman that said the book changed her life.
Jocko Willink goes on to say, “The most important part of life is to learn to face our setbacks. Anyone’s heritage is full of cataclysms!! It’s important to remember, shorten our reaction times, and practice ways to overcome.” His daughter practiced math skills and the victim of the bullying found out the person who was bullying him was just as scared as himself.
Similarly, our OMOIDE books are generating the most reviews from adults. For 30 years we have documented stories of the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest of Immigration and the Incarceration with first person stories of the experience as children of the Issei, Nisei and Sansei.
Everything rises and falls on “leadership”, ”Infinite Parenting” and waking up at night asking “Why”. It is exciting to see our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren doing spectacular things with their learning, writing, music and art as humanity continues to evolve.
![JAPANESE CULTURAL AND CO...]()
JAPANESE CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON
Immigrants 1912 making major contributions to our Seattle community
The other day, I asked my 15-yr-old granddaughter, “How do you feel about your Japanese Heritage?
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She answered, “It gives me energy and I feel more power.”
“Give me an example of when you feel like this,” I implored.
“Well, a couple times when I was with some friends and the subject came up, I said I’m ‘Go-sei’ (5th generation Japanese American) and I felt good.”
This response is thrilling to me. Perhaps our parenting, my husband’s comic strips for the North American Post and our books are resonating. I have a vision for a better Pacific Northwest community because we are sharing our OMOIDE (Memories), a program of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington. The stories of our Japanese in America experience and heritage values have been published in five volumes, written for 5th graders. We have plans for OMOIDE VI.
With the Covid Isolation and the passing of my husband, I am on an added path as I move into the 8th decade of life, I’m excited to share past learning and stories with new technology such as podcasts and cooperating with other venues such as STORIES AT THE PANAMA and EVENING AT THE SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATER.
I am surprised daily with leading scientists around the world citing examples from the Japanese culture as they lecture and talk about their research. This clearly backs up the benefits of passing-on our Japanese Heritage Values, not only for our own decedents, but for the benefit of our neighbors here in America. The following are a couple examples.
Ethologist Frans de Waal, in a recent podcast talked about conflict resolution. His example was about how in Japan, adults and teachers do not intervene in children’s fights. They consider it natural learning and let them work things out for themselves at their level, without adult or community rules. De Waal did a lot of studies with Chimps and Monkeys, citing, “Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?”
Psychiatrist, Iain McGilchrist, who researches the difference between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, says, “The Western Culture has been mostly created by left brain activity which deals with numbers and goals for “parts” of our life.” He suggests we incorporate more of the Asian and particularly parts of the Japanese culture into our lives. This would bring the right brain emotions and look at our world as “whole” instead of just parts.
Although it’s not empirical studies sanctioned by a modern University, the Japanese had 200 years of the Edo Period which brought the practices of the arts and cultural expectations to a researched science and social norm.
As a member of the board of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington, I am picturing a tour guide, 100 years from now, bringing attention to the strong heritage values like “being honest” and “resilience” shaping our Northwest community along with similar values with other ethnic communities.
The stories and words we share today, 2022, will guide that vision of our future.
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