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- USING FORMAT OF IKE'S PRINCIPLES IN THE NEXT PUBLICATION OF OMOIDE 6
USING FORMAT OF IKE'S PRINCIPLES IN THE NEXT PUBLICATION OF OMOIDE 6
3月
21日
Ike and Dee presenting Ike's Principles at Nisei Vets in Seattle
“Luis, how’s your daughter,” I asked, “How old is she now?”
“Thank you for asking, she’s three years old and the joy of my life.”
“What is her name?”
Ike and Dee at the Nisei Vets Presentation
“Issabella!”
As Nana and I continued our discussion, I explained that one of the suggestions for publishing OMOIDE VI, is to feature the 11 values of IKE’S PRINCIPLE. We went on to think about whom we want to impress and entice into reading our books about Japanese American Heritage values and memories.
We decided one potential area of interest are with people like Luis, who explained that he is a single parent and excited about raising his daughter as a single father. He has already taken on the responsibility of providing a good home with family members to help raise Issabella and his commitment with Jan at the Panama Hotel as his job. That’s how a lot of our immigrant forefathers started.
One of the many pictures Jan Johnson, owner of the building, has framed on the walls is my husband Sam’s dad, Nisaburo Goto in the 1920s. He’s the bar tender at the Jackson Cafe.
Before WWII many of Japanese Heritage wouldn’t be hired, even with college degrees by American companies. Ike was one of the first hired in 1951 as the Executive Director of Atlantic Street Center, where he served for 33 years. He joked, “When I first thought about writing a book it was a time in the 1980s when “Black Is Beautiful” became a community slogan. I decided “Yellow Is Beautiful” didn’t work so well!”
“So why did you stop at 11 principles?” I asked.
“Because I got tired!!!”
In 2006, Sumi, Ike’s wife, drove him to my house on Mercer Island once a week for several months as I poured through all his material and published his current edition of the book. Subsequently, Ike and I did several power point presentations around the city of Seattle and outskirts.
One day last year, Yale Wong called me. He wanted me to know that one of his former employees at BIODESEL INC. of Seattle, where we had given one of our talks, called him and said, “IKE’s PRINCIPLE changed my life.”
Ike explains in his intro to his book: “I couldn’t find articles or books written by Japanese Americans of our culture and the positive strengths of that relationship. I began to identify those Japanese Cultural values that helped ME the most. I heard about ‘Peter’s Principles’ and thought, ‘Why not counter it and name mine IKE’S PRINCIPLES’!”
