STORIES OF COMPASSION AND GENEROSITY FOR OMOIDE VII
6月
13日
Spreading ripples of neighbor to neighbor stories that bring community together and creating "family" in Washington State!
Last Saturday, June 8, 2024, my OMOIDE VII - Kip Tokuda Memorial Grant Project assistant, Erika, accompanied me as I drove from Seattle to Spokane. Crossing from evergreens to sage brush, Erika had a lot of comments. I couldn’t help but share, “In the 1960s, my Grandpa Kay was always so excited to bring his friends and relatives from Japan over Snoqualmie Pass to show them the vastness of America and the farms that went for miles.”
Sunday, when I presented at Highland Japanese Methodist Church in Spokane, I explained, “Incarceration of Japanese with as little as 1/16th Japanese Heritage during WWII was wrong and must not be forgotten. OMOIDE writers have produced several books in the past 30 years with our personal stories of dealing with discrimination, incarceration and hardships with resilience. For OMOIDE VII, we want to find stories of those who helped each other during hard times and SPREAD RIPPLES OF COMPASSION AND KINDNESS.”
As I had conversations with a couple dozen people, not just Japanese, this past week in Spokane, Moses Lake, Quincy and Ellensburg; “Doing what’s right”, “Hard Work”, “Not showing off”, “Doing what’s good for the community without public recognition”, “TAKING CARE OF FAMILY”; are the words I kept hearing about the Issei (immigrants born in Japan) and Nisei (children of Issei) from their Japanese Heritage descendants I am chatting with around Washington State communities. I also heard those same words from the Caucasians, Latinos, Pacific Islanders at the hotel in Spokane and Carmen with native Indian heritage in Ellensburg.
Japanese immigrants felt it normal and necessary to be poor and do “dirty work” jobs as part of fitting in to a community. In Japan, cultural and arts education, as well as all the working skills, included a period of being an “indentured servant” to the head of the family or master of the arts.
Arts and Culture were brought to a PhD level during the 200 year Edo period, of 1600 to 1868AD with the creation of a closed society nation. That society had Samurai Class at the top, farmers next and merchants third. Famers were valued because they provided the necessary rice and food.
Three Japanese sailors shipwrecked at Near Bay on the Olympic Peninsula - Northwest tip of Washington State in 1832. Immigration to Washington State began in the 1880s and increased in the 1890s, after the 1882 exclusion of Chinese. The cost of the voyage and passport - requiring a return ticket to Japan - was close to a year’s salary in Japan. Most of the immigrants came from well established family situations to make money in America and bring it home to their family in Japan.
Visiting smaller Washington farming communities, it is clear the Immigrants, who chose to stay in America, were entrepreneurial and mostly from the Samurai/farming educated class. Being indentured servants and getting along while learning the best ways to get ahead in America, was their way. A legacy for future generations was also key - this included a college education and creating “their American family” as they integrated and established themselves in communities.
“GAMAN” - A Japanese word meaning patience, endurance, perseverance, tolerance, self-control, self-denial. Gaman is family practiced, expected as a strong community value wherever we are. Japanese immigrants are trained with these skills, taught today by Success Training Leaders. Gaman was also true for European Immigrants to start. Like football rivalry, name calling and discriminatory tactics is also used to psychologically put the competition down.
The 1980 US census was analyzed by the Washington State Department of Education. The report gave statistics for several ethnic groups. Those with Japanese Heritage were at the top in per-capita income and white collar jobs, but were next to American Indians in out-marrying, speaking their native language the least and had the least children. With indication of ethnic suicide, I chose to help create the Japanese Culture and Community Center of Washington and document the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest with OMOIDE.
