Heritage remembered nurtures our souls
Sense of self builds, pride sets goals
This week I’m doing an interview for the CRITICAL ISSUES for SOCIAL WORKERS program at Arizona State University. The main reason I am being asked is because Elizabeth Lightfoot, Director and Foundation Professor of the School of Social Work, has been my daughter, Kelly’s, best friend since first grade.
Liz, you may remember when Kelly was interviewed with KING5 TV by Lori Matsukawa for “Stars of Tomorrow” program in high school and they filmed the bathroom walls in our home. Those walls are still filled with a bulletin board of memorabilia featuring who we are, our heritage and sayings left by my husband who past four years ago.
I choose to play the “Infinite Parenting Game” of taking responsibility and leaving a legacy for the next generations. There is nothing more “fun” for me than to share stories, BE INVOLVED IN THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER and continue LEARNING TO LEARN. These are some of the latest sayings on our bathroom wall and mirror that reflect my new single life mantras.
Drawings left by my husband like the Japanese sayings, NANA KOROBI, YA OKI (seven times down, eight times up!) and GAMBATTE (keep on trucking) will be in the book. We are publishing the 250 cartoon strips Sam did weekly, for five years, in the North American Post.
The 1980 US census was analyzed by the Washington State Department of Education. One of the main reasons I worked to help develop the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) is because of this research. Japanese Heritage census individuals were compared to several other ethnic groups including, American Indian, Chinese, Black, White and a few others.
This research suggested those of us with Japanese heritage were committing ethnic suicide because we are having the least amount of children and next to the American Indian population, out-marrying the most. But it also showed that we had the most per-capita income and white collar jobs. Therefore, I felt we had the financial resources and I was moved to continue sharing our heritage values for a better Washington and USA community.
In 2003, Lori Matsukawa and I were part of the original board and we are again on the current board of the JCCCW. Lori picks me up as we attend meetings and specially for our OMOIDE - Memories writing group.
The exciting aspect of doing this interview is that each of you readers and listeners are motivating me to organize my thoughts as we share our stories!!
![HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!]()
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
“Mom, you should get your feet fixed!”
“I know, but I’m not in any pain. I just can’t wear heels. Guess I can’t wear open toe shoes either? Everyone asks me what’s wrong with my toes.” Mom 83 responded.
Daughter 54 decided, “I’m not going to debate anymore. I’m going to do this Hammer Toe surgery while I’m still young enough to prevent some of the deformity you have. I’m going to have both feet done at the same time so I only have to be laid up once.”
So, eight days ago Daughter 54 had her surgery at Swedish Out Patient in Seattle. And Butt-mobile is serving her well!
Then three-days-ago, an unwelcome visitor appeared - COVID. A trip to Bellevue Community College tested POSITIVE for Grandma 83 and Granddaughter 12. Daughter 54 and Granddaughter 14 remain NEGATIVE. Daughter 54 announces, “No way am I going to get Covid and not be able to go for my follow-up doctor’s appointment and take off my bandages.”
Typical of the Daughter’s efficiency of handling life, OPERATION ISOLATION is under way: A ZOOM MEETING is arranged for a family conference.
The basement and guest room becomes the Covid Free Zone. Granddaughter 14 announces, “Grandma, you and granddaughter 12 have to stay in your rooms, We all have to wear the N95 masks if we go out to the kitchen and only one person in the Kitchen at a time. No food preparation!”
Cousin brought over snacks. Neighbor and housekeeper have provided soup for lunch and Salmon for dinner. Front Door delivery for needed items. Such is life??
We’ll see if it all works out. Nothing like friends and relatives for putting Life’s Challenges IN THE BEHIND!
![HERITABE PRIDE - TOMORROW...]()
HERITABE PRIDE - TOMORROW'S GUIDE
“STORIES AT THE PANAMA” is being created because I want to BE INVOLVED IN THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER.
My husband, Sam, passed four years ago after 56 years of a wonderful partnership. Therefore, I’m continuing the stage we set for leaving a legacy for our two daughters and five grandchildren. I remember, the whole first year after our first daughter, Lynette, was born. I watched her hours at a time, awake, asleep, crying, smiling and thought: “A year ago, she was a nothing. What a miracle this is!”
I was 25-years-old and realized there was a good chance I would see great-grandchildren thinking, “What can I do as a parent to insure those great-grandchildren will be self-reliant, kind and successful individuals?”
In 1970, I was hired by the University of Washington Library Archives to start the “Japanese Collection” gathering and documenting the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest. As a third generation Japanese American, most of us no longer maintained fluency in Japanese. I had lived with my grandpa when I was little and if I relaxed and tried, I could communicate. Completing several oral tapes in Japanese, of the first generation Issei, the grant funding ran out.
Sixteen years later, both Lynette and Kelly had left for college so I decided to get a Masters in Psychosocial Nursing because I love psychology, philosophy and pursuing THE MEANING OF LIFE for myself and others. Therefore, I learned the value of story telling.
In 1991, I decided it was time to create, instead of just collecting documentation on the Japanese experience. Chuck Kato, Del Uchida, Margaret Yasuda and I gathered in my Mercer Island house kitchen and started sharing stories of growing up as Japanese Americans. We published several OMOIDE - MEMORIES stories. Thirty years later, the writing group continues to meet every third Saturday of each month at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington, from 1pm to 4pm.
STORIES AT THE PANAMA includes the general public. The Panama Hotel has a heritage. The ground and place in Seattle represents a Heritage. Current patrons and visitors of the area are invited to share their heritage stories!
Sharing stories and creating a podcast, in 2022, is where I choose to be involved in seeking fulfillment, on the HERITAGE stage at THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER SWEET.
![I know I have the ability to ach...]()
I know I have the ability to achieve the objects of my definite purpose in life,
and I'm learning to clearly write down my definite chief aims in life.
Growing up, getting a spanking was not part of my household nor that of my relatives. It was not part of my husband’s and my thinking as we raised our two daughters. We learned with gossip about our relatives, friends and neighbors what to say and do. We still do!
When I was five-years-old, I lived on a 30-acre farm and in the one-room house my Dad built in 1944, during WWII. It was a place called Sand Hollow, Idaho. Our neighbor to the north was a German couple, Cookie and Agnes Koch, who lived in their small trailer house.
Agnes was a stay-at-home wife and Cookie was a farm hand and carpenter wherever he could find a job. Mom and Dad made friends with them and they soon moved their trailer on to our property. It was parked between our house and the main gravel Sand Hollow road, where there was our outdoor pump for water and our main electricity pole for them to hook up.
One of the conversations I overheard with my parents, one night, was that the Kochs had not paid their part of the electricity bill. The next day I took it upon myself to mention this to Agnes when I was playing outside.
Late that afternoon, Dad came home earlier than usual because we had been invited to dinner with some friends from church. Our car was a 1940 tan colored, one-seat Chevrolet Coupe with a window ledge behind the seat. I got dressed in my one Sunday dress and ran to the car and was lying in the window seat waiting for Mom to bring my baby sister when Mrs. Koch came running down the driveway saying, "I'm so sorry, but Dee reminded that we have not paid our bill and this is as much as I can get together until Cookie gets paid!”
Mom and Dad were so embarrassed that as soon as Mrs. Koch left, Dad came out to the car, jerked me out of the car window ledge and carried me into the house. They made me stay home by myself and they left with no discussion.
As I sat on the kitchen stool between the sink and coal stove, crying, crying, crying and crying. I was not able to stop for a long time. Then at the end, I kind of had the hiccups trying to stop. I’ve never cried like that again.
Lessons like that, in not embarrassing my family and although hurtful, have served me well in many ways. It also made me independent and responsible. I do a lot of thinking before saying things. As our girls were growing, they would say, “Spit it out Mom!”
There was a time when those of us with Japanese Heritage were discriminated against and treated with disdain because our being quiet and not being very expressive was equated with secrecy and conniving.
Seventy-eight years later, I work to be more open, but those of us with Japanese heritage may still be the more “quiet Americans”. Although I work to be more expressive, I’m watching an out of control social media allowing young minds to toss reactionary and critical language to each other while being glued to their IPhones. Do I want to promote freedom of expression? It is confusing.
I love having deep discussions that tickle and stir my soul. I am practicing to be appropriately expressive: SHARING THOUGHTS WITH PEOPLE AND BEING INVOLVED WITH MAKING LIFE BETTER.
![No one will play with me if I ...]()
No one will play with me if I don't "play by the rules".
To keep my own interest, I need to keep improving and winning sometimes!
I first learn to play games like CHUTES AND LADDERS. As a preschooler, my parents and my siblings play with me and let me win most of the time until I finally learn not to cheat and play by the rules.
As I become an adult, I choose new games of preference like Monopoly or Bridge, but it’s no fun unless I find playmates and PLAY BY THE RULES. I will only continue to play and enjoy the games of choice, if I learn and grow in my skills for the game.
I have preferences for “my game”. To be a good partner and playmate, I need to learn and regularly play their game. It doesn’t work if I only play my own game and/or not follow the rules.
MENTORS teach me and clarify my games as well as holding me accountable for learning and growing. Many say “self authoring” or writing about myself, for myself, is the best way to find fulfillment.
ful·fill·ment
/fo͝olˈfilmənt/
1.
the achievement of something desired, promised, or predicted."winning the championship was the fulfillment of a childhood dream"
2.
the meeting of a requirement or condition."the fulfillment of statutory requirements”
Why do I want fulfillment? Because I can’t think of anything better to strive for - realizing that "daily life fulfillment" is a path, not just an end goal!
“SUCCESS IS LIKING YOURSELF, LIKING WHAT YOU DO AND LIKING HOW YOU DO IT”
![SUB-CONSCIOUS IS OUR REAL ...]()
SUB-CONSCIOUS IS OUR REAL SELF
Today, as I was leaving the Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee Shop, I met Sally. Five minutes earlier or later, we would have missed each other. The reason this was a “serendipity” is because this morning, I received an email from John Aftebro.
A couple weeks ago, I randomly met John at the Panama and coincidentally learned that he owned the Kelly-Ross Pharmacy in Seattle’s Medical Dental Building and knew my husband Sam! John was at the Panama to finalize a program he is putting on-line about Jan, who owns the Panama, and what the enterprise she has created means to her.
Subsequently, I asked John by email, “How do you know Jan?”
This morning he apologized for not emailing me sooner but answered, “Jan’s cousin Sally is a good friends of ours.”
Therefore, when I was leaving this afternoon, Jan said, “Dee, this is my cousin.”
I countered, “You wouldn’t happen to be Sally??”
I'm convinced that these kind of happenings are verification of the connections with our Universal Mind.
My husband Sam and I first learned about the “Universal Mind” in 1976 when we took this PEOPLE COURSE. It’s the phenomena Napoleon Hill explains in his book THINK AND GROW RICH. We’re not just talking about money, but of “richness of our life experiences.”
The secret lies in learning how to maximize our SUBCONSCIOUS MIND and open the gates to the UNIVERSAL MIND! For some of us, this could take a lifetime to learn, but taking some self-help courses can shorten that phenomenon and lead to successful opportunities.
Sam and I decided to add it to our CHEER (being a cheer leader of life fulfillment for myself and others) program workbook as the illustration above. The sub-conscious mind is like a tape recorder. Some describe the sub-conscious mind as the real “self”.
The first secret of success is to learn to fill the sub-conscious mind with more positives. The only way to open the gates to the Universal Mind is to have more pluses than negatives in our sub-conscious!! I work to turn off the daily news and put up positive suggestion in the form of notes on my bathroom mirror. At the People Course, it was suggested we make a list of positive experiences, place it on our bedside stand and read it before we go to sleep,
I built my Nutrition business by: WRITING our questions in a positive framework; TRYING to solve the problem and then ASKING the universe for suggestions. This is best done as I go to sleep and the secret is to act on my inspiration as I awaken in the morning.
Opening the gates, from the Subconscious to the Universal Mind, opens us up to creativity, inventions, solutions, ideas for BECOMING INVOLVED WITH THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER!!
![Ike and Dee presenting Ike's P...]()
Ike and Dee presenting Ike's Principles at Nisei Vets in Seattle
Today, I had coffee/conversation with Nana at Seattle’s Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee House. One of our discussions as I showed her the book, IKE’S PRINCIPLES started with Luis, the barista.
“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’!”
![Drawing by my 14-yr-old gra...]()
Drawing by my 14-yr-old granddaughter
LETTING THE ENERGY FLOW
Youthful mind is part of IKIGAI: letting the 60,000 thoughts each day cross like clouds, carrying a spa with me wherever I go and knowing when to get in, reaching state of “flow”. Which of my activities drives my flow? The more I train my FLOW, the more I will find my Ikigai? How do I lead with LOVE?
“IKI” translates as the Japanese word for “Life”. “GAI” means “Value or Worth”.
Long conversations with others puts me in flow. When I spent 2 weeks with my Kailua cousin’s family, it was non-stop talking all day for the two-weeks, specially with Gay. For sure, that puts me in FLOW to be sharing stories about incidents related to topics we were discussing! Both Gay and I are proactive in creating households where parts of IKIGAI is sought most of the time. I like her examples of her husband and sons, who are in a good places in their lives.
I’ve stayed away from reading and listening to daily news. Most of it, I can’t do anything about and a lot of it would make my temperature rise. Racial harmony and successful integration is now news! I have three stations on my car radio: KING FM, KIRO Sports and NPR. I keep up some, but it's not part of my daily routine. Mostly, I want to share my personal WHOs, WHYs and HOWs; not leading my actions and progress in life with the loudest voices around.
My Ikigai “how” is: Continuous learning and growing and CHEER leading myself and others toward fulfillment in life.
![WHO IS IT THAT I WANT TO BE]()
WHO IS IT THAT I WANT TO BE
This week I signed up for a seven day workshop with Evan Carmichael because the title, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP is energizing. As the sign on my bathroom wall says: “BE INVOLVED WITH THINGS IN MAKING LIFE BETTER”. I want to sharpen up my skills and continue to learn and grow - sharing these tools.
Evan’s first day had to do with, “Who am I?” With exercises of writing down: my favorite teacher, my favorite movie, my favorite book, and some incidents in my life that made me feel good.
My passion is to study with some of the more open and philosophical podcasters willing to debate and learn from each other. I like listening to individuals having to do with personal growth that are also low in neuroticism. This “Listening/Studying” evolved in the last year or two with the Covid-Isolation.
According to writers such as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky there is a baseline of human suffering. Responsibility and good management of aggression and sex drive for most men and management of emotions as a woman is my baseline. I choose to strive to be the "hero" that strives against darkness.
Language and thinking manifests into action and things according to these gurus. We can change our thoughts and practice new ones as suggested.
Therefore, the second day is an exercise in determining my “WHY” starting with identifying one of the worst days of my life. Then, determining a mission, a path, an action plan for making life better with a purpose statement!
![RESTRICTED ZONE All of 1/16th...]()
RESTRICTED ZONE
All of 1/16th Japanese Heritage
removed from restricted zone
110,000 INCARCERATED IN 10 REMOTE AREA CAMP COMMUNITIES
We were living inland, beyond the 400 miles from the Pacific Coast restricted area. Four years previous to December 7, 1941, six households, 11 adults and 15 children, led by my Grandpa K Tsukamaki; migrated from Seattle to Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho’s Treasure Valley. It was carefully planned because of fears of discrimination along the way and possible breakdown incidents. Like the pioneers with the covered wagons moving west, this caravan traveled east in motor vehicles. They helped each other get established, in row-crop farming, in this new community in 1937 and increased the population of Vale, Oregon, around 1000 at that time.
My Uncle Frank Tsukamaki told me, “I was 20-years-old. Life was dramatically changed in every way as America prepared for war and the possibility that the West Coast cities would be targets. We had found better farming ground in Notus, Idaho, across the Snake river from Vale and were raising onions. But it was winter so my brother, Ben, was in Los Angeles learning the grocery business. Ben was being trained at a friend of Dad’s, Jow family, grocery store on Prairie Avenue.
When President Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066, February 19, 1942, Dad asked me to drive the 800 miles to Los Angeles and pick Ben up. It was scary! Ben was in Inglewood, CA, where they had the aircraft factory. All of that area, Hollywood Race Track and stuff was full of military trucks. They were even from out of state with license plates from New Jersey, New York and east. And right there they had the sand bags!
I had to get a permit to come back past the restricted zone to Idaho. Ben had become good friends with their son, Bill Jow, who was going to UCLA. Bill’s high school friend’s father was Mayor of Inglewood. So Bill asked that friend, the mayor, who knew Western Defense commander General DeWitt. We were able to get a permit to travel right away.
Well anyway, Ben and I packed up our things and left LA. We hit Sacramento and a military policeman stopped us, so we showed him the permit. He couldn’t believe DeWitt’s signature. So they held us for a few hours until they contacted DeWitt’s headquarters.
The roads at that time were not that great and narrow. There, where it was the Donner Summit and a high narrow pass, they had a whole bunch of anti-aircraft guns. It was a weird feeling.”
“I AM JAPANESE AMERICAN!”
Especially at the start of WWII with Japan, many Chinese wanted to make sure they weren’t automatically classed as Japanese. There were articles in popular magazines like “LIFE” and newspapers pointing out facial characteristic differences between Japanese and Chinese. Some Chinese individuals chose to wear buttons that read, “I am Chinese”.
Frank continued, “These practices were irritating to me and most of us Japanese would rather been discriminated than to say we were Chinese. There was a mutual feeling of enmity between Japanese and Chinese.
I particularly remember one incident. I was in LA and got low on gas. There was this Standard station in Inglewood. I stop by and was going to gas up. ‘White Attendant’ walks up to me and say, ‘What nationality are you?’ I so, I almost said I was Chinese American, but luckily I decide to tell the truth and say, ‘I’m Japanese American.’
He told me, ‘I hate how they act. Those Chinks, I hate them.’”
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Heritage remembered nurtures our souls
