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EK: Just getting a little more in depth about the work that you do outside of the JACL, but I'm sure it still has an impact on the things that you do inside the JACL, doing some of my own research, like you said, you worked or interned at the JCCCW. And so you've worked in many multicultural and multigenerational spaces. So how has being in that or, not specifically the JCCCW, but in a multigenerational and intergenerational space, and surrounding yourself with the stories that are shared in those spaces influenced your identity? And, in particular, how does it influence your identity as a Japanese American?

TB: Powerful, powerful question and really, really paramount to sort of how I see myself today and my kind of re-appreciation and love for my heritage that I don't really think I had growing up. So really, in many ways, kind of a healing space for me. I think that being involved with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington was not just being in a space with other JA's, doing JA things, planning the bunka no hi, planning the different events, being out with the Japanese language school, it was also really leveling and understanding kind of how different our experiences are and how holistically how not just one kind of defined path that Japanese American identity has to sit on and that multiculturalism, that multiracialism is really important, that racial identities aren't just put into little finite boxes and exclude people that don't fit in. So I think that being a coordinator, I was seeing a hundred, I mean, probably more, especially during the events, hundreds of people come through and experience the cultural center, and we tried to make it as welcoming a space as possible, not only for JAs, but for all people that would come through. And so that was just really powerful. I'll mention on kind of familial note, having my mom visit and having, also meeting other shin Nikkei, the term for sort of recent immigrants that came to the United States post World War II was powerful. She enjoyed it, she thought that was kind of quaint, hope that's not being recorded. But the history there was something that she didn't really experience when she came to the U.S. and Orange County, so that was really powerful and fun for me to kind of experience through her and with her.

What else to say? I mean, that was -- it was a big, I was there for a long time. I was there from 2015 to 2019, so it was almost five years. Same supervisor, Karen Yoshitomi, I don't know why she hired me, I was so green. Oh my god. [Laughs] I didn't really know what the hell I was doing. But she really nurtured me, she really set me up for success in many ways. And I think that organization, strapped as it was, was also a place about learning. My co-workers, I don't want to name every single one of them off, but yeah, I'm really close with and I miss a lot of them. Some of them retired. So, sad to see them enjoying retirement too much. But yeah, it was a really powerful place. I'll mention that, unlike JACL, perhaps it was focused really vehemently on being apolitical, which doesn't really exist in community. But I think that for the space that it was, it was very welcoming and its role is just so key. I remember meeting children, and watching them grow throughout the five years in the Japanese language school or coming to our events. I mean, god, I think that it was powerful.

EK: Great.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2021 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.