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BS: And I think just looking at the time, was going to shift to you, Kyle, because you are also a very important member of the JACL community and have your own contributions that we would like to talk about in your own right as well. So, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became involved in the Seattle JACL?

KK: Sure. I think what I'll do is kind of explain why it is that actually, I'm only somewhat recently active in the JACL. I joined the board in 2019, and that was only after I retired from my K-12 education career. The thing of it was, is if you talk about my story, it wasn't really directly involved with JACL or in that way the JA community. My career was I became an elementary teacher in the 1980s, and as I began my teaching career and interacting with the kids, I found that one of my biggest motivations for being in education was the idea of justice. There are kids and are still kids who are underserved by the system. They don't get what they need, and it kind of consigns them to continuing to be as part of an oppressed class. So that always, always, always was a part of my thinking and motivation for being in education. As I taught, I thought, "Hmm, I'm having an impact on my classmates, maybe I can have an impact on a bigger group and a bigger system." So that got me to go to school and get my principal credential. And so, I was a elementary principal for thirteen years. And after a while I had that same inkling. You know, I'm working and I think I'm making a difference, maybe I can make a difference in a bigger setting. So that's when I got my doctorate and became a district level administrator, was an Executive Director of Teaching and Learning in the Marysville school district. And then in the last three years of my career I was Chief of Curriculum Assessment Instruction. Although the title is Chief, it was on the same organization line as Assistant Superintendents in Seattle. And in the last three years, one of the things I did that I'm probably most proud of is I relaunched an Ethnic Studies Initiative, which is still going on. I forgot to mention that one of the biggest influences because of my mom is that as an undergrad in the '70s I got what was one of the first ethnic studies undergrad degrees. And a lot of it had to do with being exposed to these ideas by my mom. So, I've always had that influence even though it hasn't been in JACL, it was in K-12 education. I think what she kind of inculcated into me was that if you work at anything, you better work to do the right thing. And lots of what I did in K-12 was that. Sometimes it put me at odds with different people. Sometimes, it was kind of hard because there was pushback. But I think my mom's example taught me that, "Well, okay, that's the way it is. That's what you need to do."

So, 2019... she passed in 2008, and I still had quite a bit of my ed career left. But 2019, when I retired, I thought, now's the time, I should do two things. One, is to start giving back to the Japanese American community that had nurtured me, and do things that maybe would preserve my mom's legacy somehow. Although this was not my aspiration, the way it is sometimes in JACL is that if you've got the time and you can do something, you end up either on the board or being an officer. So this year, 2022, I'm co-president along with Stan Shikuma. And I reflect once in a while -- it's only been a month and a half since I've been co president -- that "Wow, okay. Here I am. I'm actually doing something that I'm in a position to carry on the legacy of my mom, and I better make the most of it." So, there it is. This is one of the projects, by the way, in and of itself, that I work with Joy, and I work with Bill Tashima, and that's why this is a project that I don't mind working hard at. Because I get to actually preserve the legacy of folks like my mom, who I think is pretty important not to forget some of the things that she was about.

BS: Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing that story with us just now.

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