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KK: Welcome, everyone, to our legacy project recording for Joy Misako St. Germain. And I'm Kyle Kinoshita. I'm part of the legacy project and also a member of the JACL board and really glad to be a part of this project and to interview Joy today. In terms of background, the legacy project for the Seattle JACL has been created partly to record the 100-year history of our chapter, and the work we've done in civil rights and other areas that serve the community. But, in particular, what we wanted to do is to really preserve the legacy by interviewing some of the significant figures and our history in recent decades and capture some of the work as well as some of the thinking that went into leading and sustaining the JACL through the recent years. And so, Joy, we've introduced you as one of those significant historical figures, no pressure there at all. And so, therefore, we'd like to go ahead and conduct this interview so that some of your observations and some of your insights over the time will be preserved. And I'm gonna hand the mic over to Ana Tanaka, who will be conducting the interview. So, Ana.

AT: Thank you, Kyle. Well, so I am Ana Tanaka and I'm one of the interns for the Seattle JACL chapter working on the legacy grant project which I'm honored to be able to interview Joy today. And I'm studying American Ethnic Studies as well as Human Evolutionary Biology. Both kind of a mouthful, but they're both very people-based and activism is something that I'm very passionate about and so it's cool to be able to work with an organization that is focused on that. But anyway, to get to Joy, how about we start off just a little bit like talking about, kind of what you do, and just a little bit about yourself?

JSG: Thanks, Ana and Kyle. So I'm actually a Nisei, a pretty unusual background, perhaps, so second generation Japanese American, who was born in Chicago, to parents, Susumu and Eiko Nakanishi, who emigrated from Japan. My dad came to get his PhD in organic chemistry, and he's still with us. He's ninety-five and lives close by. I came to the Pacific Northwest because I wanted to live in a diverse community and in an area where Japanese Americans live. And because we... I actually grew up in Connecticut, and in Connecticut, there was no Asian families at all, I think there was one or two other families in the area. So, but because my parents are Japanese, I grew up with a very deep sense of love for the culture and identity connection with the Japanese American culture. So the reason I moved is I actually visited my brother in California and recognized that there was a whole community of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. So it took me a while to move, but I did move and that was one of the drivers of why I moved to the Pacific Northwest. For example, in the Seattle area, there's Japanese Bon Odori festivals, great food and cherry blossoms, just opportunities to connect with the culture. So I do speak Japanese, I wouldn't say really fluently, but enough where I could carry on a casual conversation and wanted to strengthen my skills.

So in Washington, I also began my professional career as a human resources director for the State Department of Ecology at the time, I moved in 1989 and then served ten years as the HR director for the City of Tacoma. And I'm currently the HR director for the City of Bellevue, so I have a professional long career in public service as well. And part of that does tie into why I engaged with the JACL is really wanting to make a difference, I think in public service. My interest was in public policy and recognizing that, in order to make a difference, some of that would really be through laws and influence with the systems of that nature. And then recognizing that the JACL has that kind of influence as well.

So other things about me, I do, I do love to perform in community theater from time to time, and I write poetry, especially haiku, I like to doodle. And I really have volunteered with JACL for a long time. And I can certainly talk a little bit about -- later about just how I got involved and served as the president of the Seattle chapter in 1992. So one other thought is I do remember, in Connecticut, I didn't really know that much about the Japanese American Citizens League, because the closest chapter to where I lived in Connecticut was the New York chapter. And that was still two and a half, three hours away, so I really had no exposure. But I remember I wrote to the Seattle president at the time, Gail Tanaka, from... I just wrote to her and said, "I'm moving to Washington state," and wanted to know more about the Seattle JACL. So I remember that she wrote back and said, "When you arrive, we welcome you. Come to our meeting." And so I do remember, that was one of the, I was very struck by just how welcoming the members of the chapter were. And that is how, it's just a little bit about my background and my connection to JACL.

AT: Yeah, thank you for that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.