Densho Digital Repository - The Kurose Family Interview (Densho ID: ddr-sjacl-2-42-8)

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EK: And the second half of a question was just hearing how the naming of the Aki Kurose Middle School, the Seattle school in your mother's honor, came to be.

PK: How that came to be, is that what you said?

EK: Yes.

PK: Ruthann might know some of these details better than me, but I'll start. And then she can add. But it was when my mom passed away. There were a lot of community members who wanted to pay tribute to her in different ways. And at that time, Aki Kurose Middle School was called Sharples Junior High School. And it was named after some, I think, Seattle Public School board member like eighty, ninety, a hundred years ago, just from way, way back. And it's kind of... it was an earlier thing, these are kind of some of the kinds of things that continue to be happening now. Right? We're recognizing things like the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we need to quit honoring these people just because they were white male privileged people back in the day and start having things named for people for much better reasons, like for who they were and what they did. So anyways. I think so a number of community members, I know Al Sugiyama was one of them. There was this one, I think she was a teacher or a teacher's aide, a paraprofessional.

RK: It happened... Mom hadn't passed yet.

PK: Oh, see, I told you Ruthann I knew better than me. [Laughs]

RK: And Sharples was a surgeon.

PK: But he was also a board member at that time, right?

RK: No.

PK: I mean, way back, way back.

RK: Okay, he might have been, but it was not it was actually people from both the African American and the API community. Mostly women that were... Leah Wilson?

PK: Yeah, I was about to mention her. That was the other person I was gonna mention. So it was... and then many others as well. But I just remember Al Sugiyama and Mom Wilson being really strong advocates of it. But they didn't name the school after her until after she passed away, though.

RK: But they had made the decision to.

PK: Oh, that's nice. See, I learned something from leaving that basketball court.

RK: Well, and actually I can... thinking I remember when they had the hearing that an hour before the meeting started, I think the whole front of the auditorium was filled with Nisei women. Shigeko Ono and Cherry and Mako and...

PK: May Namba.

RK: Yeah. And then towards the back of the room was Ed Hirai and... anyhow, I think Al Sugiyama and a lot of community activists from both the Black and the API community. And the guys in the suits that were gonna be there for Sharples decided not to testify.

JSG: Interesting.

RK: Okay.

EK: Thank you, Paul and Ruthann. I think that, like you said, Paul, there should be more, I think. There's still foundations and schools and statues of individuals who have created a lot of hate within our society that are still very prevalent within schools and in public and memorials. So for your grandmother and your mother to have a school dedicated to her, I think it's only just, that that's a thing that it exists. So thank you for sharing about that. And then maybe --

PK: Just one quick comment. I mean, like, just like this t-shirt, it says peace cranes, and it has a John Lewis quote on it, "When you see something not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something." And so the name... with the name comes values and principles that are put to the forefront in the children's minds when they come to school, and that does make a difference. They've talked about subliminal messaging, but it's not even subliminal. It's just right out front. And so, like you said about Rough Riders, those kids are going to Aki Kurose Middle School and saying, "We're the peace cranes," and that they know what they're saying, they know what those words mean. And so they do make a difference.

EK: Absolutely. I think that if I saw -- I played volleyball -- but if I saw peace cranes coming in as just the whole team mascot, I'd instantly transfer. So thank you for sharing about all of that. And just like you said, Paul, just words of wisdom. Thank you so much.