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CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
FREE EST. 1974 —SEATTLE VOLUME 41, NUMBER 4 — FEBRUARY 19, 2014 – MARCH 4, 2014
THE NEWSPAPER OF NORTHWEST ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITIES. FIND YOUR INSPIRASIAN.
SAKUMA SPEAKS UP:
Photos by Ashley Stewart
FARM LABOR PARIAH DEFENDS HIS FAMILY’S BUSINESS
OCA GALA PHOTOS | 7
NORTHWEST THAI RALLY | 10
LEGACY OF GORDON HIRABAYASHI | 12
2 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE OPINION
Mental illness more than just bad behavior, support is out there By Hannah Moon IE Columnist
children appeared on 60 Minutes to speak of their experiences. One problem they cited was shame and lack of support from their friends. In Virginia, Senator Creigh Deeds, who was brutally stabbed by his son last November, is leading a new effort to restructure mental health laws. On Twitter, posts tagged #IWillListen abound with information about mental illness and reducing stigma.
When I was 10 and my brother was 16, he helped me make churros. I don’t recall why I had to make these at such a young age; perhaps they were for a school fair. What I do remember is that Tom took the trouble to study the recipe, went out and bought ingredients, and constructed a startip pastry bag to produce the traditional Mexican treats. He was a very caring brother in that way, and the churros turned out beautifully.
In Seattle, many organizations provide information and support for people and families affected by mental illness. There is the Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance, which meets once a month at the University of Washington Medical Center. I’ve been to these meetings before and found them to be a source of positive moral support.
But Tom, who is bipolar, could be frightening to me as well. A foot taller than me and twice my weight, his physicality was sometimes a threat. During one fight, he gave me a black eye with a simple smack. Another time, when he got into an argument with our mother, he pulled a knife from the kitchen drawer and held it against her throat. Fortunately, Tom did not press the knife and cut into her skin. The next morning, my mother tearfully told my brother to behave better and pray more. We never spoke of the incident to others or amongst ourselves. We kept it hidden even from our dad, who worked overseas. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 26.2 percent of American adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder; yet, most of us are not willing to talk about it with our friends or family members.
Photo illustration by Hannah Moon
I remember that around the same time that we made churros, I came across a book report that Tom had written for his 10th-grade class. It was on Robinson Crusoe. We’d just moved to the United States from Korea a few years ago, so reading an 18th-century novel must have been a pretty high hurdle for Tom. The book report was filled with a teacher’s red circles and slashes. Tom had written about the human condition, but he’d spelled the word human wrong. It appeared as “fuman” at least a dozen times in his paper. His grade was a D.
Because mental illness exhibits itself in negative behavior, many people think Now middle-aged, my brother suffers that it’s a matter of discipline or will. from poverty, alcoholism, and solitude. He But mental disorders have a biochemical lives a “fuman” existence. He is usually component requiring medical attention, quiet and respectful toward others in according to the mental health industry. public, but when he gets manic or drunk, I wish my parents and I had dug into the he becomes scary. Strangers are not as root of Tom’s problems. I also wish we had forgiving of his bad behavior as family. asked him why he behaved the way he did. He has been kicked out of restaurants, What was going on in school? What was bars, and even halfway houses that were going on in his mind? What did he feel supposed to help people like him. He in his heart? These are simple questions, has been to jail several times for being a but we made them difficult by not asking nuisance. them. By being silent, we allowed my It saddens me that I cannot change my brother’s condition to worsen. brother’s life, but I am coming forward
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Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 622 South Washington Street, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 6243925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.
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with our story to help prevent similar situations from happening to others. At the risk of encouraging hyper-vigilance, I urge parents to find out if there is a deeper issue to their children’s negative behavior. Violent eruptions, depression, mania, or predilection toward excessive sleep or excessive spending could be symptoms of an illness and may not be relieved by punishment or more discipline.
We are at a time when communities Hannah Moon is a Korean American across the country are coming together to talk openly about mental illness. In writer working on a book about how mental illness has affected her family. January, many parents of mentally ill
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The Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) provides a wealth of services, including therapy, physical exercise classes, chemical dependency treatment, and job-hunting help. Case workers are multilingual, with over 30 languages represented. More than 27,000 people benefit from the ACRS’s programs each year, but as any recovery program, the first step is to understand and accept one’s illness for what it is. As Yoon Joo Han, Behavioral Health Director at the ACRS says, “If our clients had the insight to accept their mental illness, half the work would be done.”
INTERN Chelsee Yee EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Vowel Chu
PROOFREADER Anna Carriveau CONTRIBUTORS Hannah Moon Belinda Louie Amy Van Jintana Lityouvong Celine Djohan Megan Herndon Shin Yu Pai Ashley Stewart Imana Gunawan Chizu Omori Roxanne Ray Yayoi Winfrey
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 3
IE OPINION
40 years with CAPAA: API activists blaze trail to the capitol By Amy Van and Jintana Lityouvong IE Guest Columnists It was the era of sit-ins, picket-signs, and chants. Across the United States, African Americans were calling for the end of racial segregation and discrimination. By the early 1970s, a young group of Asian Pacific Americans (APA) joined the civil rights movement and began to define the Asian activist experience in Washington state and make their voices heard from city hall to the state capitol. The crowd looks on at APCC’s 16th New Year celebration on February 15. • Courtesy Photo
APCC New Year celebration brings communities, generations together By Belinda Louie IE Guest Columnist The Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) hosted its 16th New Year celebration on February 15 at the Tacoma Dome. Each year the celebration features one of the 47 Asian Pacific countries, highlighting its land, its people, its culture, and its performing arts. This year, the spotlight was on the beautiful island country of Tahiti: The heartbeat of French Polynesia.
The Te Fare O Tamatoa (the Royal House of Tamatoa) was the grand host representing Tahiti at this New Year celebration. The matriarch of the family, Madam Manio Radford, together with Manu and Malia Radford, brought the warm, tropical Tahiti to the Pacific Northwest. They showcased a racing canoe and other artifacts to welcome visitors as they entered the lobby of the exhibition hall. Huge posters with photographs of the islanders provided a colorful backdrop for the performances throughout the day. The hour-long Tahitian program was filled with dances, drumming, music, and the story-dance of The Legend of Vahine‘ai-ta‘ata, The Man Eating Woman. All who were present enjoyed the unique combination of history, music, and dance.
The APCC New Year celebration was a fullday family event. The 10-people dragon dance team of the International Chinese Christian Church gave an energetic kick-off for the day. Hawaiian dancers and ukulele musicians greeted each visitor at the main entrance. Walking through the lobby displaying artifacts from Tahiti and many Asian Pacific countries, the young and the old then went into the main hall to enjoy six hours of cultural performances representing Japan, Hawai‘i/ Guam, Philippines, China, India, Laos, Korea, Indonesia, and Samoa.
For those who wanted hands-on experience, they were able to dance along or try new kicks at the demonstration room with a packed schedule on Vietnamese martial arts, Hawaiian hula, Filipino martial arts, Filipino folk dances, Okinawan martial arts, Taiwan aboriginal dance, Thai boxing, Japanese Kendo, Karate, Tae Kwan Do, and Hot Hula. Some visitors learned how to fold paper cranes at the Japanese Origami tables and write a few characters at the Korean Calligraphy table.
Between performances, visitors checked their raffle ticket numbers to see whether they
won one of the loaded, cultural baskets. One visitor won the grand prize of a round-trip Alaska Airline ticket at the end of the event as a return for a two-dollar raffle ticket. Children who completed their cultural passport with stamps from all the major cultural booths received a ticket for the drawing of a junior basket.
Over 60 booths with goods, arts and crafts, information pamphlets, and gift items were there for all to shop and to browse: perfumes and scarves, sparkling toys and breezy fabric, balloons and face-painting, jade stone and origami jewelry, kimono fitting and sari tugging. Children walked around with hand-held balloons in the shapes of bunnies and fish. Their smiling faces were covered by face-painting designs with glitter. The day could not be completed without sampling the food from the six food booths serving Asian Pacific snacks and dishes. Fiji Island Foods was always ready to crack a coconut for people to take a sip of the sweet juice from the fruit, which went well with the Indonesian dishes from the Tiga Dara Catering or Hawaiian BBQ from the Pacific Island Grill. Vegetarians enjoyed the food items from the Loving Kindness Vietnamese Foods. Fresh spring rolls gave calm to many palates. Longtime visitors loved the karaoka (deep fried rice/ coconut balls) and Siopao (steamed, meat-filled buns) from the Legacy Specialties Filipino Plus. Many lined up to purchase dumplings, egg-rolls, spam musubi, fried rice, and fried noodles from the International Chinese Christian Church in its red-lantern canopy.
Patsy Surh O’Connell (APCC president and founder) and Lua Pritchard (APCC executive director) organized another great New Year celebration for the Washington state residents. Keynote speaker Brigadier General John Cho and many dignitaries came or sent in congratulatory notes to support the work that APCC is doing in the region. The day began with first and second graders from Life Christian Academy singing Chinese songs and was finished with high-school students from Federal Way High School presenting a powerful Samoan performance. APCC is making progress to fulfill its mission of bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education, and business. In 2015, APCC will feature Singapore in their 17th New Year celebration in the Tacoma Dome.
Maxine Chan was 16 years old when a friend informed her about the Asian Advisory Council that the Governor’s office was creating and encouraged her to apply. She submitted a hand-written resume with her brief academic credentials (a middle school graduate at the time), and was surprised to receive a phone call from the Governor’s office in the middle of class a few months later.
Governor Daniel J. Evans was the 16th governor of Washington State in 1972. It was that year when a handful of individuals from the Asian community approached his staff with the concern that the growing issues of discrimination and inequality remained unaddressed for Asian Americans.
At that time, Rey Pascua had just graduated from Western Washington University. As a Yakima native, he was moved by the Farmworkers’ Movement in California. As an undergrad, he led the first Asian Student Union on the campus. After being active in Yakima County’s Filipino community, he received an invitation from the Governor’s office to officially join the council. What brought Chan and Pascua together on the council has also brought Robert (Uncle Bob) Santos to the table as well. At the peak of the civil rights movement of the late ’60s, Santos was picketing with African American laborers who were seeking inclusion in the workforce. He noticed the increasing violence within Seattle schools and the city’s Kingdome development plan threatening the Chinatown/ International District landscape. He and a group of APA activists began to strategize a plan to fight for civil and social justice rights. “How do we deal with these kinds of [issues]? We should be going to the source that could do something, like government, like local government,” Santos said. Governor Evan’s administration was responsive, and by request, the Asian Advisory Council was created to provide information and recommendations to the Governor’s office on issues pertaining to the Asian American community. Council members were chosen based on their expressed knowledge of Asian American issues and their own experiences. “These were people who were right at the cutting edge of things that were happening to the Asian American community throughout Washington state,” said Pascua.
Chan had submitted a writing sample with her application in which she wrote about her favorite comic series, The Green Lantern. The series featured seemingly socially conscious content and led her to admire writer Denny O’Neil. However, when Chan came across one episode featuring a villain who was depicted as “Asian,” adorned in yellow face with slanty eyes, she was enraged.
“How could something so socially conscious feature something so racist?” she asked. In their own minor and major ways, these individuals were beginning to tackle issues of overt and subtle racism towards a group of people overlooked before: Asian Americans.
The model minority stereotype had rendered the Asian American community apathetic in the eyes of the majority culture. Yet, with the growing influx of refugees and immigrants settling in from war torn countries, the introduction of Affirmative Action, and the blatant glass ceilings, the community could not afford to appear to be apathetic much longer.
When the Governor had constituted the Council, 17 other individuals joined Chan, Santos, and Pascua, including Rick Ancheta, Cheryl Chow, Fred Cordova, Lois Fleming, Frank Fujii, Philip Hayasaka, Don Kazama, Dr. Hae Soung Kim, Richard Lee, Barry Matsumoto, Dr. Joe Okimoto, Fred Pagaduan, Urbano Quijance, Mayumi Tsutakawa, Dr. James Watanabe, Rev. Robert Yamashita, Dr. Isabella Yen, and Ben Woo. There were mixed reactions towards the Council’s creation: some feared the Council would wedge further tension between communities, while others looked forward to the Council remedying these social issues.
After the first two years spent on formalizing the structure, the Council took action on many issues including urging a resolution to disapprove of any King County participation in organizations that racially discriminate against people of color; recommending to have a consistent classification of “Asian Americans” in place of the current classifications of “Orientals” and “Others” on minority employment reports; eliminating Washington State Patrol’s height requirement of six feet tall as a qualification to be a State Trooper as it discriminated against minority groups and women; campaigning to discourage the use of Merriam dictionaries after publishers refused to remove the word “Jap,” after being asked. As an advisory body under the auspices of the governor, members of the council recognized that their influence could be effective within state government and their community. “These were really important times for involvement of minority people when we’ve never been involved before in society,” said Pascua.
After concerns that the legislature would defund the Council in the next budget, members of the board drafted a bill to make the Council statutory. In 1974, the bill was adopted, and the formalized Council was renamed as the Washington State Asian American Affairs Commission. “We were trying to show that we have issues in our communities that impact our communities,” Pascua said. “Washington State had really been the forefront of the Asian American movement.”
This series of op-eds are written to celebrate, reminisce, and highlight the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs 40th Anniversary. The anniversary celebration will take place on May 15, 2014. Please visit http://www.capaa. wa.gov/about/40.shtml for longer articles and for more information.
4 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT
Fundraiser for George Tsutakawa Fountain IE News Services On April 28, 1942, one quarter of Broadway High’s student body failed to report to class. These 200 or so young Japanese Americans and their families were mandated to assemble at the Puyallup Fairgrounds for eventual transfer to inland Internment Camps for the duration of World War II. Prior to Internment, Broadway High School—the future site of Seattle Central Community College—was an integral part of life for the residents of Seattle’s Nihonmachi (Japan town). Between 1902 and 1942, scores of Japanese American students passed through Broadway High’s classrooms, among them renowned artist, George Tsutakawa. By the ’70s, Tsutakawa was internationally recognized as a major modern artist. He continued to influence and shape contemporary art throughout his long and prestigious career until his passing in 1997.
9066 Group visits Japanese American bathhouse. These visitors were among those Japanese interned during World War II as a result of Executive Order 9066. • Photo by Dean Wong, 1991
In 1973, George Tsutakawa honored Seattle Central Community College with Fountain, one of only 70 fountain-works the artist produced worldwide and the only one installed at a community college. Crafted at the height of Seattle’s ’70s grassroots equality movements, Fountain serves as a reminder of Seattle Central’s Japanese American past, of Tsutakawa’s roots in a community whose presence was devastated by injustice, and of the struggles for social justice embraced by Seattle Central students.
Currently, the fountain has fallen into disrepair and no longer serves as a focal point for the college. The community is taking action to restore it.
Memory and Interlude: An Evening of Music with the Tsutakawas takes place at the Broadway Performance Hall at Seattle Central Community College on Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. The event raises funds to revitalize the George Tsutakawa Fountain located on campus.
The evening includes performances by the Deems Tsutakawa Trio, the Bach Street Boyz of Garfield High School, and Kore Ionz. Doors open for check in at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Tina Young at (206) 934-4085 and tina.young@ seattlecolleges.edu or Melanie King at (206) 934-6939 and melanie.king@seattlecolleges. edu. To donate, visit org/?tabid=450084
https://sccd.ejoinme.
Memory and Interlude: An Evening of Music with the Tsutakawas Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. Broadway Performance Hall at Seattle Central Community College $25 admission All proceeds go to the Tsutakawa Fountain Renovation Fund
T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L E X A M I N E R I S P L E A S E D TO U N V E I L Vincent Chin candlelight vigil, 1992, Dean Wong
Cherry Blossom Festival, 1982, Michael Ziegler
SNAPSHOTS IN TIME
From Hiroshima to Hope, 2000, Dean Wong
view it at: flickr.com/examinerarchives
An online gallery of historic images from four decades of publication. These newly digitized photos document the Asian Pacific American experience in the Seattle area and beyond. Our thanks to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and King County 4Culture for funding the creation of our digital archives. Thanks also to the great photographers who gave permission for their work to appear in the gallery.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 5
IE NEWS
Experiment.com: Bringing science back to its basics By Celine Djohan IE Contributor The way contemporary science and innovation is funded and published is faulty, according to one recent University of Washington alum, and she’s setting out to change all that. During Cindy Wu’s senior year at UW, she built what used to be known as Microryza (now known as Experiment.com) with co-founder Dennis Luan. The crowd-funding website would allow people to donate to young researchers and scientists to help raise funds for their various research projects. Wu used the invention of the telescope as an example to explain how her website works.
“In order for Galileo to invent the telescope, he was funded by rich funders such as the Medici family,” Wu said. “Now, I am taking that idea and adapting it to Experiment.com. It’s a site where people can fund what interests them and also see the progress of the research.” Traditionally, science is funded by the National Institute of Health. The NIH spends $30 billion a year on scientific research and about a decade ago, it would regularly receive around 20,000 proposals per year from hopeful scientists in need of funding. Those proposals have nearly doubled in 2014. The budget provided by the U.S. government is the same.
“In addition to that, people who are getting funded are only senior professors and those who have track records and experience,” Wu said.
Wu explained that in order Wu to get funded, one’s research project needs to demonstrate that a large sum of money is needed and that it should be well-defined and benefit the whole community.
Wu recalled researching an enzyme that could be used as an antibiotic for staph epidermidis when she was at UW. Unfortunately, the chance of her research getting funded was low. Due to her young age, she was missing a track record.
Because of the Internet, everything seems more possible.
Experiment.com has helped a number of different researchers.
Danny Colombara needed funds to research the viral causes of lung cancer. His goal was to raise $5,500. With the help of Experiment. com, he raised the money.
“One negative is that traditional funding sources are laborious to prepare and take a long time before funds could possibly be in hand, so it just doesn’t seem worth it for small projects like this,” said Colombara. “Unfortunately, there aren’t many mini-grants provided by the NIH that are available that would be faster, simpler. That’s why I’m thankful for crowdsourcing like Experiment.com.”
and arid. That means, there was a change in weather and climate.”
Not only does Zaborac-Reed find people that support and are interested in her research, she believes that the Experiment.com community encourages people of any age to conduct research on what they personally are interested in.
“There was no way I would be funded by the NIH,” Zaborac-Reed said. “They would only fund research such as the cure for cancer. Thanks to Experiment.com, I was able to conduct my small research. It may not be life-changing to others, but it is definitely life-changing for me.” Experiment.com isn’t just trying to change the science-funding model.
“The way science is published is also With the money that was raised, Colombara can now carry on with his research and update faulty,” Wu said. “Even after the research is compiled into a journal by the researcher, his progress on the site. it will not be available for the general pubResearcher Stephanie Zaborac-Reed recentlic. Those who have access to it are mostly With Experiment.com, Wu said that her goal ly raised $815 in order to research fossils found universities that pay for the journals. It even in Central Washington. is to bring science back to its original roots. costs about $85 to read a paper on Google She said she wants to surpass the amount of “Being able to research on these fossils does Scholar.” money that is funded by the government for help explain changes that the Earth is facing,” With Experiment.com, Wu is trying to scientific research. Zaborac-Reed said. “For instance, some plants change that. All the progress, along with that are discovered can only survive in wet “If we bring everyone together, I believe we multimedia elements, is being documented would be able to raise more money than the conditions. However, these plant fossils are on the researchers’ pages so that people found in Central Washington where it is dry entire global research budget, which is $1.25 know what they are funding. trillion,” said Wu.
Anniversary of 228 Incident brings reflection to Taiwanese By Shin Yu Pai IE Contributor
remarkable in their remembrances of post-war Taiwan. My interview subjects, Taiwanese elders in their 70s and 80s, shared visceral stories of beloved teachers disappearing from school; fathers, grandfathers, and uncles taken away in the middle of the night by soldiers. One narrator remembered the public execution of a well-known lawyer in her hometown, his body left to rot in a public square.
Each February, I find myself thinking about my parents’ native Taiwan and the history of their country that has seemed so removed from my own experiences and identities as an America Born Taiwanese. Before books of historical fiction like Julia Wu’s The Third Son or Jennifer Chow’s recent 228 Legacy, there were few popular resources in existence, allowing people to learn about the historical trauma of the 228 Incident, which has marked Taiwan’s past.
On February 28, 1947, a major antigovernment uprising took place in Taipei, which was violently suppressed by Chinese Nationalists under the direction of General Chen Yi. The incident sparked a wide-scale purging of Taiwanese citizens and intellectuals, with some sources citing more than 30,000 people killed in events related to the political revolt. Martial Law was established as a result of the tensions on the island, ushering in a period of “White Terror” that lasted for nearly The tour’s first stop was at a memorial shrine four decades, during which political dissidence for Chairman Lin’s family, which was followed and freedom of speech remained violently by the journey to the Chairman’s hometown of suppressed. I-lan, where my group viewed documentary It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that films on the 228 Incident. We passed the rest I first learned about these darker aspects of the tour visiting cultural sites and national of Taiwanese history. My folks decided it parks, including a stop at the 228 Memorial was time to send me on a “cultural” tour Peace Park and Museum. Upon returning to of their homeland. As they dropped me off the United States, I had endless questions for at Los Angeles International Airport, my my parents. My mother and father described father unceremoniously disclosed that my their own experiences of growing up in posttrip “home” was sponsored by the founder war Taiwan under Martial Law—my father of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party. I recalled soldiers squatting in the properties on would find out later that the Chairman’s family his family’s land. My mother refused to marry members had been murdered in retaliation for her college sweetheart because her parents disapproved of his involvement in political his political activities. activities, which could endanger her life and
As I revisit and reread the transcripts of my narrators’ recollections, which are now archived at The Wing Luke Museum, I’m reminded of one story in particular:
228 Memorial Park in Taichung. • Photo by
family. But without a Taiwanese community around us to confirm or contexualize my parents’ experiences, their stories remained abstract and far away.
In the aftermath of 228, two brothers and their friend gathered together to visit. The three men occupied positions of relative status—Lee Zui-han and Len-Chong were both lawyers, while Lee Zui-fong served his community as a doctor. The men were taken by KMT soldiers in the middle of a meal of squid congee. Lee Zui-Han’s wife waited for her husband’s return, “day after day, year after year, for 67 years,” commented one of my interviewees. As a community, the Taiwanese people of Seattle gather together annually to serve a meal of seafood porridge to remember those who were taken.
This February 28 marks the 67th anniversary of the historic 228 Incident. The Formosan Association of Public Affairs (FAPA) Seattle hosts a commemorative potluck event on Friday, February 28, from noon to 2:00 p.m. at Seifu Garden House located at 16623 SE 112th Street in Renton. All-you-can-eat seafood congee will be provided, with a program led In 2011, I decided to interview Taiwanese by C.Y. Chiu and John Chou. American immigrants of my parents’ generation, in English, on their thoughts on For more information, contact Mark Hong Taiwanese identity and public memory. The at (206) 244-1261 or Bob Sheen at (425) 255stories that I collected were nothing short of 5270. I would spend the next fifteen years trying to make sense of my parents’ experiences. I read academic papers, historical treatises, and traveled back to Taiwan on two different occasions to try and learn what I could about 228, but without Chinese-language proficiency, my efforts were futile.
6 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE COMMUNITY
Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club brings Hawaiian culture to Seattle By Megan Herndon IE Contributor
never step over the top of one of their canoes because that is considered disrespectful.
Six outrigger canoe paddlers lean forward, extend their arms, and plunge their feather-light wooden paddles into the water propelling their canoe forward—not as the sun sets in front of Diamond Head on the south shore of O‘ahu, but as the sun rises on Lake Union near downtown Seattle.
“E komo mai is ingrained in [the club members’] hearts,” Sarks said.
Paddlers embrace the Hawaiian concept, “E komo mai,” which means, “Come in, welcome!” They encourage new members to come out and paddle whether they’ve been doing it for years or have never been in a canoe.
These paddlers are members of the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club (SOCC). Club members are currently training for their winter race series. These races are for paddlers in one-man and twoman canoes. Paddlers ignore cold winter weather conditions and paddle early in the morning or late into the night to train for these races.
Photo by Megan Herndon
Six-man canoe paddlers will soon begin to increase the number of practices per of the boat. They can have one, two, or six week to prepare for the first race of the six- paddlers. man race season, which is held in April. The paddler in each seat of the boat has his Founded in 1996, the SOCC teaches own job, the same way each player on a soccer both Hawaiian paddling techniques and field has a different position, Vanzwalenburg Hawaiian culture to Seattle residents. explained. The SOCC is part of a larger organization called the Outrigger Canoe Racing Association of the Pacific Northwest, explained Sabine Jessel, the women’s head coach. This is an organization that brings together outrigger canoe clubs from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia for races throughout the spring and summer. “It takes a certain type of person to pull yourself out of bed early in the morning to go paddle when it’s 32 degrees out, but its worth it once you’re on the water,” Jessel said. Jessel described paddling in Seattle as a unique opportunity because of all of the things you see when you’re paddling, including anything from bald eagles to the downtown skyline.
Paddling was an integral part of life for Native Hawaiians before settlers arrived to the islands in the 1700s, according to Paul Vanzwalenburg, a former vice president and current paddler for SOCC. They used them to travel long distances as well as for offshore fishing. Today, paddling is both competitive and recreational. Outrigger canoes are different from typical canoes seen on the mainland because they have a floating outrigger or ama on the left side
She explained that at their club they practice principles important to the Hawaiian culture such as respect for the land, for each other, and for the canoe they paddle in. Paddlers respect the land and ocean by always picking up trash out on the water when they find it. They respect their The first and second seats in the boat set the canoe by regarding it as their seventh team pace for how fast the team paddles. They try member. They hold a blessing ceremony to paddle perfectly in sync because that’s the whenever they get a new canoe. Paddlers also most efficient way to move through the water. The third and fourth seats are the “power seats,” the engine of the boat. These paddlers will generally be the strongest in the boat and Captain Amerigroup says, are responsible for pushing the boat forward as much as possible. The fifth seat is another power seat, and also helps the steersman out when the water gets rough. The sixth seat is the steersman who navigates the boat through the water.
Paddlers also use many Hawaiian words when paddling, according to Jessel. They use the Hawaiian word for outrigger, ama, and call many other parts of the boat by their Hawaiian names. Steersmen also use common Hawaiian phrases when talking to the crew in the boat, such as saying “Māukaukau?” Which means, “Are you ready?” before they start to paddle. Sarks describes the paddling community in the Pacific Northwest as a tight-knit group. She says that even though the various clubs are competing against each other, they share a common bond that brings all of them together. “This sport embodies the spirit of ‘ohana, of family,” Sarks said. “It’s like a tight beautiful thread that runs through each club and makes up one beautiful cloth that creates a family.”
“Can you find the hidden foods that are part of the five food groups?”
The SOCC attracts a variety of different paddlers, Vanzwalenburg said. Ages range from people in their early 20s to people over 60. Some members have competed in the World Sprint Championships against some of the best teams around the globe, while other members just come out to practice for fun and exercise. Many members are from Hawai‘i or have a connection to Hawai‘i. Others are Pacific Northwesterners who wanted to try a new watersport. There is a big focus on Hawaiian culture at their club, according to Josie Sarks, an assistant coach at the SOCC.
“Hawaiian culture is very much alive among paddlers, whether they are Hawaiian by ancestry or Hawaiian at heart,” Sarks said.
The five food groups that keep your body healthy and fit are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meats and dairy. Can you find these foods in your neighborhood? • Cheese
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Editor’s note: An incorrect version of this Amerigroup accouncement ran in the 2/5/14 issue of the International Examiner. The version above is what was intended to be published.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 7
IE COMMUNITY
A glimpse of the OCA Golden Circle Awards and Lunar New Year Banquet
On February 8 at the Joy Palace Restaurant, OCA-Greater Seattle honored Golden Circle Awardees (on the right, clockwise) Bettie Luke, International District Emergency Center (Donnie Chin), and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, as well as Special Achievement Award winner Joyce Pisnanont. • Photos by Han Eckelberg
I’M BRINGING MY FAVORITE MIX TAPE Be a part of history
Join us on the Waterfront & contribute to the time capsule
3/9 FIELD DAY A Waterfront Week event
waterfrontseattle.org
meet the microscopic creatures eating the seawall
8 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS
Sakuma speaks up: Farm labor pariah defends his family’s business
This vacant labor camp at Sakuma Bros. Farm in Burlington houses farm workers during the harvest season. Farm owners recently added two new cabins. Sakuma says all camps are up to state regulation. • Photo by Ashley Stewart
By Ashley Stewart IE Contributor
Steve Sakuma grew up on the farm in the expanding to California, where they run a 1940s, when berries were mostly picked by nursery business. Steve Sakuma knows everything about this kids. There were more than 1,000 young people from around Skagit Valley working in The Fight Over Guest Workers farm. the fields back then. Farms in Eastern Washington have been He can tell you how his father got it started, “If you were a kid, 8 years old and up, you using the federal guest worker program for how his son runs it now and what he hopes were out on the field. If you wanted a social life years. But Sakuma says this year was the first future generations will do with it. in the summer time, you were out on the field,” time the Burlington farm, or any other western He’ll even tell you that his family has cut Sakuma says. “You were out there 14 hours a Washington fruit grower, brought in foreign corners, and that they haven’t always done day, seven days a week from the day you got workers for the harvest. their best. out of school until the day you got back.” Farm owners insist that’s where the trouble But when you ask him why farm labor He says it’s how many young people raised started. advocates have coalesced around Sakuma enough money to go to college. “The labor unrest is not about Sakuma,” Bros. Farms as a target for boycotts and legal The farm had long meant opportunity Sakuma’s son and farm president Ryan action, he says he can’t tell you the answer. for his family, too. Sakuma’s grandparents Sakuma said in an open letter in October. “It’s “We’re a big company. We know that we’re immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s and about labor activists’ opposition to a federal big enough and have been around long enough started a small farm on Bainbridge Island. guest worker program.” that we have to follow certain rules,” he told me, They grew strawberries and other crops, The H-2A federal guest worker program in the first interview anyone from the Sakuma mostly to supply vendors at Pike Place Market. allows agricultural companies to bring in family has given since labor unrest began at They stayed there until the 1930s, when workers from other countries to fill temporary their Skagit Valley operation last summer. “We Seattle processing company R. D. Bodle helped labor shortages. may do things wrong, we may interpret things to probably favor us—we do those things. But the Sakumas and two other Japanese families Sakuma Bros. Farms used the program to we’re not dumb, and we certainly don’t abuse relocate their farms to the Skagit Valley so bring in more than 150 Mexican guest workers they’d be closer to the processing plant. people.” for the harvest last summer. As a requirement Sakuma’s father Atsusa was the first to make of the program, they had to pay an elevated Hundreds of workers walked off of the fields at the Burlington farm several times the trip north and, one by one, his brothers minimum wage of $12 per hour to both the guest workers and the locals they hired. throughout the 2013 growing season with joined after their high school graduations. complaints about wages, working conditions Four of the eight Sakuma brothers were But domestic farm workers and labor and the farm’s use of the federal guest worker living and working at the Burlington farm by activists didn’t like the decision, arguing it was program. 1941—when the Japanese military attacked a bargaining chip to drive down wages. The harvest season is long over now, but the Pearl Harbor. The entire family was forcibly “It’s a threat to advocacy groups, it’s a same problems are still facing the 85-year-old evacuated to internment camps around threat to immigration reform and it’s a threat the west—starting with those who lived CEO of Sakuma Bros. Farms. to the path to citizenship. I get that.” Steve in Bainbridge Island, an area with a large Sakuma says. “But the outcomes some of these First among them, a class-action lawsuit Japanese population. advocacy groups are looking for are the same filed in October with the U.S. District Court By May, the brothers in Burlington were we’re looking for: A stable, legal, cost-effective in Seattle. Farm worker attorneys claim the company failed to honor wage agreements or interned as well. Atsusa Sakuma found a workforce.” pay berry pickers for all the work performed, neighboring family to look after the farm. Washington is in the midst of big and that they didn’t provide rest breaks required Six of the eight brothers were drafted in conversation about labor reform, from the push by state law. Sakuma denies the claims. the U.S. military straight out the camps. And for a $15 minimum wage in urban service jobs, unlike many other Japanese Americans, when to open hearings by state lawmakers to discuss they returned, they got their property back and agricultural workforce changes. A Hard History kept on farming. The fact is, nobody really likes the current Sakuma Bros. wasn’t always such a big Since then, the family farm has gotten a lot guest worker system. A major overhaul and company, and the labor equation used to be a bigger—supplying brands like Haagen-Dazs, possible expansion is high on the immigration lot simpler. Yoplait, Driscoll’s and Charlie’s Produce, and reform agenda of both parties.
“The H-2A program is brutal. It’s not easy to use and there are a lot of things that can go wrong; a lot to oversee in the program,” Roxana Macias, H-2A/H-2B manager at the Washington Farm Labor Association said at a recent House Labor and Workforce Development committee hearing. “It’s very expensive to use and federal agencies are hostile to the 50 or so employers statewide who are using it.” She said farms are only eligible to use the program if they can prove a shortage of able and willing domestic workers. But that’s not easily done.
In 2007, a group of Yakima valley laborers won a $1.8 million lawsuit against local apple farms who a judge ruled didn’t follow the proper protocols in establishing a shortage of local laborers. A Sakuma Bros. spokesperson said that in the past two seasons, the farm has left nearly 500,000 pounds of berries unpicked.
“We recognized that our available labor pool has been shrinking and in order to harvest our crops we needed to supplement our labor pool and our only viable option was to apply for the Federal H2A Guest Worker Program,” Ryan Sakuma wrote in the October letter. Striking farm workers earlier this year disputed the labor shortage and said if the farm paid more and improved working conditions, they’d be able to draw enough workers from the existing labor force. Steve Sakuma insists that’s just not a viable option. “We’ve got limited resources and we’re trying to run an effective, efficient operation, so I’ve got to apply resources where I can,” he says. “It’s just the reality of business.”
Lower Wages, Lower Prices
Farm worker groups estimated Sakuma Bros. Farms’ value at $6 million last year. But Steve Sakuma disputes that number. He says the farm’s value and gross income doesn’t indicate the amount they have to spare. SAKUMA: Continued on page 9 . . .
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 9
IE NEWS . . . SAKUMA: Continued from page 8
Most of the profit, he says, is poured right back into operations. Profit margins for most businesses are at least 15 percent, but not in farming, where Sakuma estimates 5 percent is probably the best his business ever nets. And competition is tough for a farm that’s up against the rest of the nation for the consumer’s dollar.
Washington has the highest minimum wage in the country, at $9.32. Farmers in places like South Carolina, Georgia and 36 other states can legally pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25. But they all sell their berries on the same national market. Sakuma frames the question of higher wages and labor costs as a zero sum game. He says the wage increases workers are asking for would make the farm less competitive, and that it could eliminate job opportunities for unskilled workers.
“There’s no free lunch out there,” he says. “If I’m going to pay somebody higher than minimum wage, I’m going to look for someone with a higher than minimum skill set. You can’t drive efficiency by setting a pay scale.” Still, some berry pickers who worked for Sakuma say they weren’t even paid the state minimum wage last season, because the per pound piece rate was set so low.
Columbia Legal Services, the firm representing farm workers in the pending class action lawsuit, estimates the case will involve at least 400 laborers from the past three years. The case is still in the discovery phase, meaning attorneys on both sides are
still gathering information, and a judge won’t issue a scheduling order until June — right around the start of the next growing season. An attorney working on the case said he expects farm workers involved with the case will return to work this year. In the meantime, Steve Sakuma continues to insist his farm is up to legal regulations, and that’s the best he can do.
“I’m pouring dollars into this business to be able to keep it alive so I can pass it on to the next generation,” he says. “And people say, ‘You owe it to your workers to make sure they’re paid this amount of money and have this standard of living.’ My question is, where’s that money going to come from?” That’s where consumers have to make their own decisions. Those boycotting Sakuma Bros. products may be taking a principled stand against what they see as one bad apple in a farm labor economy that’s mostly rotten. But the tough part is, the conscientious consumer would be hard pressed to identify better alternatives. There is no labeling system that ranks or regulates agricultural products based on labor standards. So even if we were be willing to pay more for our berries to ensure better labor conditions, right now we don’t really have that option.
This story originally appeared in the Seattle Globalist (seattleglobalist.com). Ashley Stewart is a Seattle-based freelance journalist and student at the University of Washington. She covers state government for The Seattle Times as a legislative reporting intern and formerly worked as a reporter for The Herald in Everett. Find her on Twitter: @ashannstew.
Sakuma
presents
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“OTHERWORLDLY” Chicago Sun-Times
performing Songs of the Wanderers THURS-SAT, MARCH 6-8, 8PM MEANY HALL ON THE UW CAMPUS
10 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS
Northwest Thai community rallies for democracy, new leadership By Imana Gunawan IE Contributor
said. “I’m very happy to see a lot of people show up to show their spirit and support for an idea.”
A crowd of around 100 arrived at Shoreline’s American Legion Hall on February 1 decked out in Thai national flag colors to share speeches and take a supportive stand on massive protests against current Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
People’s Democratic Reform Committee’s (PDRC) Seattle chapter held the event as a response to mass demonstrations across Thailand, as well as the mainstream media coverage surrounding them.
Tangpiankij added that the PDRC and most Thai citizens’ stance is not in support of a particular party, but they view the purpose of the uprising for a new leader as more important.
Since October 2013, millions have taken to the streets of Bangkok and other cities in Thailand, calling out government corruption and demanding reforms before this month’s and future elections. In addition to the rally, the PDRC also sent formal statements in support of Thai citizens to the Election Committee Members of Washington’s Thai community gathered February 1 • Photo by Imana Gunawan Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Thai “The event is good for people away from Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the General International Broadcasting Company (today home … because you’ve seen in the past and Consulate Office in Los Angeles, among known as United Broadcasting Corporation). others, said Peter Tangpiankij, PDRC member Since 1989, Monson has been involved in now is worse in terms of power and corruption, and I think the people don’t have the freedom and one of the event’s organizers. legal battles with Thaksin. anymore in a democratic country,” Sustsukon The recent election had the worst voter “Thaksin is a master of deceit,” Monson said turnout in Thai history, with only 46 percent of to the crowd. “He was a friend. I was trying to the population casting their ballots, according help him and he was trying to help me … but to Alt Thai News, an independent, alternative he just lied.” Thai-centered news organization. The nationwide protests in Thailand have The current Thai government was installed also garnered coverage from mainstream media by Thaksin Shinawatra, an exiled former outlets such as AP, Reuters, The New York prime minister, but has been ruled by his sister, Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Yingluck Shinawatra, for 12 years, according CNN, and more. In Washington, The Seattle to Network of Thais Overseas. Times and The Stranger have also covered the Most of the event in Shoreline was delivered Thai protests. However, Tangpiankij said, the in Thai, with some speakers delivering their coverage has been misleading. speeches in either full English or part English, For example, many painted a more simplistic part Thai. The rally occurred simultaneously picture of the fight between two sides, he said. with many others across the nation and the Some media outlets, Tangpiankij said, world, Tangpiankij said. only wrote about the battle between the pro“It’s for people in Thailand,” Tangpiankij government party (commonly known as “red said. “We’re supporting their struggle, their shirts” for the color of their of their T-shirt fight for the good cause … even if it means that uniform) versus the anti-government “yellow someone has to get injured and lose their lives, shirts.” Other outlets claimed the protests were which has happened.” about the rich in Bangkok versus the poor in One of the speakers was Bill Monson, the countryside. an American cable television businessman “It’s about the fight of people from all walks and current president of the Seattle-based of life, not just for one group or the other,” ClearView cable television company. In the Tangpiankij said. late 1980s, Monson cooperated with Thaksin’s Chainarong Sutsukon, an attendee, has lived administration to establish Video Link. The cable television establishment is a joint venture in Shoreline for about 30 years. He said that between Monson’s ClearView, Thaksin’s there has been political turmoil in Thailand in Shinawatra Computer and Communications the past, but the current situation is worse than (now known as Shin Corporation), and it has been.
“We want leaders and representatives who’re not corrupt, who’re responsible, who’re accountable, and conscientiously do a job for the greater good of the public,” Tangpiankij said. “We’re sick and tired of a leaders and representatives who hijacks the democracy from us.” At the rally, the attendees also sang Thai national anthems and popular Thai songs to promote solidarity. The speeches included an introduction from PDRC chair and adviser Tirawat Singthong and talks on solidarity with Thai citizens by PDRC member Kane Boonyaket and Narong Jumpathong, president of the Thai Golfers Association. Lastly, Phuriska Khumdee of Portland, Oregon also shared with the crowd insights on Thai Rak Thai Party (Thaksin’s former party), which she garnered during her time as a political volunteer in Thailand.
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 11
IE ARTS
Northwest API writers take part in creative writing conference By Shin Yu Pai IE Contributor
The Associated Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference and Bookfair arrive in Seattle on February 26 at the Washington State Convention Center and Sheraton Seattle Hotel. The literary event will celebrate many of the authors, teachers, students, writing programs, literary centers, and publishers of the Pacific Northwest, with projected attendance estimated at 11,000 to 13,000 attendees over the four days of the conference.
Thursday, February 27, 6:00 p.m. The Transformation of a Poem The Project Room, 1315 E. Pine St. Luisa Ingloria reads with others. Thursday, February 27, 6:00 p.m. The Incredible Sestina Anthology Launch Seattle The Lucid Lounge, 5241 University Way N.E. With Ravi Shankar and others.
Thursday, February 27, 6:00 p.m. 6 Under 36 “Such numbers have a tremendous impact Liberty Bar, 517 15th Ave. E. on local businesses,” said Oliver de la Paz, With Diana Khoi Nguyen and others. vice president of the AWP Board of Directors and chair of the AWP Seattle Conference Committee. “A number of nearby bars, Thursday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. restaurants, galleries, and other such venues Courting Risk have booked reservations for off-site parties, Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave. With Anne Liu Kellor, Jason Koo and others. readings, and events.” Throughout the conference, numerous Thursday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. panels and readings will highlight emerging Pinwheel and established Asian and Asian-American Belltown Pub, 2322 1st Ave. writers. Featured presenters include Gish Jen, With Hoa Nguyen and others. Chang Rae Lee, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Amy Tan. Thursday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. Onsite registration for AWP opens on Barca Lounge, 1510 11th Ave. Wednesday, February 26 at the Washington Janice Lee and Tung-Hui Hu read with State Convention Center, at a rate of $190 contributors to the newly released Acts + for members and $285 for nonmembers. Encounters and by the writers of eohippus Registration includes admission to AWP’s labs. Hosted by Andrea Quaid & Harold Bookfair, an exhibit area featuring over 650 Abramowitz with readings by Michelle exhibitors. Detorie, Doug Nufer, Vanessa Place, David Dozens of off-site events featuring API Shook, and more. writers are scheduled to take place across the city during AWP. The following events are free Thursday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave. N. and do not require conference registration: Brian Komei Dempster and Sawako WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 6:30 P.M. Nakayasu read with contributors to Burnside Filipino Writers Reading Review, Four Way Books, Canarium Books The Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, University and Lana Turner. of Washington, 3931 Brooklyn Ave. Aimee Suzara (Souvenirs), Reni Roxas Thursday, February 27, 7:30 p.m. (Hangang sa Muli) and Kristin Naca (Bird Couth Buzzard, 8310 Greenwood Ave. N. Eating Bird) read from their works. Co-hosted Thaddeus Rutkowski and Kevin Minh Allen by the Filipino American Students Association read, hosted by Chrysanthemum Literary at UW and Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Society Editor Koon Woon with Open Mic to Arts. follow.
And Their Mother: SRP at the Nitelight Lounge. Friday, February 28, 7:00 p.m. Seattle University Wyckoff Auditorium, 900 Broadway Aimee Suzara, Barbara Jane Reyes, Jon Pineda, Oscar Penaranda and Rachelle Cruz. Reading hosted by Pinoy Words Expressed, Kultura Arts & the United Filipino Club of Seattle University. Friday, February 28, 7:00 p.m. Raygun Lounge, 501 E. Pine St. Esther Lee, Phong Nguyen and others read for Pop Lit: Writers Wrestling-With And Loving - On Pop Culture. Friday, February 28, 7:00 p.m. Alibi Reading Room, 85 Pike St. #410 Alvin Pang, Sawako Nakayasu and others read for Drunken Boat, Ugly Duckling Press, Les Figues and Ahsahta Press. Friday, February 28, 7:00 p.m. Sole Repair, 1001 E. Pike St. Don Mee Choi, Hoa Nguyen and others read for Wave Books & Friends Reading. Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. Blindfold Gallery, 1718 E. Olive Way Bhanu Kapill and others read for Animal/ Antidote. Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. Lucid Lounge, 5241 University Way NE Thaddeus Rutkowski reads with others for Starcherone (Start Your Own Party). Friday, February 28, 8:00 p.m. Story Quarterly & Mead Joint & Tran(s) Studies Reading Velocity Dance, 1621 12th Ave. With Ru Freeman, Jason Koo and other authors.
Friday, February 28, 8:00 p.m. Enter the Poet: Newly Published Writers Celebrate Bruce Lee Nagomi Tea House, 519 6th Ave S. #200 Wednesday, February 26, 7:00 p.m. Friday, February 28, 3:30 p.m. Kundiman and Kaya Press host a Bruce LeeGarden House, 2336 15th Ave. S. themed party featuring Kaya Press authors and Left Bank Books, 92 Pike St. Four poets expand the dialogue on race. Janice Lee and others read Spooky Solar Kundiman writers with first books published in 2013 and 2014. The lineup includes Tamiko Aimee Nezhukumatathil reads with others. Birds. Beyer, R.A. Villanueva, Koon Woon, Vikas Menon, and others. Wednesday, February 26, 8:00 p.m. Friday, February 28 at 4:00 p.m. UW Creative Writing Program Celebration Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Friday, February 28, 8:00 p.m. Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Brynn Saito and others read for Red Hen Canarium Books and Lana Turner Shawn Wong, Pimone Triplett read with Press. Reading others. Seattle Unity Church, 200 Eighth Ave. N. Friday, February 28 at 6:00 p.m. With Cathy Park Hong and others. Wednesday, February 26, 8:00 p.m. The Project Room, 1315 E. Pine St. Poetry Northwest & Seattle Arts & David Mura and other guest writers read for Friday, February 28, 8:00 p.m. Lectures Kick-Off Lauren K. Alleyne’s “Difficult Fault.” VIDA Women in Literary Art The Pine Box, 1600 Melrose Ave. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Hannah Sanghee Park reads with others. Friday, February 28 at 6:00 p.m. Alexander Chee reads with others. Vermillion Art Gallery at 1508 11th Ave. Wednesday, February 26, 9:00 p.m. Sally Wen Mao, Jane Wong and others read Saturday, March 1, 6:00 p.m. Bat City Review 10th Anniversary Reading for Makeout Creek, OH NO Boys and Smoking Alice Blue + Bloof + Coconut & Release Party Glue Gun Reader in “I’m So Tired 2.” Pine Box 1600 Melrose Ave. Sole Repair Shop, 1001 E. Pike St. Jiyoon Lee, Dawn Sueoka, and Wendy Xu Hoa Nguyen reads with others. Friday, February 28 at 6:00 p.m. JewelBox Theater & Rendezvous Restaurant, read with other small press authors, including writers from Seattle’s Alice Blue Books. Thursday, February 27, 5:00 p.m. 2322 2nd Ave. Rendezvous With Risk/OSU-Cascades Timothy Liu and others read for Bloof + For a full listing of off-site events, visit https:// Faculty Saturnalia. www.awpwriter.org/awp_ conference/schedule_ Red Velvet Lounge, 2322 2nd Ave. overview_offsite. Hoa Nguyen reads with others. Friday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m. The AWP Conference runs from February 26 Nitelight Lounge, 1920 2nd Ave. through March 1. For more information visit www. Timothy Liu and others read for Everyone awpwriter.org.
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12 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE ARTS
Hirabayashi: ‘A Principled Stand’ explores the human side of the hero By Chizu Omori IE Contributor
Hirabayashi
‘Hold These Truths’ reading honors Gordon K. Hirabayashi By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor
“He shocked us. He shocked us all.”
So said the late Tama Tokuda, remembering when then-24-year-old Gordon K. Hirabayashi challenged the U.S. government regarding its World War II-era internment of Japanese Americans. This brave stance is the reason that Hirabayashi will soon be front and center here in Seattle. Several institutions and individuals will be collaborating to celebrate the history of Hirabayashi’s protests against the U.S. policy of internment. During the weekend of February 22-23, the Interim Community Development Agency and the Gordon Hirabayashi Legacy of Justice Committee will present a staged reading of Jeanne Sakata’s one-man play entitled Hold These Truths, featuring actor Greg Watanabe, at the Theatre Off Jackson. This presentation coincides with the University of Washington event on February 22, entitled “Courage in Action: A Symposium on the Life and Legacy of Gordon K. Hirabayashi.” Many local scholars and artists have found inspiration in Hirabayashi’s story, and playwright Sakata is no exception. “When I discovered it through a documentary film in the late 1990s, I was excited and enthralled,” Sakata said. “I knew immediately that this was a vitally important but little known American story that I wanted to try to bring to the stage.” Sakata found many small details about Hirabayashi’s background compelling. “The fact that he was a Nisei Quaker intrigued me,” she said, “and I was drawn to his zest for life and wry sense of humor.”
Many in the community, including Hirabayashi himself, contributed to Sakata’s new project.
“The play was inspired by interviews I did in the late 1990’s with Gordon, who was a delightful interview subject, giving generously of his time,” Sakata said. “I was also greatly helped by Gordon’s wife Susan Carnahan and his younger brother, the late James Hirabayashi, as well as several of Gordon’s college friends: the late Art Barnett, legal advisor to Gordon during WWII, and Eleanor Ring Davis, who donated to the University of Washington many of Gordon’s wartime letters.” Sakata’s next task was to shape all of these resources into a coherent script with clear dramatic structure.
“It was a huge challenge to distill all the information I gathered from research and interviews down to 90 minutes,” she said. “I had wonderful mentors and advisors who helped me bring the script across the finish line.” Sakata explored several different structural models for this play, before deciding to create a one-man show that focused strictly on Hirabayashi’s experience. “I felt that Gordon’s stand, being such a solitary one, could be wonderfully emphasized through a solo show,” she said. “And I loved the idea of the older Gordon looking back on his youth and physically embodying all the people who were part of those years.”
She also wanted to highlight the Asian American actors who could embody this role.
“Historically, Asian American roles in the American theater have been limited in scope, and ‘Hold These Truths’ as a solo show has been an exciting way to showcase the range and versatility of all the actors who have done our productions so far,” Sakata said.
The name of Gordon Hirabayashi is familiar to those informed about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. By challenging the government orders put into place by President Franklin Roosevelt to put all West Coast Japanese Americans into concentration camps, Hirabayashi landed in the history books because his case was carried all the way to the Supreme Court. Though it was ultimately decided on the narrow grounds of a curfew violation, Hirabayashi v. United States became a test and symbol of the government’s rights to violate the constitution in wartime, in this case, incarcerating a group on the grounds of racial and ethnic descent. His stand as a resister gave him the status of a hero to fellow Japanese Americans and ultimately to the American public.
that took Christian values very seriously, so he was confronted by multiple value systems.
Out of this mix of conflicts, Hirabayashi determined that the values embodied in the American constitution were the ones that were basic to his thinking. And out of such convictions came his decision to fight against the illegal roundup and detention of the Japanese American West Coast population. His was a truly principled stand, and he took his rights as a citizen and his pacifist ideas with him throughout his life.
This volume is not meant to be a definitive summation of Hirabayashi’s life, but it provides much insight into his thinking, his beliefs and his experiences throughout his ordeals, including jail time. Although he became an academic in later life, his attitude and firm beliefs served him well through thick and thin, the ups and downs that might have brought down a weaker man.
That he survived, prospered, and lived to see his conviction vacated must have been Most of the existing literature on a huge satisfaction for him, validating all Hirabayashi concerns his case and the that he had done and faced because of who legal aspects of his struggles. Now, in A he was. There is much that is enlightening, Principled Stand, his younger brother James engrossing in these stories and thoughts and nephew Lane put the focus on him as selected from his diaries and journals. His a person by combing through his personal humanity comes through in these pages papers and selecting writings that reveal the illustrated by his interactions with his jailers, flesh and blood being who lived through the his fellow inmates. Always thoughtful and experience. helpful, cerebral though he may have been, “We Nisei are a peculiar people. We he’s also a pretty warm person and as an adapted to two Americas, coping with and example, he is a true hero. minimizing one in order to preserve the other, to which we had subscribed wholeheartedly,” A Principled Stand: he says and so, early on, Hirabayashi The Story of Hirabayashi V. United States acknowledges the difficult position that Nisei Gordon K. Hirabayashi with James A. were cast into because of the war with Japan. Hirabayashi and Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, 217 pp. Moreover, he was raised in a Christian family University of Washington Press, 2013
These actors have included Ryun Yu at East West Players in Los Angeles, Joel de la Fuente at the Epic Theatre Ensemble in New York, Blake Kushi and Marty Yu in the EWP Theatre For Youth tour, and now Greg Watanabe, who will present the upcoming staged reading at Theatre Off Jackson. Over time, Sakata has revised and developed the original script and its title.
“The play initially focused almost exclusively on Gordon’s personal experiences, and as it evolved I added more scenes that showed his experiences in the larger context of the government forces and public hysteria and racism that resulted in Executive Order 9066,” she said. “The title change happened as a result, to convey what Gordon actually did in response to those forces.” This presentation of Hold These Truths is akin to a homecoming for Hirabayashi.
“I did a huge amount of research for the play at the University of Washington, where Gordon’s wartime letters are housed,” Sakata said. But more importantly, she said, “since Gordon was born near and grew up around Seattle, and since he was a University of Washington student when WWII broke out, I always had a great desire to bring the play here.” Hold These Truths will have a staged reading on February 22 at 7:30 p.m. and February 23 at 2:00 p.m. at the Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Avenue South, Seattle.
Hideo Hoshide, Scout Coordinator for the Japanese Baptist Church and Japanese Boy Scout Troop 53, holds the troop’s flag. • Photo by Dean Wong, May 12, 1994
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 13
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Michael Christian Martinez: The Lone Filipino Olympian By Jane Bracher New America Media
Michael Christian Martinez stood tall at the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi in Russia.
The 17-year-old Filipino was the sole representative of the Philippines at Sochi and is the first to participate in the Winter Olympics in 22 years. He was also the first figure skater to represent a country from Southeast Asia in the Winter Games, according to NBC.
Michael Christian Martinez • Photo by David W. Carmichael
became an instrument in fulfilling Martinez’s vision to compete at Sochi. He is also coached by Ilia Kulik since 2010, his mother Maria Teresa Martinez, and Viktor Kudriavtsev, who coached him since 2013.
He made his figure skating debut in the 20102011 season of the Junior Grand Prix series and has participated in succeeding events. He also bagged the gold medal at the 2012 Crystal Skate of Romania, an annual senior-level international figure skating competition.
Martinez began skating in 2005 at the age of His young figure skating career did not 8. Hailing from Parañaque, Manila, Martinez come without hitches, though, as he sustained started his figure skating journey at an ice multiple injuries. His most recent was a skating rink inside a mall, where he found the fractured ankle that took him out for two inspiration to pursue the sport. months in 2013. Born with asthma, Martinez couldn’t engage Already a high school graduate, Martinez in sports. participated for the second time in the 2013 “I literally grew up in the hospital as I was World Junior Championships and placed 5th. very sick. I couldn’t take up any sport. I tried Martinez, who has cited Filipino boxer outdoor sports when I was younger, but I easily Manny Pacquiao as his hero, secured a Winter got asthma attacks so I stopped,” Martinez Olympics berth at the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy explained in his bio for Sochi 2014. last September, where he landed at 7th place But one day while shopping with his mother, in men’s singles with a score of 189.46. It was skaters at the mall’s ice skating rink caught his the last qualifying event for the Winter Games. attention and he immediately wanted to try it Martinez has been in Russia since the start out. of the year training for the Games. Figure skating, however, did not bode well Martinez ultimately finished 19th in the for his asthma right away. He said he continued men’s figure skating finals on Saturday, taking asthma maintenance medicine, February 15. especially since the rink was cold. This was only the Philippines’ fourth time “Year after year my health keeps improving, to participate in the Winter Olympics. The so my mother fully supported me to continue country was part of the Winter Games in 1972, skating. She said it’s better to spend the money 1988 and 1992 and has sent 4 participants in on skating than in the hospital,” he said. two events: Alpine Skiing and Luge. The 5-foot-8 Martinez has since underwent trainings both in Manila and in the US This story originally appeared in Rappler. (starting 2010) with his coach John Nicks, who
Filipino figure skater overcomes obstacles, wins hearts worldwide By Celest Flores New America Media
He entered the biggest sporting stage with the modest goal of making it to the top 24 but Michael Christian Martinez, the Philippines’ brave lone Winter Olympian, was so much more.
The 19-year-old Yuzuru Hanyu handed Japan its first-ever gold medal in a recordsetting fashion, Canada’s Patrick Chan bagged silver and Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten went home with the bronze medal.
Martinez held the top spot after the first six skaters but gradually slipped down to his final In two nights, Martinez turned “triple Axel placing. jump” into a household phrase and managed to In fact, it wasn’t just the Filipinos who were make the entire nation rally behind him with his gutsy and inspired performances in the enamored with the gangly Martinez, even the foreign media couldn’t help but be drawn to 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. his inspiring story: a kid who started in a mall With his routines scheduled near midnight ice skating rink in the humidity of Manila who in Manila time, it seemed like every Filipino ended up in the medal round in the Olympics. stayed up to witness him make history on His story, including the sacrifices he and his the rink—holding their breaths as he soared through a triple Axel, and crossing their fingers family made just to be able to sustain his figure skating dreams, were also carried by major that Martinez won’t spill. news outfits from all over the world. And the 17-year-old Martinez, the youngest And now, getting that sustained financial among the seasoned competitors, didn’t disappoint as he wound up 19th out of the support for his build-up until the 2018 Winter top 24 at the close of the men’s figure skating games doesn’t seem like a far-fetched idea now with the immense promise Martinez showed. competition. He garnered a score of 64.81 in the short skate where he performed to the tune of “Romeo and Juliet,” then wowed in the free skate routine over the beat of “Malagueña” to earn 119.44 for the total of 184.25.
He may not be going home with a shiny medal dangling from his neck, but Martinez gained the attention and respect of not only the entire nation but also the world.
Martinez
14 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014 — 15
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Domesticity and diaspora in the poetry of Hoa Nguyen By Shin Yu Pai IE Contributor
Though published extensively, the poet Hoa Nguyen’s work has primarily been known for the past two decades in alternative literary circles and the small independent press community. With the release of Nguyen’s most recent collection, As Long As Trees Last, from Seattle’s Wave Books, her work finally reaches a greater readership.
“I’ve been a fan of Hoa’s work for almost 20 years and have asked many times to publish it. With As Long As Trees Last she finally said yes,” said Wave Books editor Joshua Beckman. “Her poetry has always felt to me to be a mix of dynamic imaginative language making and the physically present the socially humanly politically aware.” In As Long As Trees Last, Nguyen investigates subjects ranging from debt, unemployment, climate change, and endangered species to the convergence of these preoccupations with the domestic. Traces of rocket fuel show up in the breast milk of a nursing mother in “You Can Sample.” A woman washes “unused baby blood” out of reusable menstrual rags on Wednesdays. Elsewhere in the collection, the poet reflects on the dwindling appearance of monarch butterflies with the simple comment, “Worlds die.” In “The Vietnamese Say If You Have a Beauty Spot on the Bottom of Your Foot It Means You Are a ‘Pioneer’”—one of the specific poems in the collection that makes reference to Asian subjects —Nguyen evokes the “Dead zones / Gone bayous / Empty / shrimp nets” of Vietnamese fisherman in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.
Rage Sonnet thinks back to a different historic moment, referencing Operation Ranch Hand, the herbicidal campaign that raged in South Vietnam between 1961 and 1971, while Independence Day 2010 invokes Nick Ut’s famous image of the “napalmed girl.”
Nguyen’s affinities and aesthetics derive from poetry associated with Black Mountain, Surrealism, Language Poetry, Objectivism, and the Beats. While her work has appeared in
projects like Talisman’s contemporary poetry anthology and The Wisdom Book of North American Buddhist Poetry, it remains markedly absent from Asian-American literary projects like Language For a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond or Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation.
Nguyen’s work is included, however, in Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry published by Milkweed Editions. The poet was invited to contribute work after chatting informally with one of the editors about her experience of being born in Vietnam but leaving and losing her first language. Nguyen is mixed race, with two different white American fathers—one biological, and another that raised her. Unfortunately, Nguyen’s biography was represented inaccurately in the book, turning both fathers into soldiers—“or as the editor wrote ‘GIs,’ which they were not. It was a terrible mistake, especially in that it perpetuates a kind of Miss Saigon narrative that is very far from my mother’s biography—as well as misrepresents my fathers.” The poet Linh Dinh has translated Nguyen’s work into Vietnamese. “We’ve been correspondents and poetry friends for a long time (I contacted him in 1998 after seeing his poems in the print magazine Sulphur)—I subsequently published his poems in Skanky Possum, a journal I was co-editing at the time with my partner Dale Smith, including some of Linh’s translations of a young Vietnamese poet.” Since Nguyen is monolingual and only speaks English, she couldn’t offer any collaborative assistance toward Dinh’s translations.
“It was a strange sensation—my poems were turned into Vietnamese words, my first and lost language—and yet the poems were still orphaned from me.” In addition to her writing and editorial work, Nguyen has led private creative workshops for more than 16 years.
“The format is the same for each one: We focus on a single author and one of their books,”
Last year, Nguyen was awarded a writing residency from the Millay Colony in upstate New York to immerse herself in a research-based project on her family. Nguyen’s mother left her home in the rural Mekong Delta, when she was 15 to seek better circumstances. “She took a job at a regional circus when she was 16, washing and mending performers’ clothes, cleaning, running errands—basically whatever she could do, with her eye to qualify as a stunt motorcyclist. She made the team by the time she was 18 and in 1958, became one of five performers in an all-woman motorcycle troupe.” As the circus traveled throughout the Vietnamese provinces, Nguyen’s mother became famous and financially independent. “She once performed at a special presentation for President Diem in Saigon. She was fiercely modern; I wanted to try to write poems that could relate her story.” Nguyen
Nguyen said. “Right now, we’re reading and writing through James Schuyler’s Collected poems.” Writers gather together to experience the poems aloud as a group, while the second half of the workshop is dedicated to writing. “I locate different writing strategies employed by the poet in the text we just shared and speak to their affects on the poem. We then respond to writing prompts based on these and other observations.” The participants range from professors of poetry to writers who may have already published several poetry books. “It’s a very peer-to-peer kind of workshop. I consider myself a holder of the space or conductor in the private workshops.” Since 2012, Nguyen has taught creative writing part time at Ryerson University in Toronto through its continuing education program.
“The students there are interested in writing, but are generally new to it,” Nguyen said. “There’s a certain amount of deprogramming we do together where we figure out what makes a poem and we break down language to its basic components: What makes for “good” or effective creative writing?”
So far, Nguyen has composed about 25 linked pieces towards the project. She intends to work with letters her father wrote to his family in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota from 1966 to 1969, while he was working for the U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development in South Vietnam. Hoa Nguyen reads during the Associated Writing Program conference at the following free offsite events: Wednesday, February 26 at 10:00 p.m. Bat City Review 10th Anniversary Reading Sole Repair Shop 1001 E Pike St. Thursday, February 27 at 5:00 p.m. Oregon State University Cascades Reading Red Velvet Lounge at Rendezvous 2322 2nd Ave. Thursday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m. Pinwheel / IO Reading Belltown Pub 2322 1st Ave. Friday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. Wave Books Sole Repair Shop 1001 E Pike St.
Bellydancers in Paradise: Movement and music with Malia By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributor Hawai‘i resident Malia Delapenia has always loved movement. As a youngster, she studied martial arts like tai chi, tae kwon do, and aikido. She also took lessons in ballroom, flow, jazz, salsa and, of course, hula. Inspired by hip-hop culture, Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson, Malia began choreographing shows for her family and friends when she was only seven. She also taught herself to dance by watching music videos obsessively, and, by 11, decided she wanted to be a choreographer. “I have a huge movement background,” she acknowledges. It’s no surprise then that Malia ended up as a professional dancer. But instead of pursuing the traditional dances of her native island home, she opted to perform Middle Eastern bellydance.
Born to a musician father and actress mother on the Big Island, Malia was raised on O‘ahu. Her grandfather migrated from the Philippines bringing along their family name Delapenia, which she says means “out of the pineapple.” Like a lot of people in Hawai‘i, Malia’s background is multiethnic and includes Portuguese, German, Irish, and Czech ancestors. While she always knew she wanted to dance, Malia says her parents moved from the city to
she founded in 2005. Held the second week of October, the convention offers performances and workshops to both novices and professionals alike.
live on 25 acres of what she refers to as “Tarzanland.” With a strong desire to provide their children with a pono lifestyle, they insisted on an upbringing that included living close to nature. Even though music was a big part of her life, Malia says her folks made it clear that they didn’t want their children exposed to “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.”
While her original goal as a dancer didn’t include bellydancing, Malia says that the practice “found” her and, she’s never considered any other career since. To her, bellydancing “is everything.”
But, she says, she soon realized, “It was destined in my blood.”
All her life, Malia had felt like an outsider. She was homeschooled and didn’t fit in, she states, because she was “very curvy.” Looking for something “different,” she took her first bellydance class from Shakti (Sundae Merrick) in 1999 and discovered the perfect blend of respect for ancient cultures and a passion for traditional dance. Before long, she was dancing regularly, which led to her creating her signature “Malia in Hawai‘i.” With just the right mix of sass and class, she incorporates cabaret fusion with Middle Eastern bellydance movement. “I’m a Las Vegas style bellydancer, extremely theatrical,” she explains. As the owner of Bellydancers in Paradise, Malia, performs at community centers, gymnasiums, hotel functions, large corporate events, restaurants, stages, and weddings. She’s also done special shows like her live performances
“It takes up my life and my soul,” she declares, before adding, “I love this ancient artcraft that I’m involved with.”
Delapenia
of the Abduction of the Seralio with the Hawai‘i Symphony and Opera at the Blaisdell. In addition to teaching weekly classes, Malia travels often—touring and conducting seminars. With students seeking her out from around the world, Malia has an international following. Pupils come from dozens of countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Philippines and Russia just to learn from her.
At home in Honolulu, Malia produces the annual Hawai‘i Bellydance Convention, which
Even though her show biz parents exerted great effort to prevent their children from following in their footsteps, Malia says they’re proud of her now.
“It took them a little bit to get used to me becoming a bellydancer,” she admits, “but these days, they’re my biggest fans.” Malia’s upcoming West Coast tour will include Seattle and, between February 28 and March 2, she’ll conduct a series of workshops here. Some of her classes are structured for beginners while others are more appropriate for groups and instructors.
To sign up for Malia’s 2014 West Coast Tour in Seattle, visit http://www.asiyanourouz.com/maliadelepenia-workshops.html. For more information on Malia, visit www.maliainhawaii.com.
16 — February 19, 2014 – March 4, 2014
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS
‘Like Father, Like Son’ weaves a heart wrenching, plausible tale By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributor
Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize, Like Father, Like Son is the latest film from Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows, I Wish). With his penchant for family drama, Kore-eda has conquered a new summit with this unique story that begs the question, “Is blood really thicker than water?”
Although Ryota Nonomiya loves his son, Keita, he doesn’t seem to like him all that much. An identical replica of his peaceful and tender-hearted mother, Midori (Ono Machiko), the six-year old annoys his super achiever dad whose every accomplishment is celebrated with a newly set goal. As a successful architect, Ryota, who equates kindness with weakness, finds it hard to believe that the obedient and untalented Keita is his spawn. With his “Type A” personality, Ryota is focused only on his next career objective. A typical Japanese businessman, he’s an emotionally distant, competitive moneymaker, all about prestige and the status quo. Giving up all his time to work, he has nothing left over to share with the sweetly sensitive child who is his polar opposite, especially since Keita plays piano haltingly and has a physique smaller than other kids his age. Then one day, the hospital where Keita was born calls the Nonomiya family and confesses their mistake, Keita was switched at birth with the baby who is their real son. Both Ryota and Midori are anguished. They’ve always known Keita as theirs. But when they meet their birth son, Ryusei (Hwang Shogen), and the Saiki family, Ryota is torn. Excited to see some of his extroverted traits reflected in Ryusei, he begins to wonder if he ever really loved Keita.
Meanwhile, Midori’s pain is tinged with guilt. She questions why she didn’t know intuitively that the child she raised was not the one her body carried for nine months. While she obsesses over her seemingly lack of a mother’s instinct, she also recognizes her reluctance in handing over the child she nurtured for six years. As options are hastily presented by the hospital, a lawsuit is discussed, and Ryota
insults the other family by making an offer they can refuse—that he will raise both boys because he’s financially able to do so. Instead, both families agree to trade boys for short periods of time so that they can get used to their real parents before making a permanent switch.
But Ryota has hesitations; the Saiki’s are a raucous blue-collar bunch, loud and crass, and he’s horrified when imagining the defenseless Keita spending the weekend with them. While Mr. Saiki owns an appliance repair shop, the Mrs. sells bento at a market— indications of a lower class to the snobbish, caste-conscious Ryota. With three boisterous children, the Saiki’s are in a constant state of play; clambering over playground equipment, excitedly flying kites on the beach, and crowding together into one bathtub. The only one who seems content is Keita who finally understands what it means to have a real father. For the first time, he’s being doted on, paid attention to, and taught new skills hands-on by a male mentor.
Fuyama Masaharu (who starred in the taiga drama series “Ryomaden”) really shows off his versatile acting skills as Ryota. Although he displays a cool callousness most of the time, he does allow shining moments of compassion to break through, especially in a scene where Keita runs away from him. Both boys are accurately cast and the charming Keita (Keita Nonomiya in real life, too) is superb at showing a range of emotions while looking like a lost urchin with his vulnerable smile and haunted eyes.
Except for one enormously unbelievable scene (the reason for the switch), Kore-eda skillfully weaves a tale that appears sincere and frighteningly plausible. The old saying may be that “blood is thicker than water,” but in this story the comparison between the two becomes moot in consideration of a heart wrenching, life-changing decision. Like Father Like Son (with English subtitles) opens Friday, February 14 at Landmark’s Guild 45th Theater, 2115 North 45th Seattle, WA 98103.
Check back for Sudoku in the IE every issue! Answers to this puzzle are in the next issue on Wednesday, March 5.
In Thailand It Is Night illuminates Buddhist themes, experiences By Shin Yu Pai IE Contributor
While a more traditional Buddhist might aspire to break the cycle of death and rebirth, writer Ira Sukrungruang wants to remember every moment of life, commenting, “It’s probably why I write. I want to live this life, my next lives, with the knowledge of it all.”
Winner of the Anita Claire Scharf Award, Sukrungruang’s debut poetry collection, In Thailand It Is Night, contemplates spiritual themes, from poems exploring the reincarnation of ancestors in the animal realm and the karma of cause and effect to the author’s daily practice. Stray dogs and captive birds appear throughout the work—sentient beings which bring out the capacity for human compassion. Like a Zen painter drawing a circle over and over again, Sukrungruang applies himself to the literary craft in poems finely attuned to longing, grief, and the open heart.
The speaker of Sukrungruang’s poems maintains a flexible identity, shuttling between Bangkok and the United Stated, living between his mother’s native country and his own land of birth. Longing and distance permeate poems like “In Thailand It Is Night”; “Ancestors”; and “On the phone we say only happy things.” “The immigrant son is stuck between cultures,” Sukrungruang said. “He longs for the native land of his ancestors, but knows that native land occupies a completely different identity than the ones his parents spoke of and is part of.”
When Sukrungruang’s mother and aunt moved back to Thailand in 2006, he feared that he would lose “all that was Thai in me.” Without the opportunity to use the language, he struggled to maintain his fluency in Thai. “When my mother calls from Thailand there is a moment of adjustment, where my brain is translating through filters of language,” Sukrungruang said. Writing then becomes the writer’s connection to Thailand and his path to negotiating the distance between cultures.
In Thailand It Is Night is loosely organized around the Ramakian, the Thai version of the Indian epic the Ramayana. “I didn’t write with this epic saga in mind,” Sukrungruang said. “But after 10 versions of the manuscript, the poems began to group themselves in ways that were related to the Ramakian’s characters.” It is the essence of these archetypal figures that are the organizing principle of the book.
Sukrungruang
come back to, like bowling with my mother, or my obsession with drawing Buddha. The job of the writer is to take those obsessions and try to see them from different perspectives.” As a writer working across both prose and poetry, Sukrungruang looks at revision through the lens of different genres.
“Writing a poem about an obsession yields a diverse look than if I had written it in a short story,” Sukrungruang said. “It allows me more time to evaluate and excavate that obsession, live with it a little longer, play with it.” Sukrungruang, who teaches in City University Hong Kong’s low-residency MFA program and at the University of South Florida, tells his creative writing students, “You can’t control what you obsess about, so the job of the writer is to take those obsessions and try to see them from different perspectives.”
Sukrungruang’s versatility as a writer also extends to his editorial interests. The author has co-edited two anthologies related to body image—What Are You Looking At? and Scoot Over, Skinny.
“I was always the Fat Thai born to two parents who were no taller than 5’6”, and weighed no more than 150 pounds,” Sukrungruang said. “But here I was—a little over six feet tall, over 350. I was trying to wrestle with issues of identity and culture, but my size prevented me from fully embracing the Thai part of me. It prevented Thai people from embracing me. I began looking at the fat body as more than hefty presence. Began interrogating the separation—in me—in body and mind, and how to merge the two.”
Inundated with stories like Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs while growing up, As a publisher, Sukrungruang founded the Sukrungruang knew even at a young age that small press Sweet with poet Katie Riegel. Over these tales belonged to another culture. “When the past five years Sweet has grown to publish I was a kid, I always asked my family for Thai three issues of poetry and creative nonfiction bedtime tales,” Sukrungruang said. a year and now limited-edition poetry and His mother began telling Sukrungruang nonfiction chapbooks. parts of the Ramakian. “Fantastical tales of “With all this talk of the end of the book, I Phra Narai, our forever hero, battling the evil wanted to make the book not only a wonderful demon lord, Thotsakan,” Sukrungruang said. reading experience, but a piece of art,” “My mother was a fantastic storyteller. She Sukrungruang said. “In the end it’s the word blended what was Thai and what was American. that is beautiful, the combination of them that Suddenly, Phra Narai possessed superhuman creates a poem or story.” powers like Superman. Demons took the form of monkeys like in the Wizard of Oz.” Ira Sukrungruang reads at the AWP Conference Many of Sukrungurang’s poems explore ideas and images that also appear within his nonfiction work. The poet is the author of one previously published memoir Talk Thai. “I’m a writer who is haunted by images,” Sukrungruang said. “It is these images that I
on February 27 at 1:30 p.m. for the South Dakota Review 50th Anniversary Reading Celebration. He participates in the panel “The Naked I: Nonfiction’s Exposed Voice” on March 1 at 1:30 p.m. Both events are free with AWP conference registration. The author will also read in a free off-site event sponsored by the magazine The Common, at McMenamins Six Arms Pub on February 27th at 5:30 p.m.