Our Dear Mother, Ikuko Emoto

January 20, 1935 - July 27, 2020

Our dear mother, Ikuko Emoto, passed away peacefully on July 27, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. She lives on through her husband John of 57 years, three children and their spouses, four granddaughters, two grandsons, other family and many friends far and near. Ikuko was born on January 20, 1935 in Kurashiki city, Okayama prefecture in Japan. 

Ikuko lived a full life, moving to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in 1962 soon after marriage. Moving to the small fishing village of Sand Point was not the portrait of coming to America that she had imagined. Her husband John worked at the seafood processing plant as a maintenance worker. Ikuko’s focus in her new hometown was homemaking and raising her first two children, Casey and Yuki, who were born in Sand Point. For a short time, later in the mid-1960s, she and the family moved to Seattle where a third child, Tatsu, was born. The stay in Seattle did not last long though as Ikuko and family once again found themselves back in Sand Point working at the seafood processing plant. 

Sand Point was home until 1994. Ikuko made sure that the family was active in the community. She was known by all in town for her cooking, sewing, arts and really anything that had to do with handiwork. Friends who were invited over to Ikuko’s for holidays and other occasions were treated to homemade Japanese food. She was single-handedly responsible for introducing Japanese cooking to the town. Dishes such as sukiyaki, shrimp and vegetable tempura, chicken teriyaki, and various sushi came to be well known. The Sand Point Women’s Club’s centennial cookbook in 1987 included Ikuko’s recipes. She even taught cooking classes at the school. She did this with happiness all from her heart, enjoying that she could share her love of Japanese food and culture with others. 

Many of the seafood processing plants in Alaska were owned by Japanese companies and the one in Sand Point was no different. Imagine being sent to the Aleutians from Japan to oversee some part of the fish processing and finding a Japanese family! This doubling of the ethnic Japanese population of Sand Point was a happy occasion for both Ikuko and the Japanese strangers. 

Ikuko was also a master crafter of antique Japanese dolls. If you are able to visit Sand Point you may be able to still find some of these dolls in people’s homes. She was certified for the making of these dolls through the Japanese Doll Association. 

Ikuko made incredible life-long friends especially having lived in Sand Point where even today the population barely hits four digits and almost everyone knows everyone. After finishing her career working in quality control at the seafood processing plant, Ikuko worked for several years at the Aleutian Commercial Co., the main store in Sand Point where you could buy everything from food to clothing to guns to hydraulic fittings. Ikuko loved to visit and share stories. The store was the perfect place for her to work as it was one of the main centers of social activity. Casey and Yuki even had the opportunity to spend time working with her at the store and have many fond memories. 

Ikuko, the daughter of Shigeru and Shikano Ono, was #4 of six siblings and is survived by her older brother, Masahiro, younger brother Yoshio and younger sister Kazuko who live in Japan and was preceded in death by older sisters Hideko and Teruko. Except for distant relatives that live in Hawaii and Brazil, Ikuko’s extensive Ono family all live in Japan. But she was very proud to have raised a family in America. Although the family is mostly west coast based, with Casey and wife Dorothy Emoto in Concord, California, Yuki and husband Chuck Kistler in Seattle, Tatsu and Diane Emoto in Gresham, Oregon, the family is starting to become a little less west coast based. Tatsu and Diane have daughter, Jessica, in medical school in Kansas. Casey and Dorothy have two children, Naomi and Ethan, attending college in Utah. Tatsu and Diane’s oldest daughter, Alyssa, having graduated with a degree in civil engineering married Jason Mah in 2019 and live in Bremerton, Washington. Yuki and Chuck’s daughter, Lianne, is a senior in high school. Casey and Dorothy’s younger son, Ryan, is a junior in high school. In her three children, Ikuko instilled honesty, hard work, to share and to be giving that has been passed onto her grandchildren and will be for generations to come. Ikuko will be laid to rest at Washington Memorial Park (also known as Bonney-Watson Cemetery) at 16445 International Boulevard in Seattle, Washington. In Ikuko’s memory, donations may be made to Providence ElderPlace, 4515 Martin Luther King Jr Way S, Suite 100, Seattle, Washington 98108 (https://washington.providence.org or https://washington.providence.org/donate/hospice-of-seattle-foundation/ways-to-give/give-now)

in over our heads, but we must go on...

That's how it feels sometimes. It was one of those days today in the Bay Area where a memorial service was held for the four Oakland police officers that were killed last weekend. Traffic came to a stop on area freeways as ramps were blocked off to aid traffic to and from Oracle Arena. It was an amazing sight to see one-half of Interstate 880 jammed full of cars and the other direction of the freeway entirely empty as if an evacuation ahead of a hurricane was in progress.

I was able to watch a little of the local news coverage leading up to the memorial service and part of the memorial service too because I had the day off from work today (yesterday now as I write this). My two sons saw parts of the coverage too. They were curious about the service and why it was on television.

Ryan: That's a lot of police.

Me: Yeah, there's something 20,000 people at the memorial service (and later I read that there were another 10,000 people watching the service on the giant screen in the Coliseum where the A's play).

Ryan: What happened to them? Where are they now?

Me: Those are the police officers that were shot last week.

Ryan: Are they okay now?

Me: They were shot by a man who didn't want to go back to jail. They died and this is their funeral.

Ryan: Were these police the strongest ones?

Me: They were very brave, but that's what police do. They are here to protect regular people like us.

Ryan: But were they the strongest ones?

Me: What do you mean?

Ryan: They must've been the strongest ones because of what they did.

Me: Yes, police have to be strong, but maybe you mean brave. You know, being able to do something even though you know that it might be hard.

Ryan: Yeah, I think they were brave.

Later, when pictures of all of the slain officers appeared, I explained that one of the officers shared something in common with them: a Japanese last name, Sakai.

During the memorial service, the tribute song that they played for Dan Sakai was one from The Fray. I hadn't heard the song in quite some time, but I remembered that it was used as the sound track for a slide show tribute to 9-11. That was eight years ago. Below is a video clip of The Fray performing the song.

Trying to do the Right Thing

I came across an interesting article today about Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BI) in Boston. They are going through difficult times just like almost everyone else. Having hired over a quarter of their current staff in the last 6 years, the chances of some of these people losing their jobs is a real possibility. Another thought that crossed my mind was if it was wise to hire that many people in such a short period of time, but without knowing the details it's difficult to say much more about this.

At BI, they've come up with an alternative to layoffs. The hospital has come together as a community in an attempt to make it so no one has to leave. Paul Levy, the President and CEO of BI, threw out an idea. What he said was, "I'd like to do what we can to protect the lower-wage earners...if we protect these workers, it means the rest of us will have to make a bigger sacrifice. It means that others will have to give up more of their salary or benefits."

This idea has been embraced by the hospital staff and has grown to the hospital staff coming up with their own ideas. Some staff have agreed to forego a planned salary increase. Another suggested working less. The State of California has implemented the working less strategy, but with less grace.

I wonder if what is being done at BI could be applied in a more widespread manner?

A Hero

We're in the midst of the college bowl season. It's gotten so cliche to say that there are too many bowl games, but it's true.

But there's something that I cannot really stand at all. It's when the announcers talk about the courage of a player or team who is just playing football. "That was such a courageous effort." What are these people talking about? Do they realize what words are coming our of their mouths.

Contrast this with what happened yesterday in NYC. A man performed an act that really was courageous. One 50-year old Wesley Autrey jumped onto the subway tracks to save a total stranger who had fallen into the way of an on-coming train. Wesley tried to get the man back onto the platform, but wasn't able to do so. So he did the only thing that he could. He pushed the man into the space between the tracks and laid on top of him to try to make sure that the both of them would stay below the train's under carriage. The train passed over the two of them. They emerged with only a few minor injuries. Quite amazing. And you thought this was only possible in movies.

I'm fairly certain that I would not have been able to do the same if I saw someone fall in the way of an on-coming. Autrey is quoted as saying, "I think I did the right thing. And it ain't about being a hero, it's just being able to be here and help the next person."