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I'm so thrilled to be part
of today's program today

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as representing Densho.

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My name is Naomi Ostwald-Kohamra
and I'm the new executive

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director of Densho.

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Some of you may be familiar
with Densho, but Densho

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is a Seattle-based
public history nonprofit

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organization. And
through our work, we

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document and share the
stories of the Japanese

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American experience before,
during, and after the

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World War II incarceration.

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We do this through our
digital archives, our

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online encyclopedia, and
educational resources

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that are freely accessible
through our website, densho.org.

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That's D-E-N-S-H-O dot org.

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Densho is the Japanese
word that means to pass

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on to the next generation.

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I'm so honored to be
able to introduce Katie

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Yamasaki to all of you.

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Katie is, through her
father's side, a fourth

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generation Japanese American.

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She's an incredibly
talented person.

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She is an illustrator.

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She's a muralist.

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She's a dancer.

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She's a former
classroom teacher.

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She's a community collaborator.

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She is a children's book author.

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She has authored eight
children's books,

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and she has over 80
murals around the world,

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including one of my
personal favorites

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called The Moon Beholders,
which you can find at

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the Japanese American
National Museum

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in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

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Katie's recent book,
Shapes, Lines, and Light,

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which is what she'll be kind
of talking about today,

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is a beautiful tribute
to her grandfather,

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Minoru Yamasaki.

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Minoru was a world-famous
American architect,

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most famous for his
design of the World Trade

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Center in New York City.

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He's also from Seattle,
and so he's designed a

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number of buildings here
that you might all be

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familiar with, including
the Pacific Science Center.

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Minoru faced a lot of
challenging circumstances

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as a Japanese-American
architect against the backdrop

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of Old War II America.

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He endured a lot of
discrimination and

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anti-Asian racism.

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At Katie, you shared with me
that her grandfather passed away

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when she was 10 years old, and
through this book project,

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it's one way for her
to get to understand

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or learn more about
her grandfather.

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What I find so touching is
that I can see this as a way

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that a grandchild who's
now in a Dell is seeking

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to connect with a grandparent
who's no longer here.

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I also think that it
beautifully sort of illustrates

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how multidimensional her
grandfather was and that he

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was someone that was more
than the buildings that he is

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designed and was known for.

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Katie's book and also her own
work and life contributions,

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I think, really align with
what we do at Densho.

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It is our hope at Densho to
share the stories of Japanese

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Americans so that others will
recognize the rich diversity

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of the Japanese American
community and recognize that our

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history is a uniquely
American one.

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Katie's book also really
beautifully sort of shows us

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how important it is for
us to share and listen to

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one another's stories.

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And with that, I'd like to
introduce Katie Yamasaki.

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Thank you.

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Katie Yamasaki: Good
afternoon, everyone.

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So nice to be here in Seattle.

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I have to say I have been taking

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this book around since the fall.

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I'm so grateful to have
been able to take it to

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the most kind of important
cities in the United

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States for my grandfather
and for the Japanese

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American community to
Detroit where my family was

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and where he did a lot of
his buildings and spent

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his most of his adult
years to Los Angeles which

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which is a large part of the
beating heart of the Japanese

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American community, to New York
City, of course, where I've

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lived for the last 23 years.

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And here in Seattle, I have to
say the welcome and reception

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for my grandfather and his
work and this book as a result

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has been overwhelming.

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And I'm so grateful to
you all for coming.

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I'm grateful to the
Seattle Times for writing

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that wonderful article
that I'm guessing brought

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maybe many of you here today,
and to Densho for not only

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just for their existence and
what they do for our community,

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but also just specifically
for the help they provided me

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with making this book.

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And it's an honor to
be here at the Seattle

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Public Library, which is,
I mean, what a building.

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What a gift.

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So today, you know, I do
children's books, so my

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presentations often range in age
when I do these public programs

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from like three months to 85.

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So, and I like to have it
be a bit of a conversation.

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So if at any time you have
a question or a thought, or

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if I ask a question and you'd
like to respond, I'd love to

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kind of have that part of,
be part of our program today

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and our conversation.

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So here's me.

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My grandfather, as Naomi
mentioned, passed away when I

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was 10 years old, and I grew up
We're very curious about him.

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Where we grew up, where
I grew up at least,

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was in a factory town
north of Detroit.

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And I grew up in the '80s.

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So for people who are familiar
with Japanese American history,

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the 1980s were a tricky
time in this country

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because of the recession,
because of the

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automobile industry that
my town was built around.

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We had a GM plant in
the middle of our town,

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and pretty much everybody
outside of our family

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And so when the recession
started to happen,

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the anti-Japanese
hostilities in our town

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grew, and in the entire
kind of Detroit area grew.

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I was six when Vincent Chin
was murdered, and that

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was kind of the climate.

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There were a lot of kind of
bumper stickers about, you know,

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Jap crap and stuff like
that kind of around the

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automobile industry.

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But we also knew, you know,
in the midst of all of this,

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that we had this grandfather
who had done these

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amazing things.

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You know, what we mostly knew
about, of course, was the World

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Trade Center, because
that's what everybody

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mostly knew about.

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That was the, you know, they
were at that time the tallest

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buildings in the world.

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But as I kind of grew, I, you
know, I wondered about his

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childhood here in Seattle.

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You know, what it was
to grow as a boy.

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He was born here in 1912,
and that's his brother Ken.

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My grandfather has a hat on.

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But they were born
at a time, you know,

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where if they wanted to go
swimming in the public pools,

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that was not possible.

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They could swim at the YMCA.

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But if they wanted to
go to a movie theater,

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they couldn't sit
in the lower level.

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They would have to
sit in the balcony.

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But they also kind of grew
in this rich Japanese

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American community.

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And I kind of wondered, What
would make somebody grow

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in that way to want to build
these beloved buildings?

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I just had the chance yesterday
to go for the first time into

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the Seattle, to the
Pacific Science Center.

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I've been there before, but it's
always been closed, so I kind

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of look in through the fence.

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And yesterday I was able to
kind of go and walk around

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and explore his principles of
serenity, surprise, and delight.

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But really what I knew about
as a kid were these buildings.

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It's what everybody in
my town knew about.

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And so kids would be
conflicted between

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saying things to me like,
was your grandfather

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a kamikaze pilot?

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And other people
saying things like,

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no, her grandpa designed
the World Trade Center.

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So what people were
getting at home about

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what it was to be Japanese was
really different than what

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I felt about being Japanese.

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I felt so proud.

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But the school that I went
to, the place that I lived,

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was a place where, for
example, on December 7th,

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when I was in seventh
grade, on the anniversary

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of Pearl Harbor, my
seventh grade U.S.

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history teacher said, Katie,

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you're Japanese, why don't
you tell the class what

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happened today in history?

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So I went on to kind of
explain what happened in

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my family, which was my
great-grandfather was

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arrested that night
because he was part owner

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He was the owner of a produce
market, so they thought

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he must be a spy, which is
just as insane as it sounds.

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Every time I say it, I think
that just sounds so crazy.

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So he went to a military
prison, and then my whole

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family on that side was sent
to, they ended up at Amache in

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Colorado, in the prison there.

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And when I finished telling
my class that story, my

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teacher looked at me and he
said, that never happened.

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I said, yes it did.

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And he said, no it didn't.

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Yes, it did.

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You know, we went
back and forth,

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but I wasn't raised to really
argue with my teacher,

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but it was kind of
like this feeling of,

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well, I know that happened,
but there's also nothing

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here in my school that
says that it happened.

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There's not a single book.

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You know, there's not
a single, you know,

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I don't know about
the other teachers.

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I didn't go around and ask the
other teachers what they knew,

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but, you know, it's
been wonderful

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to kind of come to Seattle
where his legacy has been

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so celebrated, and so
that I can kind of think

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about myself as this
young reader who we got

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to choose, you know, how
do you identify yourself?

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It was like sports or
reading or whatever, and

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I chose ravenous reader,
but it was the type of

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thing where I thought, I have
this famous grandfather,

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but when I look in the
library, there are no

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biographies of anybody
Anybody that even

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looks like him.

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There are no biographies of
anybody with brown skin.

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There's a biography of
Martin Luther King Jr.

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and Rosa Parks.

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Otherwise, all of the
biographies are of white people.

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And why is that?

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You know, it was baffling to me.

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And I think that that kind
of planted a seed for me.

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And you know, this book
has come after many years

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and many writes and rewrites
and revisions and revisions,

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but I'm really happy to
share it with you today.

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And I'm going to go
ahead and read it.

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And I may pause and ask some
questions along the way.

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I really like for this to be
a conversation, if possible.

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Shapes, Lines, and
Light-- My Grandfather's

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American Journey.

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And you may, on a
screen this size,

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be able to see little
places in the illustrations

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where certain elements,
certain design elements

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from his buildings are woven
into the illustrations.

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Old people, it turns out,
were not always old,

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not even grandparents.

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Whenever I read this to kids,
there's always at least one

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kid in the audience
who says, "What?"

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I learned that about
my grandfather Minoru.

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He was an architect and
I called him Grandpa.

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My grandma called him Tinky.

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Some people called him Min,
and the world called him Yama.

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Before he was my grandpa, he
was a kid, a teenager even,

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a young man trying to find
his way through the world.

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A lot of the world happened
to him, and he happened

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to a lot of the world.

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When Yama was young, he noticed
a feeling in his chest that

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changed from space to space.

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In his rickety home, in his
crowded neighborhood, and with

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00:11:01,266 --> 00:11:04,799
his mother, father, and
brother, he felt welcome.

242
00:11:04,933 --> 00:11:07,033
He felt curious and open.

243
00:11:07,166 --> 00:11:08,233
He felt seen.

244
00:11:08,366 --> 00:11:11,666
So he lived in the
Yesler Hill section,

245
00:11:11,799 --> 00:11:14,566
which I guess now is called
Yesler Terrace, and what

246
00:11:14,700 --> 00:11:17,533
he described was living in
a tenement that at any time

247
00:11:17,666 --> 00:11:20,966
felt like it was apt to slide
down the mountains right

248
00:11:21,100 --> 00:11:24,566
next to the logs that would
be sliding down beside him.

249
00:11:26,966 --> 00:11:30,766
But there were other spaces,
buildings that closed the

250
00:11:30,899 --> 00:11:34,366
open places in his heart,
Spaces that said, you

251
00:11:34,500 --> 00:11:36,100
are not welcome here.

252
00:11:36,233 --> 00:11:37,333
Not your kind.

253
00:11:41,233 --> 00:11:44,666
Perhaps you will stock shoes
for a store like your father.

254
00:11:44,799 --> 00:11:47,333
But there was a quiet
voice inside Yama.

255
00:11:47,466 --> 00:11:49,066
My father is brilliant.

256
00:11:50,100 --> 00:11:52,466
Perhaps you will sweep
factory floors on

257
00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:54,166
weekends like your father.

258
00:11:54,299 --> 00:11:56,866
The quiet voice spoke again.

259
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:58,799
My father works hard.

260
00:11:58,933 --> 00:12:02,833
Perhaps architecture is too far
a reach for someone like you.

261
00:12:02,966 --> 00:12:05,166
Yama listened to
the quiet voice.

262
00:12:05,299 --> 00:12:08,299
You have no idea how
far I can reach.

263
00:12:10,966 --> 00:12:14,666
Yama went instead to spaces
where he felt welcome.

264
00:12:14,799 --> 00:12:17,733
Forests deep with
evergreen, streams that

265
00:12:17,866 --> 00:12:21,600
sang him a calming song,
sunlight glinting off rocks,

266
00:12:21,733 --> 00:12:25,633
Spaces of light and freedom
ignited his imagination.

267
00:12:28,633 --> 00:12:30,966
He worked harder
than everyone else,

268
00:12:31,100 --> 00:12:34,966
swallowing the sharp ache that
came from not being seen.

269
00:12:35,100 --> 00:12:38,233
Faces like his in
places like this.

270
00:12:38,366 --> 00:12:41,033
He listened to that
quiet voice inside.

271
00:12:41,166 --> 00:12:44,333
I will go to college
and build my life.

272
00:12:44,466 --> 00:12:45,966
But there was no money.

273
00:12:47,233 --> 00:12:50,399
He went to Garfield High School
for anybody, for any locals.

274
00:12:52,100 --> 00:12:56,533
Only freezing cold north, far
away north, way north, Alaska,

275
00:12:56,666 --> 00:12:59,166
sweeping vistas,
glittering waters,

276
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,966
and dark canneries that
reeked of rotten fish.

277
00:13:05,100 --> 00:13:10,066
No fresh air, no light, no
rest working 18-hour days.

278
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,700
So many Nisei like him, those
born in America to parents

279
00:13:13,833 --> 00:13:15,266
who had come from Japan.

280
00:13:15,399 --> 00:13:17,899
Is this where they
think we belong?

281
00:13:18,033 --> 00:13:19,133
I am building.

282
00:13:19,266 --> 00:13:20,899
I am saving.

283
00:13:21,033 --> 00:13:23,899
Every summer, Yama went
to Alaska and paid his

284
00:13:24,033 --> 00:13:25,333
way through college.

285
00:13:25,466 --> 00:13:28,700
I'm just curious of everybody
here, if anybody else had family

286
00:13:28,833 --> 00:13:32,000
or knew of people who went to
work in the salmon canneries,

287
00:13:32,133 --> 00:13:33,466
if they weren't, yeah.

288
00:13:35,233 --> 00:13:38,500
Oh, maybe they work together.

289
00:13:38,633 --> 00:13:40,100
I think it was a
bonding experience

290
00:13:40,233 --> 00:13:42,500
for the people who were
there at the same time.

291
00:13:42,633 --> 00:13:45,700
I thought, what's
interesting when you read

292
00:13:45,833 --> 00:13:49,133
my grandfather's writing
is he talks as much

293
00:13:49,266 --> 00:13:52,299
about the racism he experienced
and the working conditions

294
00:13:52,433 --> 00:13:54,866
he experienced at those
canneries as he talks

295
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:56,100
about his buildings.

296
00:13:56,233 --> 00:13:58,933
It was such an
important chapter.

297
00:14:01,666 --> 00:14:03,666
Yama studied for many years.

298
00:14:03,799 --> 00:14:06,066
He stayed at the
top of his class.

299
00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:10,299
Beautiful drawings, ideas like
gardens growing in his mind.

300
00:14:10,433 --> 00:14:13,100
He was something special.

301
00:14:13,233 --> 00:14:18,233
So I would say when he was set
to graduate college, he went

302
00:14:18,366 --> 00:14:22,700
to UW here and he had some He
had some wonderful professors

303
00:14:22,833 --> 00:14:27,133
that he really appreciated and
respected, but the architecture

304
00:14:27,266 --> 00:14:30,533
school had a tradition up until
the year he was graduating

305
00:14:30,666 --> 00:14:34,333
where every year they awarded
the top graduating architecture

306
00:14:34,466 --> 00:14:37,533
students a scholarship to
study at the Society of Boe

307
00:14:37,666 --> 00:14:38,933
Arts in Paris.

308
00:14:39,066 --> 00:14:42,100
But the year he graduated, they
canceled the whole scholarship

309
00:14:42,233 --> 00:14:44,866
so they wouldn't have to I
wanted to give it to him.

310
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,500
And he was widely known
to be like the best

311
00:14:47,633 --> 00:14:49,600
architecture graduate
from the program.

312
00:14:50,766 --> 00:14:51,799
That always strikes me.

313
00:14:51,933 --> 00:14:54,166
It turned out okay.

314
00:14:54,299 --> 00:14:56,366
His father, in response,
he was so angered

315
00:14:56,500 --> 00:14:58,500
by the whole thing, he
took the whole family

316
00:14:58,633 --> 00:15:00,500
on a trip to Japan that they
really couldn't afford,

317
00:15:00,633 --> 00:15:02,433
but that was where he
was first introduced

318
00:15:02,566 --> 00:15:04,266
to Japanese architecture.

319
00:15:04,399 --> 00:15:06,233
And that was where he
first kind of encountered

320
00:15:06,366 --> 00:15:09,866
the interplay between the
outside and the inside.

321
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,200
And so that was kind
of from this era.

322
00:15:13,333 --> 00:15:14,166
I'll repeat the question.

323
00:15:14,299 --> 00:15:16,333
How did UW make amends for that?

324
00:15:16,466 --> 00:15:17,366
Who asked that question?

325
00:15:17,500 --> 00:15:18,033
I couldn't.

326
00:15:18,166 --> 00:15:19,000
Okay, thank you.

327
00:15:19,133 --> 00:15:20,733
You know, I don't know.

328
00:15:20,866 --> 00:15:24,666
And I actually, I wasn't able
to write about it quite as

329
00:15:24,799 --> 00:15:28,299
strongly as I wanted to in
the author's note because

330
00:15:28,433 --> 00:15:29,666
of some legal stuff.

331
00:15:29,799 --> 00:15:33,533
But I, you know, I don't
know that they have, I

332
00:15:33,666 --> 00:15:36,166
don't have that information.

333
00:15:36,299 --> 00:15:37,766
I would like to
think that they had.

334
00:15:39,333 --> 00:15:41,733
I think that they justified
it by saying it was

335
00:15:41,866 --> 00:15:44,399
the Great Depression, or
it was the Depression,

336
00:15:44,533 --> 00:15:46,566
but it was something
that was so abrupt.

337
00:15:46,700 --> 00:15:49,533
It was like one year they did
it, the next year they didn't,

338
00:15:49,666 --> 00:15:50,866
the next year they did.

339
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:52,466
It's a little hard to believe.

340
00:15:54,633 --> 00:15:55,866
But I would like
to find that out.

341
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:56,833
Thanks for asking that.

342
00:15:59,666 --> 00:16:01,799
But when it was
time to get a job,

343
00:16:01,933 --> 00:16:04,566
America was in the middle
of the Great Depression.

344
00:16:04,700 --> 00:16:09,333
Doors slammed, not hiring,
especially eyes like

345
00:16:09,466 --> 00:16:13,066
yours, names like yours,
faces like yours.

346
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,700
And when he did get a
job designing buildings,

347
00:16:15,833 --> 00:16:19,466
the world still told him, we
do not trust your Japanese

348
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:21,399
name, your Japanese face.

349
00:16:21,533 --> 00:16:24,333
Have you ever tasted something
bitter in your mouth?

350
00:16:24,466 --> 00:16:26,566
That's how they said Japanese.

351
00:16:26,700 --> 00:16:28,633
This was when he moved
out to New York City.

352
00:16:31,033 --> 00:16:33,533
He kept working harder
than anyone else.

353
00:16:33,666 --> 00:16:36,000
He married a pianist
named Taruko.

354
00:16:36,133 --> 00:16:40,166
The soulful sound of her music
found its way into his work.

355
00:16:40,299 --> 00:16:43,133
Just after they wed, war began.

356
00:16:43,266 --> 00:16:45,700
Japanese families on the
west coast of the United

357
00:16:45,833 --> 00:16:47,000
States lost everything.

358
00:16:47,133 --> 00:16:49,233
They were sent to
desert prisons.

359
00:16:49,366 --> 00:16:53,233
Yama and Taruko's tiny New
York City apartment overflowed

360
00:16:53,366 --> 00:16:54,799
with family escaping.

361
00:16:54,933 --> 00:16:58,133
So my grandmother was, her
family was from Okinawa.

362
00:16:58,266 --> 00:17:01,366
She was born in Los Angeles,
and she had a full-ride

363
00:17:01,500 --> 00:17:04,700
scholarship for her master's
at Juilliard to become

364
00:17:04,833 --> 00:17:05,966
a concert pianist.

365
00:17:07,266 --> 00:17:11,566
They were married on December
5, 1941, and on December 7,

366
00:17:11,700 --> 00:17:14,766
of course, was Pearl
Harbor, which was when her

367
00:17:14,900 --> 00:17:17,099
father was incarcerated,
and then they lost

368
00:17:17,233 --> 00:17:18,266
their business.

369
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,966
The whole family went to
Amache, and that was also the

370
00:17:22,099 --> 00:17:25,233
end of her education
at Juilliard, sadly.

371
00:17:25,366 --> 00:17:27,366
So I think that one other
piece of this puzzle

372
00:17:27,500 --> 00:17:30,000
that is always important,
that I always try

373
00:17:30,133 --> 00:17:32,466
to remind myself, is
the economic piece.

374
00:17:32,599 --> 00:17:36,066
When an entire community is
economically devastated,

375
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,033
and I look at my grandfather,
who is working prolifically,

376
00:17:39,166 --> 00:17:42,433
and what that meant for him
in the bare context of the

377
00:17:42,566 --> 00:17:44,266
family and the community.

378
00:17:45,599 --> 00:17:48,733
The FBI said, you are
Japanese, suspicious.

379
00:17:48,866 --> 00:17:52,200
The police said, you are
Japanese, show us your

380
00:17:52,333 --> 00:17:56,066
identification. The neighbors
said, you are Japanese, you

381
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:57,033
could be a spy.

382
00:17:57,166 --> 00:17:59,700
I was born in "In
Seattle, I am building

383
00:17:59,833 --> 00:18:01,266
my life just like you.

384
00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:03,466
"Every bitter sound
made a brick.

385
00:18:03,599 --> 00:18:06,433
"Each brick built a
stronger foundation.

386
00:18:06,566 --> 00:18:08,066
"He added lines.

387
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,000
"He didn't want to feel
the way they were trying

388
00:18:10,133 --> 00:18:11,599
"to make him feel.

389
00:18:11,733 --> 00:18:13,200
"He made shapes.

390
00:18:13,333 --> 00:18:15,200
"He brought in light."

391
00:18:15,333 --> 00:18:17,900
So his first project as
an architect was working

392
00:18:18,033 --> 00:18:20,433
on the Sampson Naval Base,
which was in upstate New York,

393
00:18:20,566 --> 00:18:22,700
and this was right at the
beginning of the war.

394
00:18:22,833 --> 00:18:26,466
So he was designing this
church and also other

395
00:18:26,599 --> 00:18:28,333
buildings on the base.

396
00:18:28,466 --> 00:18:32,266
And when he went to visit his
own project, you know, that

397
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,833
he was the head designer for,
he was turned away at the gate

398
00:18:35,966 --> 00:18:38,966
by the military police who
suspected him of being a spy.

399
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:42,200
It was a bizarre time
to even, you know, even

400
00:18:42,333 --> 00:18:45,400
in New York where he was
He was regularly harassed

401
00:18:45,533 --> 00:18:48,766
and not trusted even
with his own projects.

402
00:18:50,333 --> 00:18:51,333
He had a family.

403
00:18:51,466 --> 00:18:54,200
This resulted in them moving
eventually to Detroit.

404
00:18:54,333 --> 00:18:57,433
He had a family, a Japanese
American family that

405
00:18:57,566 --> 00:18:58,966
needed a place to live.

406
00:18:59,099 --> 00:19:03,066
First they were turned away
again and again, but then they

407
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,799
found a home, an old farmhouse
in a town without red

408
00:19:06,933 --> 00:19:08,633
lines and cruel rules.

409
00:19:08,766 --> 00:19:10,099
They built and they grew.

410
00:19:12,833 --> 00:19:15,400
At his office, Yama
worked and wondered,

411
00:19:15,533 --> 00:19:18,700
how can I make a space of
light with a feeling of open

412
00:19:18,833 --> 00:19:20,400
doors and air that breathes?

413
00:19:20,533 --> 00:19:22,433
Everyone is welcome here.

414
00:19:22,566 --> 00:19:25,766
Shapes combined with lines
combined with nature's light.

415
00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:28,633
Serenity, surprise, delight.

416
00:19:28,766 --> 00:19:32,299
Yama became his own boss,
signed his own drawings,

417
00:19:32,433 --> 00:19:34,866
made buildings where
people worked in harmony,

418
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,166
where people worked in peace.

419
00:19:37,299 --> 00:19:40,400
For many years he worked
long, hard hours.

420
00:19:40,533 --> 00:19:44,033
Too long, too hard, he
worked until his body

421
00:19:44,166 --> 00:19:45,466
said, rest now.

422
00:19:45,599 --> 00:19:48,066
So he traveled and marveled.

423
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,833
Sore, said the quiet voice
inside as his spirit

424
00:19:51,966 --> 00:19:54,266
lifted into the arcs
of the Alhambra.

425
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,733
Peace like this, it
said, as he beheld

426
00:19:56,866 --> 00:20:00,866
He held sun glinting on still
water and paths of smooth round

427
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,033
stones at the Katsura Palace.

428
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,066
Inspired, Yama returned to
fill his office with big

429
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,099
thinkers from around the world.

430
00:20:11,233 --> 00:20:13,599
Architects who
worked side by side.

431
00:20:13,733 --> 00:20:16,533
People from many countries
called Yama asking him

432
00:20:16,666 --> 00:20:18,133
to design their buildings.

433
00:20:18,266 --> 00:20:21,233
The spaces he built
connected to the humanity

434
00:20:21,366 --> 00:20:22,599
of everyday people.

435
00:20:22,733 --> 00:20:26,966
Workplaces, learning spaces,
travel hubs, and sacred spots

436
00:20:27,099 --> 00:20:31,333
to gather were filled with
serenity, surprise, and delight.

437
00:20:31,466 --> 00:20:34,400
He was very concerned with the
workplace culture of his office,

438
00:20:34,533 --> 00:20:38,566
which was in Troy, Michigan, And
it was directly as an impact

439
00:20:38,700 --> 00:20:43,933
of not only the work he did in
the salmon canneries in Alaska,

440
00:20:44,066 --> 00:20:47,266
but by some of his bosses in New
York City when he first started

441
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,900
to practice as an architect,
some of his bosses who

442
00:20:50,033 --> 00:20:52,366
really protected him and
his family during the war

443
00:20:52,500 --> 00:20:54,266
and from some of the
discrimination that they

444
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:55,466
would have otherwise faced.

445
00:20:55,599 --> 00:20:59,799
So he saw both the bad and
the good side and wanted to,

446
00:20:59,933 --> 00:21:04,033
as a result, make his office
be a good place to work.

447
00:21:04,166 --> 00:21:07,166
His work grew, his name
grew, the pressure

448
00:21:07,299 --> 00:21:08,966
upon him, that grew too.

449
00:21:09,099 --> 00:21:11,866
He made mistakes and had
regrets that would take

450
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:13,466
time to fully understand.

451
00:21:13,599 --> 00:21:15,966
People he worked with
didn't always agree

452
00:21:16,099 --> 00:21:17,200
or share his vision.

453
00:21:17,333 --> 00:21:20,866
Things didn't always turn
out the way he planned.

454
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:22,633
Some of the reviews, I
don't know if any of you

455
00:21:22,766 --> 00:21:24,366
have ever read them,
but some of the reviews

456
00:21:24,500 --> 00:21:29,900
of his work would start out by
talking about his body, like

457
00:21:30,033 --> 00:21:34,099
his size, the size of his
frame, and some, which was so

458
00:21:34,233 --> 00:21:36,766
absolutely unrelated to
anything, some would

459
00:21:36,900 --> 00:21:40,766
talk about, you know, You
know, the delicate, feminine

460
00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:42,733
forms that he was using.

461
00:21:42,866 --> 00:21:45,700
And it was kind of like
this constant assault

462
00:21:45,833 --> 00:21:49,566
on his masculinity,
I think, first off,

463
00:21:49,700 --> 00:21:52,566
but also just his
general humanity.

464
00:21:52,700 --> 00:21:55,400
And that weighed really heavily.

465
00:21:57,466 --> 00:21:59,533
But so often, Yama
found his way,

466
00:21:59,666 --> 00:22:03,166
bringing the outside world
in, letting the sun shine

467
00:22:03,299 --> 00:22:06,299
through ceilings,
illuminating shapes, the

468
00:22:06,433 --> 00:22:09,433
reflecting water of a
still pool, quieting a

469
00:22:09,566 --> 00:22:11,933
busy mind so one
might sit in peace.

470
00:22:12,066 --> 00:22:15,099
His shapes, lines, and
light brought to so

471
00:22:15,233 --> 00:22:18,066
many serenity,
surprise, and delight.

472
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,333
Yesterday somebody
asked me about this

473
00:22:20,466 --> 00:22:23,466
spread, if this was, they had
originally mistaken it for the

474
00:22:24,599 --> 00:22:26,666
Pacific Science Center,
but this is a building

475
00:22:26,799 --> 00:22:28,933
in Detroit which I would
put at the top of his work

476
00:22:29,066 --> 00:22:30,666
I was in Detroit to see
his work with the Pacific

477
00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:32,400
Science Center, which
is McGregor Memorial.

478
00:22:32,533 --> 00:22:35,433
I don't know if anybody's been
there in Detroit to see his

479
00:22:35,566 --> 00:22:37,133
work, but I highly recommend.

480
00:22:38,533 --> 00:22:41,466
And there was home, a home
he made of shapes and

481
00:22:41,599 --> 00:22:44,933
lines and light, a home
filled with Heruco's music,

482
00:22:45,066 --> 00:22:48,233
a home that was filled with
children and then grandchildren.

483
00:22:48,366 --> 00:22:50,533
I was, that one's me.

484
00:22:52,500 --> 00:22:54,566
Right in the middle
of the age range.

485
00:22:56,333 --> 00:22:59,266
Many years later, a
terrible thing happened.

486
00:23:03,799 --> 00:23:05,666
But he had died years before.

487
00:23:05,799 --> 00:23:09,433
If he had been alive, his
heart would have broken

488
00:23:09,566 --> 00:23:12,933
into one million pieces,
not for the buildings, but

489
00:23:13,066 --> 00:23:15,799
for all the people who went
to work there in peace,

490
00:23:15,933 --> 00:23:19,666
For all their families and
for what happened afterward.

491
00:23:24,633 --> 00:23:28,233
I lived there then in New York
City and it made me wonder,

492
00:23:28,366 --> 00:23:30,500
what do buildings stand upon?

493
00:23:30,633 --> 00:23:35,733
There is the earth, the soil,
the concrete, the steel beams.

494
00:23:35,866 --> 00:23:37,666
There are our stories.

495
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,866
And the feeling we have in
that space that is made from

496
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,066
shapes and lines and light.

497
00:23:48,333 --> 00:23:51,766
Now, if you happen to see a
copy at the library or pick up

498
00:23:51,900 --> 00:23:55,733
a copy today, you'll notice in
the back of the book, there are

499
00:23:55,866 --> 00:23:57,900
many pages of an author's note.

500
00:23:59,133 --> 00:24:01,700
And also many other buildings.

501
00:24:01,833 --> 00:24:04,033
But I encourage you
to kind of read that.

502
00:24:04,166 --> 00:24:07,566
We'll discuss a lot of it today,
but it's kind of the more

503
00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:10,366
in-depth read into his story.

504
00:24:10,500 --> 00:24:13,500
This wasn't the first time that
I wrote about my grandfather.

505
00:24:13,633 --> 00:24:17,366
My first book about him
was as a third grader.

506
00:24:17,500 --> 00:24:22,099
And I, you know, at
that time what I knew,

507
00:24:22,233 --> 00:24:24,766
you know, I had this
complex feeling of like,

508
00:24:24,900 --> 00:24:27,666
okay, well, people here seem to
really hate Japanese people,

509
00:24:27,799 --> 00:24:31,366
But my grandpa was amazing, and
so I made this book about him.

510
00:24:31,500 --> 00:24:34,966
My grandpa is an architect,
you know, and I kind

511
00:24:35,099 --> 00:24:37,633
of just, you know,
explored from a child's

512
00:24:37,766 --> 00:24:40,000
perspective what you
might be curious about,

513
00:24:40,133 --> 00:24:43,000
the questions you ask, what's
your favorite color, even

514
00:24:43,133 --> 00:24:44,533
if it's not really a color.

515
00:24:47,266 --> 00:24:50,500
And, you know, what I
got more interested in,

516
00:24:50,633 --> 00:24:54,366
you know, as I grew up and
kind of grew into my own art

517
00:24:54,500 --> 00:24:58,700
was why somebody who grew up in
the world that he grew up in

518
00:24:58,833 --> 00:25:01,466
would want to create
these spaces, right?

519
00:25:01,599 --> 00:25:03,200
Why somebody would want to

520
00:25:03,333 --> 00:25:06,366
kind of like form their life
around these principles

521
00:25:06,500 --> 00:25:08,866
of serenity, surprise,
and delight and bring

522
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,766
that to people when it was
It was something, when it

523
00:25:11,900 --> 00:25:15,866
was perhaps one of the
paths of most resistance.

524
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,400
When you look at who he was, a
Japanese American man coming

525
00:25:20,533 --> 00:25:23,166
from a public institution
into the elite world

526
00:25:23,299 --> 00:25:25,299
of architecture,
which was entirely

527
00:25:25,433 --> 00:25:27,566
white at that time,
mostly Ivy League,

528
00:25:27,700 --> 00:25:28,599
except for I.M.

529
00:25:28,733 --> 00:25:30,099
Pei, who was also from

530
00:25:30,233 --> 00:25:32,933
the Ivy League, he
did not fit in.

531
00:25:33,066 --> 00:25:35,066
He did not fit in, but he
had these things to say,

532
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,000
and not only did he not fit
in in terms of who he was

533
00:25:38,133 --> 00:25:41,533
And what his background was,
but the type of work he wanted

534
00:25:41,666 --> 00:25:44,333
to make was very
much not in style.

535
00:25:44,466 --> 00:25:46,500
What people were making at
that time were things to kind

536
00:25:46,633 --> 00:25:47,666
of intimidate or overwhelm.

537
00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:50,233
And he wanted to make
things that were meant

538
00:25:50,366 --> 00:25:51,700
to uplift and to delight.

539
00:25:51,833 --> 00:25:54,700
So I thought, you know, how
does somebody go from this?

540
00:25:54,833 --> 00:25:57,700
You know, this was from
their childhood home,

541
00:25:57,833 --> 00:26:00,799
no running water, you
know, with very stylish

542
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,200
I grew up with my
great-grandfather and my

543
00:26:06,333 --> 00:26:09,200
great-grandfather had so many
jobs and they kind of made it

544
00:26:09,333 --> 00:26:12,066
work but the world was not so
accommodating and I thought

545
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,033
about you know what I grew up
with was no Japanese community

546
00:26:15,166 --> 00:26:17,766
but when I went through Densho
and when I you know heard

547
00:26:17,900 --> 00:26:20,833
family stories and went through
all of our extensive family

548
00:26:20,966 --> 00:26:23,700
albums what I saw was this
really rich Japanese American

549
00:26:23,833 --> 00:26:26,333
community out here and I
started to think about like

550
00:26:26,466 --> 00:26:29,233
how would it feel if the people
who lived in your community

551
00:26:29,366 --> 00:26:30,766
looked like your parents did.

552
00:26:30,900 --> 00:26:33,166
and spoke the same
language as your parents,

553
00:26:33,299 --> 00:26:36,966
and your face was reflected in
a loving way all around you.

554
00:26:37,099 --> 00:26:40,400
And I think in many ways
that kind of counterbalanced

555
00:26:40,533 --> 00:26:42,900
a lot of the other things
that he was experiencing.

556
00:26:44,900 --> 00:26:47,900
So I thought a lot about
when he was graduating,

557
00:26:48,033 --> 00:26:49,733
you know, and when
he was working

558
00:26:49,866 --> 00:26:52,466
and the environment that
he was kind of working in,

559
00:26:52,599 --> 00:26:55,666
because when he started to
kind of go into architecture

560
00:26:55,799 --> 00:26:57,466
and to think about
making buildings,

561
00:26:57,599 --> 00:27:00,299
These were the buildings
that were being made for his

562
00:27:00,433 --> 00:27:02,000
community, for our community.

563
00:27:02,133 --> 00:27:07,500
You know, and you think about
what did his work set out

564
00:27:07,633 --> 00:27:10,266
to do, you know, to uplift.

565
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,566
And then you think about
what did the world kind

566
00:27:13,700 --> 00:27:17,299
of see fitting for the
Japanese American community.

567
00:27:17,433 --> 00:27:22,366
The pictures that I find from
this era really resonate in a

568
00:27:22,500 --> 00:27:26,933
lot of the time when I do author
visits in schools with a lot

569
00:27:27,066 --> 00:27:30,766
of kids who kind of see this
stuff in the context of other

570
00:27:30,900 --> 00:27:33,766
communities today, particularly
black and brown communities,

571
00:27:33,900 --> 00:27:36,500
but thinking about how
the world was set to

572
00:27:36,633 --> 00:27:38,933
consider Japanese people.

573
00:27:39,066 --> 00:27:43,233
When I look at this picture
on the right, that's not

574
00:27:43,366 --> 00:27:45,166
even a human skin tone.

575
00:27:45,299 --> 00:27:49,466
I think about how people were
encouraged to think about the

576
00:27:49,599 --> 00:27:55,000
Japanese as kind of animal-like
or as scary or as dangerous,

577
00:27:55,133 --> 00:27:59,466
and how so much of
what we're living with

578
00:27:59,599 --> 00:28:04,733
today as well reflects It
kind of reflects that still.

579
00:28:04,866 --> 00:28:07,233
When I was working on this book,
I think one of the hard things

580
00:28:07,366 --> 00:28:09,133
was to think about his
journey as a young man.

581
00:28:09,266 --> 00:28:12,366
I was working on this
book in 2020 and 2021,

582
00:28:12,500 --> 00:28:15,500
and it was very much the
time of a lot of the

583
00:28:15,633 --> 00:28:18,533
anti-Asian sentiment kind
of coursing through the

584
00:28:18,666 --> 00:28:22,000
country again with COVID,
and it was pretty crushing.

585
00:28:22,133 --> 00:28:26,200
And I thought a lot about
what he wanted to instill,

586
00:28:26,333 --> 00:28:28,466
and I think that, you
know, in large part,

587
00:28:28,599 --> 00:28:34,033
The experiences of his childhood
maybe made him want to

588
00:28:34,166 --> 00:28:38,299
create spaces that would
have made him feel other.

589
00:28:38,433 --> 00:28:41,133
You know, I think that he grew
up in a world that maybe said

590
00:28:41,266 --> 00:28:43,833
that your life doesn't
have inherent value.

591
00:28:43,966 --> 00:28:46,200
You know, you're not, you don't
really deserve to go to college.

592
00:28:46,333 --> 00:28:48,733
You don't deserve to
work in a safe place.

593
00:28:48,866 --> 00:28:51,900
But he wanted to kind of create
these places where actually

594
00:28:52,033 --> 00:28:55,666
people can feel they're
most He was often inspired

595
00:28:55,799 --> 00:28:57,633
by forms in nature.

596
00:28:57,766 --> 00:29:02,466
Kids often recognize
this as butterfly wings,

597
00:29:02,599 --> 00:29:06,900
or somebody said this reminded
them of an elephant's trunk.

598
00:29:07,033 --> 00:29:13,466
But I think a lot about how
when asked about his work,

599
00:29:13,599 --> 00:29:16,666
people always think about
the World Trade Center.

600
00:29:16,799 --> 00:29:19,833
So people always would kind of
center the World Trade Center.

601
00:29:19,966 --> 00:29:22,466
I think the main reason that I
wanted to do this book in the

602
00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:25,333
first place was to kind of move
away from the World Trade Center

603
00:29:25,466 --> 00:29:27,400
because that was
what people knew.

604
00:29:27,533 --> 00:29:30,200
I had somebody come up to
me once, an architect,

605
00:29:30,333 --> 00:29:32,700
and say, "Oh, Yamasaki,
World Trade Center and

606
00:29:32,833 --> 00:29:35,433
Pruitt-Igoe," which was the
picture in the building with

607
00:29:35,566 --> 00:29:37,099
like the big thunderclouds over.

608
00:29:38,166 --> 00:29:40,233
What a tough legacy.

609
00:29:40,366 --> 00:29:43,599
And I thought, wow, that is a
problem, because he designed

610
00:29:43,733 --> 00:29:46,366
like 200 buildings,
and you know two.

611
00:29:46,500 --> 00:29:50,500
And what I found out was at a
certain point, he wasn't being

612
00:29:50,633 --> 00:29:53,933
taught at many architecture His
work wasn't taught, because

613
00:29:54,066 --> 00:29:56,200
all people knew him for were
two buildings that were

614
00:29:57,533 --> 00:30:00,766
badly exploded on
national television.

615
00:30:00,900 --> 00:30:04,166
And so, my first, I don't
know if it was my first,

616
00:30:04,299 --> 00:30:05,633
but one draft that
I did of the book

617
00:30:05,766 --> 00:30:08,333
that was years and
years ago, maybe 2006,

618
00:30:08,466 --> 00:30:09,666
did center the
World Trade Center.

619
00:30:09,799 --> 00:30:12,166
'Cause for me as a kid, that
was kind of at the middle.

620
00:30:12,299 --> 00:30:13,900
You know, 'cause you
think the tallest.

621
00:30:14,033 --> 00:30:15,599
But then I started
to think about like,

622
00:30:15,733 --> 00:30:19,066
well actually, what's most
interesting about his work

623
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,666
is the human side of it, and
how what he really wanted

624
00:30:21,799 --> 00:30:24,466
was for people to come
into these spaces

625
00:30:24,599 --> 00:30:27,333
and feel fully human, right?

626
00:30:27,466 --> 00:30:30,666
And have these arcs and these
spaces and this light kind

627
00:30:30,799 --> 00:30:33,900
of coming in as a way to
enhance your human experience.

628
00:30:34,033 --> 00:30:36,299
So I started kind of playing
around with a different

629
00:30:36,433 --> 00:30:37,500
way to approach the book.

630
00:30:37,633 --> 00:30:38,599
This was much later.

631
00:30:38,733 --> 00:30:40,400
You know, I brought in my
friend to kind of model.

632
00:30:40,533 --> 00:30:42,599
He was much more muscular
than my grandfather was.

633
00:30:42,733 --> 00:30:46,533
But brought him in to
model for the book.

634
00:30:46,666 --> 00:30:48,799
And I was thinking, you
know, if you've seen any

635
00:30:48,933 --> 00:30:50,733
of my other work, I'm
much more of a painter.

636
00:30:50,866 --> 00:30:53,500
and not such a technician
in the way that my

637
00:30:53,633 --> 00:30:54,733
grandfather was.

638
00:30:54,866 --> 00:30:56,833
So I decided I would
approach it by doing collage

639
00:30:56,966 --> 00:31:00,333
and kind of be able to put
all these pieces together

640
00:31:00,466 --> 00:31:02,066
in a little bit more
of a graphic way.

641
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,066
That was kind of the only way
I could imagine doing it.

642
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,500
And everything kind of comes
together at my studio.

643
00:31:07,633 --> 00:31:11,933
And luckily, because of the
publisher I work with, my

644
00:31:12,066 --> 00:31:15,266
editor Simon is here right
now, I was able to give this

645
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:16,433
book a lot of space.

646
00:31:16,566 --> 00:31:18,166
You know, it's a much longer
picture book than most

647
00:31:18,299 --> 00:31:21,900
It's a much longer picture
book than most books, but the

648
00:31:22,033 --> 00:31:25,900
space that I wanted to evoke,
which is the space that

649
00:31:26,033 --> 00:31:27,833
he has in his own work.

650
00:31:27,966 --> 00:31:31,266
A lot of people have been
wondering, or kids, not a lot of

651
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:34,966
people, but a lot of the little
people who I talk to all the

652
00:31:35,099 --> 00:31:39,133
time, they think, how is your
work and your grandpa's work the

653
00:31:39,266 --> 00:31:45,666
And this is the mural that Naomi
referenced in her introduction.

654
00:31:45,799 --> 00:31:48,033
And I think that one thing we
have in common, you know, I

655
00:31:48,166 --> 00:31:49,866
originally did not
want to be an artist.

656
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,933
And it was largely because I
looked at my grandfather's

657
00:31:53,066 --> 00:31:56,200
work and I was like, that
is too much to live up to.

658
00:31:56,333 --> 00:31:59,266
And I looked at my
grandma's work and she was

659
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,666
a concert pianist, you
know, so much incredible

660
00:32:02,799 --> 00:32:05,833
And I listen to her music, and
that's too much to live up to.

661
00:32:05,966 --> 00:32:08,400
And then I look at my Uncle
Taro's work, who is a Pulitzer

662
00:32:08,533 --> 00:32:11,066
Prize-winning photographer,
and I thought, this

663
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:12,433
is too much pressure.

664
00:32:12,566 --> 00:32:15,000
I'm going to be a social worker.

665
00:32:16,766 --> 00:32:20,933
But I kind of found my way to
storytelling, and that kind of

666
00:32:21,066 --> 00:32:24,766
took the pressure off, because
it kind of felt like, well,

667
00:32:24,900 --> 00:32:27,833
what I really want to do is
find stories that don't get

668
00:32:27,966 --> 00:32:29,133
I don't know if I
can get told enough.

669
00:32:29,266 --> 00:32:31,433
I'll start with the
stories of my family,

670
00:32:31,566 --> 00:32:34,966
which my teachers have actually
told me didn't happen.

671
00:32:35,099 --> 00:32:38,633
So stories that are
untold and undertold.

672
00:32:38,766 --> 00:32:42,433
So this was a project that
kind of made me think

673
00:32:42,566 --> 00:32:44,099
of my grandfather, not
just because it's at

674
00:32:44,233 --> 00:32:47,266
a Japanese American
museum, but also because,

675
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:48,833
'cause our work
looks nothing alike.

676
00:32:48,966 --> 00:32:52,066
I mean, he mostly used white
with white with white,

677
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,799
and there's 50 different
shades of white,

678
00:32:54,933 --> 00:32:57,833
And I use as many
colors as I can find.

679
00:32:57,966 --> 00:33:01,033
But these are
spaces, what I hope,

680
00:33:01,166 --> 00:33:04,266
is that these are spaces
that, as his work did,

681
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:08,000
make people feel fully
human and fully seen.

682
00:33:08,133 --> 00:33:09,933
I have a really good
friend in Brooklyn

683
00:33:10,066 --> 00:33:12,299
who's African American who
grew up in the neighborhood

684
00:33:12,433 --> 00:33:14,266
that we live in now.

685
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:16,466
And we were talking about
going out to eat one time,

686
00:33:16,599 --> 00:33:18,333
and he said, oh, I don't go
into a lot of those restaurants

687
00:33:18,466 --> 00:33:21,033
because I don't feel like it's
a place that was made for me.

688
00:33:21,166 --> 00:33:22,533
I don't really feel
comfortable there.

689
00:33:22,666 --> 00:33:24,333
I think, what is this world?

690
00:33:24,466 --> 00:33:26,299
And I think that that
was a lot of what my

691
00:33:26,433 --> 00:33:27,700
grandfather experienced.

692
00:33:27,833 --> 00:33:31,866
And I think that when it comes
to doing the stories, finding

693
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,400
the stories of the people who
get left to the side are the

694
00:33:35,533 --> 00:33:37,033
ones that I most want to tell.

695
00:33:37,166 --> 00:33:39,400
So I work a lot with
communities who are

696
00:33:39,533 --> 00:33:41,333
impacted by incarceration.

697
00:33:42,366 --> 00:33:45,266
This is kind of a direct result
of the experience of my own

698
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,500
family, but also just looking at
the world today and thinking,

699
00:33:48,633 --> 00:33:51,099
this is a lot of people who
are kind of forgotten about

700
00:33:51,233 --> 00:33:53,799
So, for example, you know,
this is a group of young

701
00:33:53,933 --> 00:33:56,799
men outside of Philadelphia
who had been incarcerated

702
00:33:56,933 --> 00:33:58,333
for one reason or another.

703
00:33:59,466 --> 00:34:00,700
And we were doing a project.

704
00:34:00,833 --> 00:34:03,466
This was shortly after
Trayvon Martin's murder.

705
00:34:03,599 --> 00:34:06,433
And we asked them, we said,
how do you see yourself?

706
00:34:07,700 --> 00:34:10,733
And how do you see, how do you
think other people see you?

707
00:34:10,866 --> 00:34:12,500
So, this is a 16-year-old boy.

708
00:34:12,633 --> 00:34:15,900
So he wrote, good at all
sports, peaceful, kind-hearted,

709
00:34:16,033 --> 00:34:19,033
compassionate, humble,
responsible, ladies' man,

710
00:34:19,166 --> 00:34:22,466
great kisser, you know, all
of these wonderful things for

711
00:34:22,599 --> 00:34:24,199
a 16-year-old to be, right?

712
00:34:25,466 --> 00:34:26,466
Knows how to dance.

713
00:34:26,599 --> 00:34:28,699
You know, and then he said,
well, if you're walking

714
00:34:28,833 --> 00:34:30,933
down the street, how do
you think people see you?

715
00:34:31,066 --> 00:34:34,500
And he said, dumb, ugly,
not going to be anything,

716
00:34:34,633 --> 00:34:38,366
crazy, scary, mean, not fun
to be around, and worse.

717
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:44,533
And what we know is that
that difference is actually

718
00:34:44,666 --> 00:34:47,000
violent and dangerous.

719
00:34:47,133 --> 00:34:50,099
And so what I think about,
we did this project where

720
00:34:50,233 --> 00:34:53,066
they painted on cloth,
And we took those cloths

721
00:34:53,199 --> 00:34:56,199
around in their communities
so that you can see,

722
00:34:56,333 --> 00:34:59,099
like, this is the cloth,
and then it gets adhered

723
00:34:59,233 --> 00:35:01,433
to the wall as if it was
painted on the wall.

724
00:35:01,566 --> 00:35:04,333
But it was a way for them to
have a voice in their community.

725
00:35:04,466 --> 00:35:07,333
But I am smart, responsible,
caring, loving,

726
00:35:07,466 --> 00:35:08,833
kind-hearted, loyal.

727
00:35:08,966 --> 00:35:11,400
But then there's also
a part in blue, is he?

728
00:35:11,533 --> 00:35:12,266
Is he kind-hearted?

729
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:13,099
Is he hardworking?

730
00:35:13,233 --> 00:35:14,333
Is he peaceful?

731
00:35:14,466 --> 00:35:15,833
And kind of challenging
the viewer.

732
00:35:15,966 --> 00:35:17,633
If you're wondering, is he?

733
00:35:17,766 --> 00:35:18,699
Why is that?

734
00:35:18,833 --> 00:35:19,699
Why are you wondering that?

735
00:35:19,833 --> 00:35:21,433
What are those assumptions?

736
00:35:21,566 --> 00:35:25,133
And, you know, these projects
and these themes come up

737
00:35:25,266 --> 00:35:27,733
because I think
about my own family.

738
00:35:27,866 --> 00:35:31,500
And on the left is my
grandmother's family

739
00:35:31,633 --> 00:35:32,666
that immigrated from Okinawa.

740
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:34,966
My grandmother is on
the right-hand side,

741
00:35:35,099 --> 00:35:37,466
the taller of the two girls.

742
00:35:37,599 --> 00:35:40,666
You know, and I think about my
grandfather's family in Seattle.

743
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,633
And I think about how I
describe my own family,

744
00:35:43,766 --> 00:35:44,900
and I would be curious.

745
00:35:45,033 --> 00:35:47,733
I'm sure a lot of people here
also have immigrant stories

746
00:35:47,866 --> 00:35:50,699
I think about different parts
of their family's story

747
00:35:50,833 --> 00:35:52,433
that felt very misunderstood.

748
00:35:52,566 --> 00:35:55,466
And I think about words that I
might use to describe my family.

749
00:35:55,599 --> 00:36:00,566
Hardworking, creative,
loving, adventurous, curious.

750
00:36:00,699 --> 00:36:04,533
And then I think about how they
were considered at that time.

751
00:36:04,666 --> 00:36:07,633
The fact that my
great-grandfather, who

752
00:36:07,766 --> 00:36:11,099
was a produce salesman,
was considered a spy.

753
00:36:11,233 --> 00:36:14,866
Still, it doesn't make
any sense in my mind.

754
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:16,033
I can't make that leap.

755
00:36:16,166 --> 00:36:19,400
But spy, traitor,
enemy, animal-like.

756
00:36:19,533 --> 00:36:25,466
And there are reasons that
these things exist, right?

757
00:36:25,599 --> 00:36:28,800
And there are reasons that these
boys who are in this detention

758
00:36:28,933 --> 00:36:31,266
center have this experience
of people thinking

759
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:32,566
these ways about them.

760
00:36:32,699 --> 00:36:36,500
And I look at what there used to
be, how to tell the Japs from

761
00:36:36,633 --> 00:36:40,300
the Chinese, really specific,
It's like step by step.

762
00:36:40,433 --> 00:36:42,033
And how can we kind of
challenge ourselves

763
00:36:42,166 --> 00:36:45,033
to be really critical
consumers of this,

764
00:36:46,099 --> 00:36:48,166
of the things that
are said about us?

765
00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:51,466
'Cause when I see my family,
that's not what I see.

766
00:36:51,599 --> 00:36:56,699
And when I see people
judging these teenage boys

767
00:36:56,833 --> 00:36:58,366
and these terrible
things happening

768
00:36:58,500 --> 00:37:02,800
to these teenage boys today,
that's not what I see.

769
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,666
But there was a lot of
motivation for me with

770
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,666
this book at the time that
I ended up making it.

771
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,133
I mean, because I literally
have probably been

772
00:37:12,266 --> 00:37:14,800
working on it for 15 years
before it was published.

773
00:37:14,933 --> 00:37:19,133
But I think the heartbreaking
part about the process of making

774
00:37:19,266 --> 00:37:23,266
the book was how relevant so
much of the hardship still felt.

775
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:24,900
You know, there would
be days when I'd be

776
00:37:25,033 --> 00:37:25,933
working on the project.

777
00:37:26,066 --> 00:37:27,099
I was working on a project
I'd be working on,

778
00:37:27,233 --> 00:37:29,866
maybe a part where he was
being profiled by the FBI

779
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,666
or harassed by his neighbors,
and then there would

780
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,766
be these incidences that
would be going viral online

781
00:37:36,900 --> 00:37:39,233
about what was happening
in the Asian community.

782
00:37:39,366 --> 00:37:40,633
And it's pretty crushing.

783
00:37:40,766 --> 00:37:44,133
So I kind of just
continue to devote myself

784
00:37:44,266 --> 00:37:48,333
to trying to create spaces
where we can see each other

785
00:37:48,466 --> 00:37:50,566
and see ourselves more clearly.

786
00:37:50,699 --> 00:37:51,766
This is a women's prison.

787
00:37:51,900 --> 00:37:53,699
This is the first prison
that I ever worked in,

788
00:37:53,833 --> 00:37:58,633
And it's in Mexico, in
southern Mexico, in Chiapas.

789
00:37:58,766 --> 00:38:02,333
And so if you are a woman who
gets incarcerated in Mexico,

790
00:38:02,466 --> 00:38:05,233
and 75% of the women
in my group were there

791
00:38:05,366 --> 00:38:07,866
because of a domestic
violence-related incident,

792
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,766
most of them spoke an indigenous
language, not Spanish,

793
00:38:11,900 --> 00:38:14,699
and there was no legal
support available for

794
00:38:14,833 --> 00:38:16,599
anybody outside of Spanish.

795
00:38:16,733 --> 00:38:17,933
So those were the circumstances.

796
00:38:18,066 --> 00:38:21,633
If you had a child under four
years old, that child would

797
00:38:21,766 --> 00:38:24,466
go with you into the
prison if you didn't have

798
00:38:24,599 --> 00:38:26,033
another place to put them.

799
00:38:26,166 --> 00:38:29,166
So when I got there, they wanted
kind of the people who were

800
00:38:29,300 --> 00:38:31,866
in charge of the prison said,
we want you to just decorate

801
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,266
the wall because the kids are
here and they're playing maybe

802
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:36,133
like Disney characters
or something.

803
00:38:36,266 --> 00:38:39,199
But then the moms came out
and they said, no, no, no,

804
00:38:39,333 --> 00:38:40,900
we want to tell our stories.

805
00:38:41,033 --> 00:38:43,266
We want to have a space where
we can tell our stories.

806
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:45,833
And it doesn't show it
so well in this picture,

807
00:38:45,966 --> 00:38:47,800
but from left to
right, it kind of,

808
00:38:47,933 --> 00:38:49,533
we only had six days
for this project,

809
00:38:49,666 --> 00:38:54,366
but it was like a, just kind
of like a sequential story

810
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:57,266
of trauma and then this
attempt at recovery

811
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:01,000
so that eventually there could
be some amount of freedom.

812
00:39:01,133 --> 00:39:05,266
On the one hand, connecting
this to my grandfather's work

813
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,433
feels a little bit of a
stretch, but on the other hand,

814
00:39:07,566 --> 00:39:09,800
I think it's like It's like
the quest for humanity

815
00:39:09,933 --> 00:39:12,866
and to kind of recognize
everybody's humanity in every

816
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:14,300
space that you occupy.

817
00:39:14,433 --> 00:39:17,699
It could be a prison, it could
be a high school where kids

818
00:39:17,833 --> 00:39:20,733
want to see the world that
they live in and see their

819
00:39:20,866 --> 00:39:23,466
own history represented
on the walls all around

820
00:39:23,599 --> 00:39:26,466
them rather than reading
old fashioned textbooks

821
00:39:26,599 --> 00:39:29,533
that leaves out giant swaths
of their own history.

822
00:39:29,666 --> 00:39:32,433
It could be at a school for
kids with special needs.

823
00:39:32,566 --> 00:39:36,300
This is my most recent mural,
and it is a school where 100%

824
00:39:36,433 --> 00:39:39,433
of the kids live at or
below the poverty line, and

825
00:39:39,566 --> 00:39:42,433
100% of the kids have
significant special needs.

826
00:39:42,566 --> 00:39:45,166
So they wanted to do a mural
that showed their bravery.

827
00:39:45,300 --> 00:39:47,500
This was painted, this
was just after COVID.

828
00:39:47,633 --> 00:39:51,099
They wanted to do a mural that
showed their bravery, their

829
00:39:51,233 --> 00:39:53,866
creativity, and the diversity
The diversity of things

830
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:55,900
that they like to do, the
diversity of ways that

831
00:39:56,033 --> 00:39:57,266
they existed in the world.

832
00:39:57,400 --> 00:39:59,400
And then the teachers
wanted a mural

833
00:39:59,533 --> 00:40:02,766
that showed their loyalty
and showed their support

834
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:04,366
and showed their
protective nature.

835
00:40:04,500 --> 00:40:06,566
So the lion kind of worked
as this giant symbol.

836
00:40:06,699 --> 00:40:08,800
I mean, how much the
kids love this lion

837
00:40:08,933 --> 00:40:11,066
made me think I should only
be painting lion murals

838
00:40:11,199 --> 00:40:13,199
for the rest of my whole career.

839
00:40:13,333 --> 00:40:17,333
But, you know, and then the
moving circles underneath

840
00:40:17,466 --> 00:40:19,033
are kind of, it's kind of
like if you've ever tried

841
00:40:19,166 --> 00:40:22,000
I tried to be in a ball pit
and it's so hard to stand and

842
00:40:22,133 --> 00:40:25,566
it's so hard to find stability,
but the teachers and the

843
00:40:25,699 --> 00:40:28,833
staff of that amazing
school are constantly

844
00:40:28,966 --> 00:40:32,099
in the quest to provide
stability in a world that is

845
00:40:32,233 --> 00:40:34,099
changing underfoot at all times.

846
00:40:34,233 --> 00:40:36,933
And this was the experience
of being a teacher

847
00:40:37,066 --> 00:40:40,033
during COVID in the New
York City public schools.

848
00:40:40,166 --> 00:40:43,233
You know, and I think at the
end of the day, this is just

849
00:40:43,366 --> 00:40:46,633
all an effort to create a world,
this is my daughter a couple

850
00:40:46,766 --> 00:40:49,666
years ago, but to kind of
create a world where people see

851
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,199
themselves and kind of
acknowledge their own,

852
00:40:52,333 --> 00:40:54,599
they see their own
humanity reflected back.

853
00:40:54,733 --> 00:40:57,900
And when it comes to my
grandfather, I always

854
00:40:58,033 --> 00:41:01,133
wonder, you know, what
would, what would he

855
00:41:01,266 --> 00:41:05,233
say to the young people that
I'm talking to right now

856
00:41:05,366 --> 00:41:06,566
about this book?

857
00:41:06,699 --> 00:41:09,500
And how would his life
have been different

858
00:41:09,633 --> 00:41:13,099
if when he was a child the
outside world had told him that

859
00:41:13,233 --> 00:41:17,000
his life had inherent value
for the simple fact of his

860
00:41:17,133 --> 00:41:20,933
existence? Because he spent
an immense amount of his life

861
00:41:21,066 --> 00:41:24,633
proving his worth and deciding
that he was going to be seen.

862
00:41:24,766 --> 00:41:27,633
And I know that there are a
lot of people in this room

863
00:41:27,766 --> 00:41:31,266
who have family members whose
parents and grandparents did

864
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,566
the exact same thing, that
they would be seen, that they

865
00:41:34,699 --> 00:41:37,733
would work two or three or
four times as hard to just be

866
00:41:37,866 --> 00:41:41,500
seen and just get at least the
smallest amount of professional

867
00:41:41,633 --> 00:41:44,366
or personal appreciation
for the work they did.

868
00:41:44,500 --> 00:41:47,666
But that came at the expense
of a lot of other things.

869
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:50,099
You know, that kind of
doggedness to be seen

870
00:41:50,233 --> 00:41:52,599
and to prove one's
humanity definitely came

871
00:41:52,733 --> 00:41:55,300
at the expense of his
health, among other things.

872
00:41:55,433 --> 00:41:57,033
And I wish he didn't
have to prove that.

873
00:41:57,166 --> 00:42:00,133
You know, I might not be here
right now and speaking to you

874
00:42:00,266 --> 00:42:03,033
about his amazing buildings,
you know, if he didn't feel

875
00:42:03,166 --> 00:42:04,566
that he needed to prove himself.

876
00:42:04,699 --> 00:42:07,033
But I would be totally
fine with that.

877
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,000
And I think that he
would want to start out

878
00:42:12,133 --> 00:42:15,599
by looking at all the kids
at any given auditorium,

879
00:42:15,733 --> 00:42:19,199
any given school presentation,
and kind of remind them that

880
00:42:19,333 --> 00:42:22,166
no matter what they want to be,
if they want to be an artist,

881
00:42:22,300 --> 00:42:25,766
if they want to be a doctor,
if they want to be a teacher,

882
00:42:25,900 --> 00:42:28,166
that you don't have to be...

883
00:42:28,300 --> 00:42:30,933
I'm totally projecting
here because actually,

884
00:42:31,066 --> 00:42:33,766
I'm totally projecting
because he felt inclined

885
00:42:33,900 --> 00:42:35,800
to be the best in the world.

886
00:42:35,933 --> 00:42:39,233
But that was because he
was told that his life

887
00:42:39,366 --> 00:42:42,500
didn't matter in many,
many different ways.

888
00:42:42,633 --> 00:42:45,000
What I wish for him
was that somebody

889
00:42:45,133 --> 00:42:47,833
would have told him that
you can just be who you

890
00:42:47,966 --> 00:42:50,433
are, figure out who that
is, and have a meaning,

891
00:42:50,566 --> 00:42:53,166
have a life of meaning and
a life of relationship.

892
00:42:54,333 --> 00:42:55,533
Because he would
say things like,

893
00:42:55,666 --> 00:42:57,966
why be the best in the world
when you can be the best in

894
00:42:58,099 --> 00:42:59,199
the history of the world?

895
00:42:59,333 --> 00:43:00,333
And that's quite a burden.

896
00:43:00,466 --> 00:43:01,833
You know, I always
laugh when I say it,

897
00:43:01,966 --> 00:43:05,233
but I would not want
to have to be a child

898
00:43:05,366 --> 00:43:07,800
growing up in that household
where the expectation was,

899
00:43:07,933 --> 00:43:10,133
why be the best in the world
when you can be the best ever?

900
00:43:10,266 --> 00:43:12,900
Why be, one quote,
why be Yo Yo Ma when

901
00:43:13,033 --> 00:43:13,966
you could be Bach?

902
00:43:16,500 --> 00:43:20,833
So I think that, you know,
I think that at this point,

903
00:43:20,966 --> 00:43:24,233
and by the time he reached the
end of his life, I think he

904
00:43:24,366 --> 00:43:27,533
had seen things quite a bit
differently, and that he would

905
00:43:27,666 --> 00:43:31,233
encourage kids to find something
that gave them happiness

906
00:43:31,366 --> 00:43:34,566
and meaning and allowed
them to be contributing

907
00:43:34,699 --> 00:43:38,000
members of their family
and of their society

908
00:43:38,133 --> 00:43:39,900
and go with that path.

909
00:43:40,033 --> 00:43:43,500
But this whole endeavor
is my attempt to get to

910
00:43:43,633 --> 00:43:47,266
know him, you know, from
the adult perspective.

911
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:50,233
I grew up hearing stories about
him and I grew up, you know,

912
00:43:50,366 --> 00:43:53,166
with my cousins all trying to
figure this out and I'm just

913
00:43:53,300 --> 00:43:56,099
one person in a pretty large
family of, I know I'm related

914
00:43:56,233 --> 00:43:58,533
to a couple people here
who I'm just now meeting

915
00:43:58,666 --> 00:43:59,800
for the first time even.

916
00:43:59,933 --> 00:44:04,833
But I have my version and
kind of my hypothesis

917
00:44:04,966 --> 00:44:07,633
that he did all of this work
in response to the world

918
00:44:07,766 --> 00:44:11,333
that he lived in, for
better or for worse,

919
00:44:11,466 --> 00:44:12,900
on both sides of that.

920
00:44:13,033 --> 00:44:16,066
But I would love for him to
tell his own story as well,

921
00:44:16,199 --> 00:44:17,599
but this is my best go at it.

922
00:44:17,733 --> 00:44:19,699
So thank you so
much for listening,

923
00:44:19,833 --> 00:44:21,599
and I would love to
take your questions

924
00:44:21,733 --> 00:44:23,666
or your thoughts or anything.

925
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:24,333
Yeah, thanks.

926
00:44:33,666 --> 00:44:35,833
Yeah, you know, thanks
for bringing that up.

927
00:44:35,966 --> 00:44:39,599
He said he was kind of a folk
hero when you were growing up.

928
00:44:39,733 --> 00:44:43,566
Yeah, he, I think that
there was a, you know,

929
00:44:43,699 --> 00:44:46,233
when the war happened and
everybody was incarcerated

930
00:44:46,366 --> 00:44:49,099
and everybody lost everything,
and my grandfather was on the

931
00:44:49,233 --> 00:44:52,366
East Coast starting his career
And then kind of rising to a

932
00:44:52,500 --> 00:44:56,333
certain amount of prominence,
he became kind of a folk hero,

933
00:44:56,466 --> 00:44:58,433
you know, as you said,
like to a lot of people in

934
00:44:58,566 --> 00:44:59,833
Japanese American community.

935
00:44:59,966 --> 00:45:01,766
And that meant a lot to him.

936
00:45:01,900 --> 00:45:05,066
I think it meant a lot to
him that people in the

937
00:45:05,199 --> 00:45:07,199
community appreciated him.

938
00:45:07,333 --> 00:45:10,266
And it also was pressure.

939
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,633
You know, it also was
pressure that he wanted

940
00:45:12,766 --> 00:45:13,766
to really live up to.

941
00:45:13,900 --> 00:45:16,966
And I think that, you know,
for people, if they were

942
00:45:17,099 --> 00:45:19,400
incarcerated or not, there were
He was a person who was in a

943
00:45:19,533 --> 00:45:20,566
lot of different pressures.

944
00:45:20,866 --> 00:45:23,366
He definitely needed to carry
the weight of a lot of people in

945
00:45:23,500 --> 00:45:26,366
our family as a result of
being the person who remained

946
00:45:26,500 --> 00:45:27,166
employed.

947
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:31,000
So we have a couple
questions here.

948
00:45:31,133 --> 00:45:34,633
One is what is the curved
building at the bottom of the

949
00:45:34,766 --> 00:45:35,900
garden collage?

950
00:45:36,033 --> 00:45:37,333
So I don't know if
you were able to --

951
00:45:37,466 --> 00:45:40,533
Curved building at the
bottom -- Navigate back.

952
00:45:40,666 --> 00:45:41,466
I can go back.

953
00:45:44,699 --> 00:45:45,266
I know.

954
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:47,500
The art is just so amazing.

955
00:45:50,333 --> 00:45:51,366
This one?

956
00:45:51,500 --> 00:45:53,000
Is that the right one?

957
00:45:53,133 --> 00:45:54,066
Yes, we're getting on.

958
00:45:54,366 --> 00:45:55,599
This building at the bottom
is the St. Louis Airport,

959
00:45:56,733 --> 00:45:57,466
which I haven't been to.

960
00:45:57,599 --> 00:45:59,099
Lambert. The Lambert Terminal.

961
00:45:59,233 --> 00:46:02,133
And of course, these are
my interpretation of them.

962
00:46:02,266 --> 00:46:03,666
There are other things
that are missing from it,

963
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:06,000
but those are kind
of the basic shapes.

964
00:46:06,133 --> 00:46:10,433
The amount of windows and things
that he put into his buildings

965
00:46:10,566 --> 00:46:14,466
In terms of collage, it
was murderous for me

966
00:46:14,599 --> 00:46:16,233
to do and to cut out.

967
00:46:16,366 --> 00:46:18,000
It wasn't like a cut
and paste digitally.

968
00:46:18,133 --> 00:46:20,033
It was like cut out
with an x-acto knife.

969
00:46:20,166 --> 00:46:21,633
So some of these, if
you see them in real

970
00:46:21,766 --> 00:46:23,866
life, you might think, that
was way more complex than

971
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:25,033
what she showed in the book.

972
00:46:25,166 --> 00:46:25,599
That's okay.

973
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,000
So this may be a little
personal, but the slide that

974
00:46:30,133 --> 00:46:33,300
referred to the mistakes
and failures that he made,

975
00:46:34,500 --> 00:46:36,800
somebody is wondering what
that might refer to since

976
00:46:36,933 --> 00:46:38,000
the lawyers aren't here.

977
00:46:38,133 --> 00:46:41,466
Yeah. So let me show you
this specific spread.

978
00:46:41,599 --> 00:46:43,466
Sorry if this is dizzying.

979
00:46:43,599 --> 00:46:46,366
Pruitt-Igoe was a
building that was in

980
00:46:46,500 --> 00:46:47,199
St. Louis.

981
00:46:47,333 --> 00:46:48,066
Here we go.

982
00:46:48,199 --> 00:46:50,766
It was a public
housing experiment.

983
00:46:50,900 --> 00:46:55,133
And, you know, when you're
the architect, you're working

984
00:46:55,266 --> 00:46:59,533
with the developer and you're
often working with like the

985
00:46:59,666 --> 00:47:03,333
local legalities and the
rules and the codes of the

986
00:47:03,466 --> 00:47:07,466
time. He had certain ideas
for Pruitt-Igoe, which was

987
00:47:07,599 --> 00:47:11,333
It was supposed to
be public housing,

988
00:47:12,500 --> 00:47:14,266
I think segregated
public housing

989
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:16,166
for black families
and white families.

990
00:47:16,300 --> 00:47:18,099
It ended up being
a total disaster.

991
00:47:18,233 --> 00:47:21,800
He wanted it to be lower
scale, smaller scale,

992
00:47:21,933 --> 00:47:25,166
not so many stories,
not so dense,

993
00:47:25,300 --> 00:47:28,566
but because of money and
the time that it was built,

994
00:47:28,699 --> 00:47:30,833
it ended up being
much more packed,

995
00:47:32,266 --> 00:47:36,466
Abandoned by the white families,
so it was kind of very

996
00:47:36,599 --> 00:47:41,699
densely populated in a way with
urban African-American families,

997
00:47:41,833 --> 00:47:45,333
and it did not work at all,
and I, you know, I think

998
00:47:45,466 --> 00:47:47,199
he was, it was a
failure of a project.

999
00:47:47,333 --> 00:47:48,733
He was scapegoated
for a lot of it.

1000
00:47:48,866 --> 00:47:52,066
He didn't want it to go the
way that it was, but was kind

1001
00:47:52,199 --> 00:47:55,699
of pushed into making certain He
had to make certain decisions

1002
00:47:55,833 --> 00:47:58,733
and it was a disaster and it
weighed really heavily on him

1003
00:47:58,866 --> 00:48:01,800
and I think that he wished he
had never done that project.

1004
00:48:01,933 --> 00:48:03,466
It was a circumstance for him, I

1005
00:48:03,599 --> 00:48:06,733
think, you know, he's never told
me this because I was 10 when

1006
00:48:06,866 --> 00:48:09,633
he died, but I think that for
him, for a lot of the bigger

1007
00:48:09,766 --> 00:48:12,733
projects, it was hard for him
to turn them down or walk away

1008
00:48:12,866 --> 00:48:16,066
from them financially because
in the 1950s, it was post-war,

1009
00:48:16,199 --> 00:48:19,233
it was post-war for the Japanese
American family and he was

1010
00:48:19,366 --> 00:48:22,466
supporting a lot of people and
he also was supporting a lot of

1011
00:48:22,599 --> 00:48:24,233
people who were in the military.

1012
00:48:24,366 --> 00:48:27,300
supporting an office, so
he didn't come from a

1013
00:48:27,433 --> 00:48:30,466
big net of wealth of, you
know, pass on these and

1014
00:48:30,599 --> 00:48:34,166
take the only ones that you
love, but it was a pretty big

1015
00:48:34,300 --> 00:48:37,800
disaster, and he was largely
the scapegoat for it, but the

1016
00:48:37,933 --> 00:48:40,199
conditions around it
were really complex.

1017
00:48:40,333 --> 00:48:41,800
I would encourage you to read

1018
00:48:41,933 --> 00:48:46,500
the book called Nobody by Mark
Lamont Hill, which has a really

1019
00:48:46,633 --> 00:48:50,400
good kind of description of what
what happened in Pruitt-Igoe

1020
00:48:50,533 --> 00:48:53,099
because a lot of the residents
from Pruitt-Igoe ended up

1021
00:48:53,233 --> 00:48:56,599
migrating to Ferguson,
which is where the

1022
00:48:56,733 --> 00:48:58,800
uprising was in Ferguson.

1023
00:48:58,933 --> 00:49:03,033
So recently Pruitt-Igoe came
back into public consciousness.

1024
00:49:03,166 --> 00:49:06,099
But this building and the World
Trade Center were part of

1025
00:49:06,233 --> 00:49:07,733
the reason why I wanted to do
this

1026
00:49:08,599 --> 00:49:11,733
book because this was his
legacy for a lot of people,

1027
00:49:11,866 --> 00:49:13,566
these two disasters.

1028
00:49:15,866 --> 00:49:18,433
[ Inaudible Remark ]

1029
00:49:18,566 --> 00:49:20,699
Yes, they were
both much smaller.

1030
00:49:20,833 --> 00:49:23,966
They were not so
big and so tall.

1031
00:49:24,099 --> 00:49:27,833
But I think that in terms of
density, in terms of money,

1032
00:49:27,966 --> 00:49:31,933
and efficiency, the developers
wanted them to be taller.

1033
00:49:32,066 --> 00:49:33,066
What about the exterior?

1034
00:49:33,199 --> 00:49:40,400
- - For Pruitt-Igoe?

1035
00:49:40,533 --> 00:49:42,966
Yeah, for both the
serenity, the experience.

1036
00:49:43,099 --> 00:49:45,666
Well, I know, so for
the World Trade Center,

1037
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:47,666
they cleared out so
much of lower Manhattan

1038
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:49,033
so that there could
be that plaza,

1039
00:49:49,166 --> 00:49:51,066
if you ever experienced
being in that plaza,

1040
00:49:51,199 --> 00:49:53,699
which was this kind
of uplifting space

1041
00:49:53,833 --> 00:49:56,033
with a beautiful fountain
and kind of a break

1042
00:49:56,166 --> 00:49:59,000
from the rest of the
kind of bustling,

1043
00:49:59,133 --> 00:50:01,866
It's a very interesting,
dense, lower Manhattan.

1044
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:03,933
For Pruitt-Igoe, there
were these spaces

1045
00:50:04,066 --> 00:50:06,433
that were designed,
these outdoor patios,

1046
00:50:06,566 --> 00:50:08,466
and lots of green space
for the families,

1047
00:50:08,599 --> 00:50:10,766
but a lot of that
also got kind of lost

1048
00:50:10,900 --> 00:50:13,633
in the construction and
in the development.

1049
00:50:13,766 --> 00:50:17,500
But that was something that he
was really trying to work at,

1050
00:50:17,633 --> 00:50:18,766
but it just didn't work.

1051
00:50:18,900 --> 00:50:21,966
There's actually documentaries
about this project as well.

1052
00:50:22,099 --> 00:50:24,633
But I think that what I
really wanted to show

1053
00:50:24,766 --> 00:50:27,133
And so what we did to show
with this spread was that for

1054
00:50:27,266 --> 00:50:30,133
kids especially that no career,
no matter what you have, just

1055
00:50:30,266 --> 00:50:33,033
has this rise to the top
trajectory without any falls and

1056
00:50:33,166 --> 00:50:33,766
bumps along the way.

1057
00:50:33,900 --> 00:50:35,466
And this was a big one for him.

1058
00:50:35,599 --> 00:50:37,433
But it also wasn't
the end of things.

1059
00:50:37,566 --> 00:50:38,966
It was kind of the
beginning of things.

1060
00:50:39,099 --> 00:50:43,833
So I think in all of it, you
learn, he learned to speak up

1061
00:50:43,966 --> 00:50:47,699
with the developers to kind of
have his voice heard a little

1062
00:50:47,833 --> 00:50:50,000
bit more because it is, you
know, a lot of these buildings

1063
00:50:50,133 --> 00:50:51,066
are really by committee.

1064
00:50:52,666 --> 00:50:53,599
Thanks for that.

1065
00:50:53,866 --> 00:50:56,333
We have several more questions,
but I also want to be

1066
00:50:56,466 --> 00:50:59,566
respectful of everybody's
time and wiggles.

1067
00:51:00,833 --> 00:51:04,699
But we've got a nice question
about Pacific Science Center.

1068
00:51:05,966 --> 00:51:08,766
Somebody says, I visited there
recently and it reminded

1069
00:51:08,900 --> 00:51:10,199
me of Gothic architecture.

1070
00:51:10,333 --> 00:51:12,400
Can you talk about your
grandfather's design

1071
00:51:12,533 --> 00:51:14,733
statement, influences,
and objectives on that

1072
00:51:14,866 --> 00:51:16,033
building? Oh, sure.

1073
00:51:16,166 --> 00:51:17,066
Yeah, thank you.

1074
00:51:17,199 --> 00:51:19,699
I think that he definitely
was inspired by

1075
00:51:19,833 --> 00:51:23,500
Gothic architecture, by Islamic
architecture, by walking

1076
00:51:23,633 --> 00:51:26,833
through like the cathedrals
of Europe where you kind

1077
00:51:26,966 --> 00:51:29,599
of go through a narrow
passageway and then you enter

1078
00:51:29,733 --> 00:51:32,366
into this big cathedral and you
have this, he used to say to my

1079
00:51:32,500 --> 00:51:34,933
dad, he said, it makes you
feel like this, you know,

1080
00:51:35,066 --> 00:51:37,533
and I think that the arches
of the Pacific Science

1081
00:51:39,766 --> 00:51:44,099
And I love those because it
kind of, they really valued the

1082
00:51:44,233 --> 00:51:47,599
kind of emotional experience
of the buildings because those

1083
00:51:47,733 --> 00:51:49,800
arches don't, you know, they're
not a roof and they're not

1084
00:51:49,933 --> 00:51:52,633
four walls, they're not a
functional thing, but they're

1085
00:51:52,766 --> 00:51:55,466
investing in and prioritizing
the emotional experience

1086
00:51:55,599 --> 00:51:57,466
of being in a space
and I appreciate those

1087
00:51:57,599 --> 00:51:59,699
buildings so much more after
being there yesterday.

1088
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:02,099
Oh, that's great.

1089
00:52:02,233 --> 00:52:05,400
And another person is wondering,
and you kind of touched on

1090
00:52:05,533 --> 00:52:08,300
it here and there, but was
his personality at work

1091
00:52:08,433 --> 00:52:09,800
the same as it was at home?

1092
00:52:09,933 --> 00:52:11,099
Were they different?

1093
00:52:11,233 --> 00:52:14,066
You know, since I was 10 when
he died, I'm not exactly sure.

1094
00:52:14,199 --> 00:52:17,266
But I think people
loved working with him.

1095
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:19,966
He had a reputation for being
nice to work with, but he

1096
00:52:20,099 --> 00:52:21,699
definitely wasn't a pushover.

1097
00:52:22,966 --> 00:52:25,466
And he kind of spoke
up and spoke his mind.

1098
00:52:25,599 --> 00:52:27,900
But he was, you know, in
the way that not a lot of

1099
00:52:28,033 --> 00:52:30,766
architects made it onto the
cover of Time Magazine, he

1100
00:52:30,900 --> 00:52:32,166
was beloved by the public.

1101
00:52:32,300 --> 00:52:35,833
And, you know, I think his
home personality was often a

1102
00:52:35,966 --> 00:52:39,533
reflection of what else was
consuming him in his life.

1103
00:52:39,666 --> 00:52:41,800
You know, there's a really nice
picture of them having dinner

1104
00:52:41,933 --> 00:52:44,033
together, but he often wasn't
able to make it home for dinner.

1105
00:52:44,166 --> 00:52:48,699
You know, he worked so much,
and he traveled so much, and

1106
00:52:48,833 --> 00:52:53,033
he was of a generation where
gender, you know, played into

1107
00:52:53,166 --> 00:52:56,733
the role in the family, and
it wasn't like 2022 or 2023,

1108
00:52:58,066 --> 00:53:01,366
But in terms of my experience
with him in the home and my

1109
00:53:01,500 --> 00:53:04,733
cousin's experience, he was
very kind and gracious and

1110
00:53:04,866 --> 00:53:06,133
loved having us around.

1111
00:53:06,266 --> 00:53:08,833
It was kind of like, he wouldn't
get on the floor and build

1112
00:53:08,966 --> 00:53:11,233
blocks with us, but he
would sit happily in his

1113
00:53:11,366 --> 00:53:12,500
chair and watch us.

1114
00:53:13,699 --> 00:53:14,166
That's great.

1115
00:53:14,300 --> 00:53:15,566
Give you critiques.

1116
00:53:15,699 --> 00:53:16,566
What's that?

1117
00:53:16,699 --> 00:53:17,766
Give you critiques on
the block buildings.

1118
00:53:17,900 --> 00:53:19,099
Right, exactly.

1119
00:53:19,233 --> 00:53:21,300
Well, this is not a
question but a plea.

1120
00:53:21,433 --> 00:53:23,366
Your grandmother sounds
like an amazing lady.

1121
00:53:23,500 --> 00:53:24,566
Please write a book about her.

1122
00:53:24,699 --> 00:53:25,833
Yeah, absolutely.

1123
00:53:25,966 --> 00:53:28,966
I mean, every time I talk about
this book, thank you, and

1124
00:53:29,099 --> 00:53:31,599
people, especially kids,
will start to talk about

1125
00:53:31,733 --> 00:53:33,699
their grandpas, and then
I'm like, what about

1126
00:53:33,833 --> 00:53:36,133
the grandmas, and what
What about the great aunts

1127
00:53:36,266 --> 00:53:37,366
and what about the moms?

1128
00:53:37,500 --> 00:53:41,633
Because every single thing
that I research for this book,

1129
00:53:41,766 --> 00:53:43,633
all this travel and
all of this stuff,

1130
00:53:43,766 --> 00:53:45,633
I think, what was
happening at home?

1131
00:53:45,766 --> 00:53:47,300
What was my grandma up to?

1132
00:53:47,433 --> 00:53:50,199
And I think part of what
kind of is hard for me

1133
00:53:50,333 --> 00:53:53,266
is I think about my grandma's
career as a concert pianist

1134
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:54,933
and how that was cut
short by the war,

1135
00:53:55,066 --> 00:53:57,666
but also how those two
careers to coexist in a

1136
00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:00,133
household with children
was a little much.

1137
00:54:00,266 --> 00:54:01,599
I think it was a little more.

1138
00:54:01,733 --> 00:54:03,933
And because she was a mom,
my impression is that

1139
00:54:04,066 --> 00:54:06,333
that might be why her
career went by the wayside.

1140
00:54:06,466 --> 00:54:09,199
And she was a spectacular
piano teacher, but she was

1141
00:54:09,333 --> 00:54:11,066
actually a spectacular pianist.

1142
00:54:11,199 --> 00:54:14,233
So I do have a kind of ache
for her that I wish she had

1143
00:54:14,366 --> 00:54:15,933
been able to pursue that.

1144
00:54:17,766 --> 00:54:20,500
Well, we have one
final question here.

1145
00:54:20,633 --> 00:54:22,199
I think time for just one more.

1146
00:54:22,333 --> 00:54:24,699
I will take this moment to
let folks know that Katie

1147
00:54:24,833 --> 00:54:27,000
is going to be signing
books at this table right

1148
00:54:27,133 --> 00:54:28,333
over here after the event.

1149
00:54:28,466 --> 00:54:31,833
So if you did get a book, you
can get that signed by Katie.

1150
00:54:31,966 --> 00:54:34,533
And I also wanted to take a
minute to thank Densho and

1151
00:54:34,666 --> 00:54:37,366
Elliott Bay Book Company,
our partners on this event,

1152
00:54:37,500 --> 00:54:39,866
and of course the Seattle Public
Library Foundation and the

1153
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:42,199
Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation
and the Seattle Times.

1154
00:54:42,333 --> 00:54:44,900
Because, you know, let's give
them a round of applause.

1155
00:54:45,033 --> 00:54:45,599
I'm grateful.

1156
00:54:48,166 --> 00:54:52,199
So to end out today,
if you could ask your

1157
00:54:52,333 --> 00:54:55,533
grandfather one question,
any question today, what

1158
00:54:55,666 --> 00:54:57,000
would you like to know?

1159
00:54:57,133 --> 00:55:00,099
I think I would probably
ask him a question

1160
00:55:00,233 --> 00:55:04,633
to talk about why
he cared so much

1161
00:55:04,766 --> 00:55:07,066
about the human experience
and what was it

1162
00:55:07,199 --> 00:55:09,266
that made him want
to create spaces

1163
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,266
spaces where people
felt so fully human.

1164
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:15,933
Because he was designing
with the idea that the human

1165
00:55:16,066 --> 00:55:17,933
experience matters so much.

1166
00:55:18,066 --> 00:55:21,533
I'm not trying to impress upon
you my architectural power.

1167
00:55:21,666 --> 00:55:25,900
I want to create some space for
you to feel most like yourself.

1168
00:55:26,033 --> 00:55:28,666
You know, and like, I would
want him to read my book and

1169
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,233
tell me if I was right or
wrong, if I got it right.

1170
00:55:32,366 --> 00:55:37,300
But I would really love for
him to talk about that.

1171
00:55:37,433 --> 00:55:40,233
I mean, there would be, I don't
know who asked that question,

1172
00:55:40,366 --> 00:55:42,599
but it would have to be
a longer conversation.

1173
00:55:43,666 --> 00:55:44,966
It could be over dinner.

1174
00:55:45,099 --> 00:55:46,166
Yeah, right.

1175
00:55:46,300 --> 00:55:47,866
Well, thank you so
much for being here.

1176
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:48,599
Thank you all so much.

1177
00:55:48,733 --> 00:55:49,766
Thank you all for coming.

1178
00:55:49,900 --> 00:55:50,166
Thank you.

1179
00:55:57,500 --> 00:55:58,466
♪ ♪