Blood Memory from Love and Radio

My first memory as a child was a flower farm across the street.

There were acres and acres of Hawaiian flowers.

I grew up in the '50s and '60s in Hawaii, mostly in Honolulu.

I was a flower child quite naturally because I was born and raised surrounded by flowers.

It was just really laid back, and as a matter of fact, I didn't like it because it was too laid back for my personality.

I was just a very uncomfortable person probably to be around and not very Japanese.

I don't think I was really well-liked even in my own family.

As I grew up, I found out that there was another whole world out there outside of the islands and how people were living there that's so different from how I was living, and I wanted to experience that.

I wanted to be there.

I just felt like I'd probably fit in better.

So when I got a chance, finally I did move.

After I left, I persisted in my flower child kind of mentality.

I was a poet, teaching children in schools, you know, how to write poetry.

I saw something that disturbed me, and that was that, you know, all children seem to be gifted with unlimited potential when they were younger.

It didn't really matter whether they were rich or poor or Black or white or brown or yellow.

It didn't matter whether they were male or female.

It didn't matter.

They were all just so full of curiosity and positivity and potential.

But by the time they were in, I would say, by seventh grade, sometimes earlier, it was all different.

You could see which kids were not going to succeed and which kids were going to succeed.

It was very clear.

I got a grant, a small federal grant, to teach in a school in East Palo Alto.

Now, today, East Palo Alto is a zip code.

I mean, [laughs] it is a good place to live.

It's full of tech people who have a lot of money, and now East Palo Alto is a happening place.