Elaine Ikoma Ko
Elaine Ikoma Ko is the former Executive Director of the Hokubei Hochi Foundation, a nonprofit that helps The North American Post, Seattle’s Japanese community newspaper. She is a member of the U.S.-Japan Council, an alumnus of the Japanese American Leadership Delegation (JALD) to Japan, and leads spring and autumn group tours to Japan.
Updated April 2021
Stories from This Author
Karen Maeda Allman: Connecting Community Through Books - Part 2
April 4, 2022 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read part 1 >> Let’s talk about your literary life. Did you always have a keen appreciation for books growing up? I actually started out as a psychiatric nurse and nurse educator for 20 years. Psychiatric nursing was something that interested me but I learned that nursing is quite conservative as a profession and if you are trying to study something that is unconventional, you will face challenges. Both my parents were avid readers. My mom read books and magazines …
Karen Maeda Allman: Connecting Community Through Books - Part 1
April 3, 2022 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Karen Maeda Allman is the most prominent Japanese American promoter of books in the Greater Seattle area. During the 22 years she has worked with The Elliott Bay Book Company, she has promoted scores of Asian and diverse authors – from little known authors to authors who went on to become Nobel laureates. As a mixed-race white and Japanese American woman who is gay, she has overcome her own challenges while never losing her thrill and enthusiasm when she discovers …
Frank Abe’s Search for an Authentic History
Jan. 3, 2022 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
After a successful media career, Frank Abe has produced acclaimed literary and film works on resistance to Japanese American incarceration — a living legacy more relevant than ever today. His latest contribution is a graphic novel, We Hereby Refuse (2021), a comic-book format that is anything but a funny book. Below, we explore why this book has found such a receptive audience, its connection with the classic novel No-No Boy (1957), Frank’s biography of the novel’s author, John Okada (2018), and why so …
Bruce Harrell — ‘Love Has Been the Fuel in My Tank’ - Part 2
Sept. 7, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read Part 1 >> What was the key inspiration for you to first run for office on the Seattle City Council in 2007? My key inspiration to run for office in 2007 was that it was simply my time to serve. I had previously worked for the City Council in 1980. By 2007, I had experienced great success as a lawyer and business owner and I had vast experience in working with so many clients over the decades, including employees, …
Bruce Harrell — ‘Love Has Been the Fuel in My Tank’ - Part 1
Sept. 6, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Bruce Harrell, former Seattle City Council member for twelve years (2007-2019), has rare life experience as a biracial child of an African American father and Japanese American mother. Growing up in Seattle in the 1960s-70s, his background has shaped his outlook, his family values, and ultimately, his vision for Seattle as he runs for mayor this summer and fall. If elected, he would be Seattle’s second Black and first Asian American mayor. * * * * * Please tell us …
Bill Tashima: Gaining His Identity and Acceptance - Part 3
July 9, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read Part 2 >> Bill, the earlier period was obviously a hard time for you. Today you are married to your husband, Chris, and have a stepson, Colby. Can you talk about your current family and how you moved forward with your life? This part is both “storybook” and “commonplace” at the same time. I did not go out socially for years after Lou’s death. When I was ready to start seeing people again, I was terrified. How do you …
Bill Tashima: Gaining His Identity and Acceptance - Part 2
July 2, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read part 1 >> What were the internal conflicts you struggled with? How did you manage it or how did it impact you from the standpoint of your mental health, personal self-image, and confidence? I loved my parents and they raised me to be proud of my JA heritage. We went to movies that featured JA actors. I remember seeing Go for Broke (1951) in the 1950s and they taught me to persevere if taunted about being JA. But they also …
Bill Tashima: Gaining His Identity and Acceptance - Part 1
June 25, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Bill Tashima is a beloved community volunteer in the Seattle Nikkei (Japanese ancestry) and Asian American communities, having been involved with many nonprofits and receiving awards for his service. Yet, readers know little about his life journey as a gay man, losing his partner to AIDS, and his family’s love and support that has allowed him to evolve into the wonderfully whole and healthy person he is today. This three-part series will explore his extraordinary story. * * * * …
Larry Matsuda, A Masterful Life - Part 3
May 2, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read Part 2 >> What raised your consciousness about the incarceration camps and tell us about your involvement in developing the Pride and Shame exhibit during the 1970’s. As a child, I remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I mouthed the words and did not say them out loud because I knew they did not apply to me. The Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s and reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) motivated me to move from “thinking about history” to …
Larry Matsuda, A Masterful Life - Part 2
April 25, 2021 • Elaine Ikoma Ko
Read Part 1 >> You became involved in the social and racial justice activism of the late 1960’s. What was it like and tell us about your groundbreaking success with UW’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP)? The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was exciting. African Americans were in the lead and later Asians became active. In Seattle, there were Asian American counter-culture community newspapers like “The Asian Family Affair” with activists Al Sugiyama, Kathy Sugiyama, Frank Irigon, Eugene Tagawa, and …
