Life Offers Many Options
My childhood
I was born and grew up in Akita, in the northern part of Japan, where the winter started with gloomy skies and snow in late November, and the snow stayed on the ground until the end of March. (Nowadays there is less snow due to global warming.) When I was a child, I dreamed about so many things. One day I wanted to be a car designer or an architect, the next day an interior designer or an archaeologist, or even a tap dancer. I had no specific plan. But I had no worries and was happy-go-lucky.
When I was 14 years old, my father died. Although my mother had no experience in business, she opened a kimono shop. Retrospectively, she seems to have been brave but reckless. She could have failed in her business. Under the circumstances of raising two children, my brother and me, she should have accepted a secure job offer and even a scholarship for us from my father’s business friends. But my father’s last words were, “Don’t depend on the goodwill of others.”; So my mother took a risk.
My career
Fortunately, I was able to get scholarships from high school to university. A year after working for Bristol Myer, which was not a research operation, I started working as a research assistant in a medical school. It was not quite ideal for me, but I felt the once-in-a-lifetime excitement of being part of a team that was bringing a new anti-inflammatory drug to market. After a few years in this role, I decided that I wanted to acquire more professional skills. It took me almost two years to prepare my PhD thesis and to find a university in the U.S. that would accept me as a post-doctoral fellow. I was 34 years old. My mother begged me to get married. But marriage was not my Plan A or even my Plan B.
When I came back to Japan, I had reverse culture shock. I could no longer fit into the ultra-conservative, male-dominated medical field. If your boss says this is white, it is white, even though in reality it’s black. That was the world where I had to survive. After moving back and forth between Japan and the U.S., I was offered a full professorship at a university. At the same time, I was getting married. When I weighed my mother’s declining health, my career, and my marriage, I chose marriage. Seven months after my wedding my mother died. She told me, “I have no regrets in my life.” That relieved me of my own regret that I hadn’t done enough for her.
CWAJ comes into my life
In 2016, after my husband retired from the State Department, we decided to leave the U.S. and live in Japan for a couple of years. But voilà, it is now eight years later and we are still in Yokohama enjoying Japanese culture and food, and getting together with my family and friends. I joined CWAJ in 2018 through a friend of my husband’s. CWAJ makes my quiet life in retirement so busy, but interesting. I have been overwhelmed by the strong passion of the members to pursue CWAJ’s missions. Luckily, experienced members have always helped me. In the past few years, I have been involved in many activities, such as VVI, a scholarship selection committee, products team for the Print Show, the Director of Education, and now Vice-President. As VP, I started to look deeply into the history of CWAJ. If you think about the low status of Japanese women after the war, the early members must have faced obstacles beyond our imagination. But they had an undeniable commitment to open new doors for people in need. It’s a miracle that such diverse members from nearly thirty countries have worked together so closely and congenially for more than seven decades to support so many talented scholars and artists. The most amazing thing is that CWAJ members have been turning challenges and difficulties into enjoyment! Moreover, it is a pleasure for me to meet enthusiastic and cheerful members from such a range of backgrounds who make my life meaningful and colorful. I strongly feel that it’s my own mission to help pass on CWAJ’s legacy to the next generation.
In the past few years, I have spent most of my time in Japan and the summers in the U.S. My life is like that of a migrant. Besides CWAJ, my life is occupied with online translations, practicing jazz piano, beating a Taiko drum, other volunteer work, traveling, and sampling delicious food in various restaurants. If Plan A doesn’t work, there is always Plan B or C, which are sometimes better than Plan A. This is my lifelong lesson, and it keeps me happy-go-lucky.
The photos included show Yoko on the occasion of her 60th ‘kanreki’ birthday, celebrating with her husband, and in 2024 at CWAJ’s Wine and Cheese evening at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, with Heidi Sweetnam, Suz Wilkinson, and Suz’s husband.
OM Profiles: commissioned and edited by Jennie Orchard
