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"My mom was the classic Japanese American wife and [my father] was a very dominating, strong man," Tokuda recalls. "She told me once , 'The last significant decision I made was when I said I do.'" The couple lived in a one-room hotel. Soon after the marriage Tama developed a kidney infection for which the only medical care she could get was painkillers. She developed a sustained high fever and, eventually pneumonia. Later she discovered she was pregnant. Her first child, a son, was born developmentally disabled. He now lives in a protected apartment north of Seattle.
| "When you're third generation Japanese American, there are a lot of things about your family and about your own behavior that when you go out into the rest of the world, you don't quite fit." |
"You could say it was the war, the fever, the painkiller," says Tokuda of her older brother's condition which she blames on the treatment given to Japanese Americans during the war. "It had a profound effect on me. While I was growing up, if I had to pick the one thing that had the biggest effect, I always thought it would be race." She denies bitterness. "You could make yourself crazy with a bitter attitude. I just think it had an effect."
After the war the Tokudas moved back to Seattle where George eventually became a pharmacist and opened his own pharmacy. "My mom had a big influence on me, but Dad ran the house," she recalls. "I wouldn't call him a tyrant, but he was a strong personality. Mom pretty much bowed to his will."
Growing up in a lower-middle class area in southern Seattle, the Tokuda children were among the more affluent. Wendy was an all-around success at Cleveland High where about 30% of the student body was Asian, mostly Japanese Americans. Wendy was a cheerleader and an honor student. "I was socially oriented," she recalls. She dated regularly, mostly Japanese Americans, and had a steady boyfriend from the age of 15. They were together for four years, but Tokuda denies he played a significant role in her life and identifies him only as a Japanese American.
"The year I graduated, the entire top ten was Asian," she says. She was among them. "The newspaper came out and did a story on it." Despite her academic promise, her parents never tried to push her into any field. "I think the pressures are different for males and females," she says.
Yet in considering her career options, she did rebel against the typical expectations placed on her classmates. Graduating in 1968, Tokuda spent a year at Whitman College in nearby Walla Walla, Washington. She then went on to major in political science at the University of Washington. She found herself focusing less on studies than she had in high school.
"I graduated with honors, but barely," she says. She blames "life" for having distracted her from studies.
Entertaining the notion of becoming a lawyer, she spent a year working at a legal services clinic. "I enjoyed talking with the people that came in and hearing their stories," she recalls. "What I did not enjoy was sitting in the law library pulling out books." Just as she was concluding that law wasn't a field she wanted to pursue, a friend asked if she knew anyone who wanted to spend a year in Japan teaching English to a high-level corporate executive in exchange for room and board. Here was the perfect opportunity, Tokuda felt, to learn Japanese, acquire a sense of her cultural roots and decide what she wanted out of life.
"I taught people in his company English for spending money, and I kind of helped wash dishes and keep the house clean. It was a very nice arrangement and a wonderful year that I wouldn't trade for anything.
"When you're third generation Japanese American, there are a lot of things about your family and about your own behavior that when you go out into the rest of the world, you don't quite fit. When I was in Japan, all of a sudden I saw where all of that came from, and I realized the broader context where I belonged. It added a dimension to my life for which I'll be forever grateful."
Upon returning to the States Tokuda decided on a career in broadcast journalism and started in early 1974 as a secretary to the public affairs department for Seattle's King TV. She was 24.
"I was being trained to write and I was learning what film was — in those days we shot on film — and what tape was and what TV was all about," she recalls. "That very first day when I walked in and they started taking me through this orientation, I remember thinking, 'I am absolutely in the right field. This is it!"
It took Tokuda only a year and a half to get herself promoted to an on-air reporter. Getting herself that first big break was the real start of her career, and Tokuda enjoys telling the story.
"There was a news director who was very scary. I'd go down there and he'd be in his office reading The New York Times [behind the glass partition of his office]. I would force myself to dress up, to wear makeup — I never wear makeup unless I'm at work, and I don' wear a lot of jewelry except my wedding ring — and I would be like terrified because there's a part of me that's very shy. It would take a lot of energy for me, it would take a lot of work, determination. It was very hard for me to go into his office and just say, 'I thought I'd just check in and see if you had anything coming up, an opening or anything like that.' Sometimes he'd say no. Sometimes he'd tell me, 'I really need somebody with more experience.' He turned me down six times.
"Finally, one time he said there was like an audition for a job. He told me to be there at 10 in the morning. He gave me a bunch of wire copy and said, 'Write these into stories and I'll put you in front of the camera and you read them.' So I wrote the stories and they put me in front of the camera and it was just the most terrifying thing. I read these stories and I was shaking. They were all watching and it was embarrassing and it was awful. [The news director] came down and said, 'You look very nervous, but I think you showed promise. I want you to try reading again and try to relax this time, really try to see if you can relax.' The next time I just put all my energy into trying to figure out a way to relax, and I took a deep breath and read it and they gave me this job as a consumer reporter." PAGE 4
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