While reading Lori Matsukawa’s memoir Being There, I felt the ease and familiarity of chatting with an old (and extremely knowledgeable!) friend. At the same time, the anecdotes she shares in her book have the concise rhythm and clarity of a seasoned reporter who cares deeply about the people, events and ideas she’s bringing to her audience. The book traces Matsukawa’s life from a childhood in Hawai’i, to the beauty pageant that changed her life, to her journey through the ranks as a journalist who eventually found her way to the news desk at KING 5 where she worked for 36 years.
Her upbringing in Hawai’i had a profound effect on Matsukawa’s understanding of community, family and what it means to be Japanese American. Growing up in a place where people of Japanese descent are part of the majority meant it wasn’t until she left the island that she felt the kind of othering that happens when you are surrounded by people who don’t look like you. Lessons Matsukawa learned at home about shame (haji), obligation (on) and loyalty to family mingled with the aloha spirit of the island resulting in a curious, friendly young person who was open to new experiences and opportunities.
The opportunity that changed her life was a Miss Teen America pageant that Lori Matsukawa won, leading her to tour the country and world on behalf of the pageant and its sponsor Dr. Pepper. This experience opened her eyes to the possibility of working as a journalist after being interviewed throughout the course of her tenure as Miss Teen America.
She pursued this idea at Stanford where she worked at the Stanford Daily and learned the ropes from the student editors at the paper. Matsukawa got her first television news job at KRCR at a time when reporting on a story involved lugging around heavy cameras and equipment, recording audio separately from video, and bringing it all together in the editing room, only to repeat the whole cycle again!
Matsukawa eventually made her way to Seattle where she gives us a behind-the-scenes account of what it was like to start out at KOMO News, only to encounter roadblocks to promotion attributed to racism and a commitment to the status quo at the station. Undeterred, she found a home at KING 5 News, a station that actively sought out more diversity in its staff and saw the benefits of having reporters who represented different cultures and communities.
Though she never took a position on network television news Matsukawa found a way to remain a Seattle reporter, but still travel the country and the world, bringing global news to the Pacific Northwest. The list of major news stories she covered and the variety of wild and sometimes weird experiences she had as a reporter could fill a whole sequel to her memoir!
As her career evolved, we see how Matsukawa chose to focus on the perspectives and voices of people of color in Seattle and beyond. As much as she bristled at the idea of being pigeonholed as a “minority affairs” reporter, she deeply believed in committing to the people and communities who are too often overlooked and undervalued. This focus on her community extendsed beyond her job to her co-founding the Seattle branch of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), to her organizing and fundraising for the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW), to her ongoing involvement in educating the public about the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during WWII.
Throughout Lori Matsukawa’s memoir, the history of Japanese incarceration weaves in and out of the story. Her grandparents avoided incarceration because their successful dairy farm was important to the war effort. She received racist rants for being Japanese, the “enemy” at an early job. She interviewed Gordon Hirabayashi who resisted the racist laws designed to control people of Japanese descent during the war. And eventually she produced the documentary Prisoners in Their Own Land, telling the story of incarceration that wons her a Pulitzer prize. It’s inspiring to see her commitment to telling a story, to bringing important voices to a broad audience, and to preserving the memories and experiences of the people who were incarcerated.
Another running theme in the book is the idea of what it means to be Japanese American. In Hawai’i, Matsukawa learns from her mother that the Japanese who left Japan were all but
forgotten and were looked down upon by those who remained in Japan. On the mainland U.S. she learns that being Japanese American means being different, which could make her the target of racism, but it could also mean being embraced by a community that saw her as their own. On a trip to Japan to witness the imperial enthronement, she learns of the many ways that Japanese Americans are admired and respected in Japan, a narrative that counters what she was taught as a child.
I am always looking for stories of how Japanese Americans find their sense of belonging in this country. These stories help me understand myself and figure out new ways to teach my children about who they are. Watching Lori Matsukawa on KING 5 meant so much to me as a kid who rarely saw anyone who looked like me on T.V. She taught me that Japanese American women can take up space and use their sharp intelligence to tell a good story. Reading her memoir as an adult I was excited to find that I have so much more to learn from her.
This is the kind of book that makes me think about the impact I want to have and the ways I want to use my life and my talents in the service of my community. And it reminds me to live my life with curiosity and plenty of good storytelling.
