"Peace Empowers": The Testimony of Aki Kurose, a Woman of Color in the Pacific Northwest

Her students say that Kurose was not afraid to talk to them about hard issues like her wartime incarceration or her battle with cancer. They learned from her the need to work for peace and social justice from her stories about the violation of civil rights of Japanese Americans during World War II and from her own incarceration. They learned lessons about courage and dedication when she continued to teach as she underwent radiation treatment and chemotherapy for numerous reoccurrences of cancer. They also remember her humor and the healing power of laughter as they recall her wearing a "clown" rainbow-colored wig to school when her hair fell out from radiation treatments.(17) They remember, too, that she always wore a button promoting peace. One of her favorites was a round green one with a quote from Gandhi saying, "If we are to teach real peace in this world, we will have to begin with the children."(18)

Kurose believed that "learning can't take place unless a child feels very comfortable and peaceful with him- or herself." As children became comfortable and peaceful, their parents, too, became comfortable, peaceful, and happy with Kurose. As one parent told Kurose with great delight: "My son is reading so beautifully. His math is wonderful, and he treats his younger brother so nicely. He's not a mean kid anymore. And he likes to talk things out."(19) A parent of former students of Kurose spoke of "the miraculous partnership she formed between parents, school, and community." Kurose's "greatest lesson plan, probably without knowing it, was teaching us to give of ourselves-and, of course, to be peaceful within," the parent explained.(20)

Kurose was acutely aware of class inequities at Laurelhurst. "I realized right away, the inequities that go on," she stated. "Because Laurelhurst is like an academy, you know, like a private school, with all the support from the parents and the community. And they could raise...$46,000 over the weekend at an auction. And whereas a school like Dearborn Park, or whatever, talk about, `Wow, they made $200,' you know. And so the services to the students are, again, much less.... It's a monies game as far as I feel the school district is concerned. Because every school does not...offer the same kind of education, although they are part of the public school system." Kurose pointed out that class was even a factor in her being honored and acclaimed as an outstanding teacher: "If I worked in a very poor area, they wouldn't know how to nominate me for these awards.... The resources wouldn't be there. There're many, many teachers equally as good, if not even better, that have not been honored because of where they're working because they don't have the same kind of resources." Referring to the Aki Kurose Peace Garden that Laurelhurst parents built in her honor upon her retirement in 1997, she asserted, "Now come on, in a poor area, they couldn't do that."

But class alone does not determine who is honored. After Kurose died in 1998, efforts to honor her educational legacy led to a proposal to name a school for her. It was natural to think that Laurelhurst Elementary School might be renamed for Kurose, one of their most honored teachers, but a school in a poorer, multicultural community was renamed for Aki Kurose.(21) In the fall of 1999, South Shore Magnet Middle School was to move to the Sharples Building in Rainier Valley and the Sharples Alternative School was to move to the South Shore Building.(22) African American educator and community activist Leahe "Mom" Wilson, who had worked with Kurose on political campaigns and other movements, suggested this switch of buildings provided an opportunity for the renaming of the relocated South Shore Middle School for Kurose.