A lifetime of leadership aids Asian professionals

One couple?s wisdom and generosity opens doors for Asian-Pacific American mental health professionals.

By Jamie Chamberlin
Monitor staff

K. Patrick Okura, 87, and his wife Lily had been married for just two months in December, 1941 when the U.S. War Department gave them four days to pack only what they could carry and sent them to live in an internment camp.

Like thousands of other Japanese Americans, Okura was imprisoned immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in an era when an Asian heritage was viewed as a threat to national security. Though he was born and raised in Los Angeles and had a master?s degree in psychology from the University of California?Los Angeles, Okura, and his wife, were forced to abandon their home and were sent to the Santa Anita Race Track stable, where they slept on straw mattresses on the floor.

After nine months in the internment camp, they were rescued by Father Flanagan of Boys? Town, who convinced federal officials that his orphanage needed someone with Okura?s psychology background. The Okuras each carved out successful careers, and Okura established himself as a leader in the mental health and Asian-Pacific American communities.

But the experience of imprisonment stayed with them. And in 1988, when the U.S. government paid the Okuras and all other former internment camp prisoners $20,000 each, they used that money along with personal savings to help today?s Asian-Pacific Americans, who they believe are imprisoned in a different way: The Okuras launched the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation, which helps Asian-Pacific Americans overcome racial, language and other barriers.

Lessons in leadership

The foundation has helped more than 70 Asian-Pacific Americans over the last seven years. The foundation?s major project is 'Week in Washington Leadership Seminar,' a week-long fellowship program held in Washington, D.C. Through the project, the Okura Foundation annually invites 10 Asian-Pacific American professionals who are interested in expanding their careers to serve as fellows in the program. The fellows spend a week exploring how policy is made, learning how to build leadership skills and investigating ways to achieve their career goals.

The focus of the week is mental health, so most fellows who participate are psychologists, social workers, physicians and psychiatrists. But the foundation also accepts fellows [who are interested in different disciplines,] such as the creative arts.

To spark fellows? interest in leadership, Okura invites federal government and agency leaders to speak about their careers.

'To learn what it takes to become a leader, one needs to see the bigger picture and to have knowledge of how policy is made in Washington and how it affects the country,' says Okura.

The intense week, [usually scheduled in April to coincide with the blooming of the cherry blossoms,] includes meetings with Steve Hyman, MD, the director of NIMH, Nelba Chavez, PhD, the administrator of SAMHSA, and a briefing on ethnic-minority programs from the deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison at the White House. The fellows meet with officials from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the executive directors of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Organization of Chinese Americans, and the National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium.

They also visit Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Calif.), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii) and with each fellow?s own senators and representatives.

For the past three years, the Okura Foundation has also sponsored one fellow for a six-month stint in the White House, where he or she gets more of an in-depth view of policy-making and minority programs.

In his own discussions with the fellows, Okura emphasizes the fundamentals of leadership and the importance of securing more Asian-Pacific Americans in leadership roles. And he addresses some unique problems that Asian-Pacific Americans face.

'One of the things that I have learned working with Asian-Pacific Americans is that they have ability, but that they don?t speak out. They don?t step forward,' he says. 'They are not assertive enough in a positive way.'

So Okura teaches that being assertive, communicating effectively and having confidence in your abilities are all essential to leadership. The fellows also discuss discrimination and career problems, says Okura. 'Many of them have problems with a language handicap or a great deal of prejudice in the workplace,' he says. Okura says that in both the public and private sectors, Asian-Pacific Americans are being promoted to executive-level positions, but rarely to policy positions.

'That?s one of the main reasons I started the fellowship,' he says. 'I want to help Asian-Pacific Americans break through the glass ceiling,' he says.

Future leaders

Although each fellow comes to the program with a different leadership goal or career shift in mind, they all leave inspired.

'?Think big and have a vision? was the message I came away with,' says 1996 fellow Jenny Yi, PhD, a professor of health promotion at the University of Houston who specializes in Asian-American health issues. She says her fellowship experience motivated her to pursue tenure, which she accomplished this year. Ricardo Custodio, MD, a pediatrician from Hawaii earning a master?s in public health at Harvard University, also attended this year?s fellowship. He plans to return to Hawaii and seek a leadership position at the state?s department of health.

Custodio says the fellowship program expanded his contact network and taught him a few lessons about leadership that often are not found in a classroom.

'Okura emphasizes the importance of values and integrity in leadership; it is woven throughout the whole week,' he says. 'The wonderful thing about the fellowship is that it exposes potential leaders to that kind of thinking.'

Another former fellow plans to run for Congress and has won the support of two members of Congress he met with during his fellowship week, says Okura.

1998 fellow Scott Ito?s growth as a leader is already evident: He is spearheading a project the 1998 fellows initiated?a documentary of Okura?s life. The 1998 fellows donated money to move the project forward, and Ito, a fund-raiser for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, has sparked interest for the project in the film industry.

Next year?s fellowship will coincide with Okura?s 88th birthday, and the Okuras are already making special plans.

'When one reaches 88 in the Japanese culture, it is a year that you celebrate in terms of reaching goals in life,' says Okura, who feels he has accomplished something worth celebrating through the fellowship program. 'Our seminars have opened the eyes of Asian-Pacific Americans to what more they can do.'

?We should take a firm stand as well?

Okura talks about the qualities and benefits of leadership, he has his own life to offer as proof. Okura had a long, highly successful career in mental health and has been a strong leader and pioneer for Asian-Pacific Americans throughout his life.

While Okura was at UCLA in the early 1930s, he played varsity baseball, which was unheard of for an Asian-American at that time. He faced harsh protest from his teammates the entire two years he played at UCLA, but he became the first Asian American to play and letter in a major sport at a West Coast college or university.

After he was rescued from the internment camp by Father Flanagan (see main article), he worked at Boys? Town for 18 years, providing counseling and administering psychological tests. Following that work, Okura was appointed chief probation officer of the Douglas County Juvenile Court after helping establish a separate juvenile court system for the state of Nebraska.

From this position, the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute recruited Okura to head up the Community Psychiatric Services division, where he became the state planner for mental health and launched five successful mental health centers in the state.

In 1970, Okura?s work in Nebraska prompted then-NIMH Director Bertram Brown, MD, to ask Okura to become his executive assistant. Okura was reluctant to work for the same government that had imprisoned him, he says, but he agreed when he saw that his experience could help Brown achieve his goals?to help minorities and children and address delinquency.

Okura worked at NIMH for 17 years, retiring in 1985. During his last four years, he directed the NIMH International Mental Health Program, visiting mental health agencies all over the world. He also helped found the Asian American Psychological Association.

Okura has continually stood up for causes he believed in, even when few would stand behind him. As national president of the Japanese Americans Citizens League (JACL) in 1963, Okura marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. despite strong opposition from JACL members, who didn?t want to get involved.

'I felt that since we were placed in internment camps, we should take a firm stand as well,' he says.

?Jamie Chamberlin