Kazuko Love is an ICU Alumna (’72) currently living in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is an interview sharing information about her life, her time studying at ICU and the impact it had.

Tara: Thank you for agreeing to do this interview, Kazuko. I am sure that many ICU alumni and friends will enjoy learning more about another ICU alumna living in Honolulu, Hawaii!

Kazuko: You are welcome!

Tara: Let’s start by getting to know a little about you now. What do you do?

Kazuko: Well, we have a family business in Osaka importing clocks, watches and musical instruments that’s 4 generations old. Up till my grandfather’s generation – when the war came –it was a very good business. It was difficult for my father to keep the business during this time so we downsized and mostly deal with just real estate that my predecessors collected now. My brother, who was first born son, died before father and couldn’t take over the legacy. Then in 2000 my father died. This turned everything around and resulted in my sister and I stepping up and into the family business. Now, I am the CEO and manage the real estate.

Tara: Wow, that’s interesting!

Kazuko: I wasn’t always involved in my family’s business though…

So, basically, I’m a language nut and when at ICU I studied intercultural communication and linguistics. After graduate work in Pittsburgh, I used my education from ICU to become an editor at a newspaper here and worked as a simultaneous interpreter as well. Up until recently I did a lot of interpreting and translation. I was also teaching Japanese  intercultural communication. I loved that because I love people and especially love teaching smart students. I had to stop though because I started going to Japan often for the family business.

Tara: I understand. That’s very respectable of you… Do you find other ways to keep your interest in languages alive?

Kazuko: I’m a student of French now.

Tara: Why French?

Kazuko: I felt comfortable with English so I thought I should move on. All my life, I was a student of English. Then Mandarin – you have to love the culture and people to like the language.  At ICU, I studied French one term. Once I started studying the culture, the literature, the music… I was hooked!

We have gone to France in the past though over the last few years not so much.

Besides languages, I also love painting and do paint.

Tara: Me too! I hope you’ll share some pictures of your paintings* for this article. Can you tell me more about your time at ICU?

Kazuko: I don’t know if you want to interview me because I graduated from ICU many, many moons ago and things are very different now. When I was there… there were only a few buildings and a beautiful golf course. I lived in the 2nd women’s dorm because I am from Osaka and I could not commute.

There were about 50 girls living there and a dorm mother and father. We were invited to their place often and we all really liked it and almost all of us would go. They were a young couple and we could ask them questions about anything… I spoke with them about not being able to decide what major to choose.

The dorm father, who was a professor of Humanities at ICU, gave me great advice: “Don’t worry too much, do what you really like to do. Because in any field, an expert is needed. So, just do what you want and do it well.”

Tara: Very sage advice indeed…

Kazuko: Other professors would also invite us for tea. The feeling was very cozy, very personal, family like on campus. I loved living in dorm because it was like having 50 friends and family members and they were very interesting.They came from all over Japan. I was kind of sheltered before I went to ICU. The only time I left Takarazuka-city before ICU was to go to America for a summer exchange program for high school kids.

Going on the summer exchange program during the high school age had a huge impact on my life. I lived with an American family and had many intriguing intercultural experiences. That motivated me to learn English better and focus on intercultural communication. Only ICU offered courses of that field and all the professors were first class. That’s why I decided to go there.

Tara: That’s fantastic that ICU was able to provide such a tool for bridging cultures and countries!

Kazuko: Yes, in fact, when I was freshman, a particular prof. from America came to teach at ICU.  That was Dr. John Condon and he is the founder of Intercultural Communication. We were so star struck, we all wanted to take all his courses and could almost be described as disciples of Dr. Condon!

Tara: Haha! It sounds like he was an impressive guy!

Kazuko: So, my life and career  were shaped by ICU. Besides Intercultural Communication. Simultanesou Interpreting was my favorite course. At that time it was a new field and Dr.Mitsuko Saito was teaching that course.  She was an expert who had studied in America, which was an unusual thing around that time for a Japanese women to study abroad on a graduate level.Her lessons were of great quality. ICU, at the time, was the only place in Japan to offer a course like that. Not to mention, ICU had a great language lab.

There were many different ways I could learn at ICU.…because of the great academic resources, but also because of the types of people that were there. There were the regular April students, and September students, who were basically Japanese students who had studied abroad… I learned a lot about identity, cultural being. I learned that Japanese who spent a lot of time outside of Japan were different.

Tara: How so?

Kazuko: Let me preface by saying these days things are a little  different from then. When I was growing up the traditional Japanese values such as filial piety, humility, “enryo”etc. were much more evident. Japanese people who had lived abroad – they were different. They spoke up in class and they didn’t hesitate to disagree. Sometimes too independent and not group oriented. It was a shock.

Tara: I can understand that. What do you think of where you live now in Hawaii? How did you end up there?

Kazuko:  Well, while I was still at ICU I remember thinking that the first couple years were like heaven then in my junior year I realized I had to leave this heaven soon. I was thinking, how can I use intercultural communication to live and support myself?

My parents expected me to come home and have an “omiai” (arranged marriage) and I thought it would be a bad idea. YetI was a daughter of strict conservative parents. I was contemplating ways to break away, while professor Condon inspired a feeling to continue studying. There were no universities in Japan where I could continue studying in this field, so he helped me decide to go to a university in the U.S. The University of Pittsburgh gave me a grant to study and covered my living expenses. I had to teach a little, but I was completely self sufficient and didn’t have to ask my parents’ support.

Tara: Wow, that’s very impressive.

Kazuko: It turned out to be a great decision because I met my husband, Chad – though he wasn’t a student there.

Chad had just come back from Japan and had brought his friend, Yamada-san, back with him because Yamada-san wanted to see America. They were walking around the campus in hopes of finding another Japanese person in Pittsburgh!

It was one of my first days on campus. I was at Cathedral of Learning when I heard “Sumimasen, nihon jin desu ka?” I turned to look around and the first face I saw was a Caucasian face! I thought “what is this?” then I saw the Japanese man beside him.. If my husband had spoken in English I may have ignored him, but we became friends and then eventually  got married in Japan after we both finished our graduate work..

My husband had lived in Hawaii and really wanted to return. The idea of living in Hawaii was not too appealing to me because I love big cities  but, at least it is close to Japan. I thought of my parents aging and that I could go to Japan more easily from there. So that’s how we moved to Hawaii and I find that the older I get, the more enjoyable to live here.

Tara: That’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing. One last question, could you sum up how ICU has had an effect on your life?

Kazuko: ICU really expanded my view of the world. There were so many people from different cultures and other parts of world represented in the professors and students. Besides academics, there were many opportunities to learn.

I learned about the differences and similarities of people of very different backgrounds. I learned to be tolerant and patient and open-minded. And, I don’t think I was any of those when I arrived at ICU. I learned that’s what one  needs to be.

ICU was like a big window to the rest of world. I got a little window to the world. I peeped out and thought wow!

I don’t just live in Hawaii now… my mind is totally out there.  I do travel often and I read and see different things through the high tech media and I have many friends here who come from outside of Hawaii. They are from Hungary, France, Austria, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong…

ICU is unique though there are a lot of schools now that try to be copycats. Foreign students can go to Keio University or Jochi Daigaku, but ICU is different. It’s a family. The quality is top notch withgreat teachers and great students,

So, my advice to ICU students: Take advantage of your time at ICU. Take advantage of whatever is available there. Have conversations with the great professors and the students on campus. Always be curious. . Basically have a wonderful time!

Four years seems long, but it goes so fast… do as much as you can. What one wants to do… can be done.

Tara: Thank you for your time and for sharing so much of yourself.