Remembering the gifts of language from two long-time Gardena High School teachers.
By J.K. YAMAMOTO
As those who attended Gardena High School in the ’70s and ’80s will remember, GHS had two Japanese language teachers, Kyoko Lillian Furumoto and Marvin Follett.
The passing of Miss Furumoto in October 2024 at the age of 90 and of Mr. Follett in 2019 at age 91 marked the end of an era. Back in the day they were among the few teachers of Japanese in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Randi Tahara, former staff member to three Los Angeles County supervisors, has fond memories: “Miss Furumoto was the type of teacher that, if you let her, cared for her students beyond the Japanese textbooks and kanji exercises. She was my Japanese language teacher in the 10th grade at GHS, where she was strict but fair, soft-spoken but firm, kind and professional.
“She was small in stature but commanded respect in the classroom. I believe she knew my mother had passed away when I was 14, and I’d like to think she kept her eye on me.
“Miss Furumoto nominated me to become a student ambassador from Los Angeles City (via the LAUSD) to its sister city of Nagoya, Japan, for four weeks during the summer. At that time, in addition to two teachers at Gardena High School, Japanese was also taught at Dorsey High, Eagle Rock High, and Hamilton High School (there may have been additional high schools offering Japanese).
“After a horribly botched interview with representatives from LAUSD, Mayor Tom Bradley’s office, and the Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister City Affiliation (LANSCA), I was certain that I had failed at my only chance ever to go to Japan, and I cried in the car on my way back to Gardena from the interview at LAUSD headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. But, less than a week later, Miss Furumoto caught me in the hallway in the GHS administration building, waving a letter in her hand.
“‘You’re going! You’re going!’ she said. I actually screamed, and people came running out into the hallway to see what was going on. ‘I scared her,’ Miss Furumoto softly said, as she covered for me, all 4’9” of her!
“The opportunity she gave me changed my life. After returning from that memorable trip, I became very involved in LANSCA. My first ‘adult’ job was as a receptionist for a Downtown L.A. law firm whose partners were involved in LANSCA, which set me on a path of public service, having met Yvonne
Brathwaite Burke at another law firm where I worked; she was elected as a Los Angeles County supervisor in 1992. She invited me to join her staff in 1996, and I recently retired from the County of Los Angeles.
“I can sincerely say that Miss Furumoto gave me the chance to expand my world beyond the borders of Gardena, taught me the value of relationships, and paying it forward.”
I took Mr. Follett’s class, and it was an unusual scenario — a Caucasian teacher, fluent in Japanese, trying to teach a roomful of mostly Sansei students, the majority of whom seemed to have little aptitude for the language. It was an important step for me since my only previous instruction was from Arleen Nakayama (now Sakahara) at Peary Junior High School.
Japanese schools were available at Gardena Buddhist Church, Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute and elsewhere, but I never attended those. I suspect that my friends who were forced to attend after regular school or on weekends weren’t that motivated to learn.
In the summer of 1975 (hard to believe it has been 50 years), Mr. Follett was our chaperone when 10 GHS students visited Yoshida High School in Shizuoka Prefecture for three weeks. During the decade-long program, Follett and Furumoto took turns accompanying the group. GHS also hosted students from Yoshida in the spring.
I believe we were the third group to go, and the first to be composed entirely of Japanese Americans. It must have been strange for the Yoshida hosts to see some of the GHS students (myself included) struggle with the language.
When our group visited Tokyo, I remember Mr. Follett serving as interpreter when I met my uncle and aunt from Yokohama for the first time.
My first trip to Japan was memorable, and I have kept in touch with some members of the group as well as my host student in Japan.
I continued to learn Japanese at Cal State Long Beach under Professors Yoko Pusavat and Akira Miyazaki. During the 1979-80 school year, I was one of the students from California state and private universities in the Kokusaibu (International Division) at Waseda University in Tokyo.
During the summer break in 1980, I returned to Yoshida High (which no longer exists, having merged with another school in the area) when the GHS students were visiting, and Mr. Follett was again the group leader. I addressed a gathering at the school in Japanese, and I think he was pleased that I had stuck with my studies.
I have used my Japanese skills, such as they are, at such publications as the Nikkei Sentinel, Hokubei Mainichi in San Francisco, and currently The Rafu Shimpo. Although I am still far from bilingual, I owe a lot to my GHS and CSULB teachers, as well as those at Waseda, for helping me to get this far.
Carol Osa Okuda, a member of that 1975 group, shared her recollections: “I attended the Gardena Buddhist Church Japanese Language School in my early years. Mr. Follett’s Japanese class was my first language class outside of Gardena Buddhist JLS and I was in awe of Mr. Follett’s flawless Nihongo.
“Mr. Follett and Miss Furumoto’s commitment to the exchange program with Yoshida High School provided a wonderful opportunity for students such as myself. The program expanded my language knowledge but also deepened the bond I feel for Japan.
“I am forever grateful to have participated in the program as I have also maintained contact with some members of the group such as J.K. and I visit a former Yoshida High student in her now hometown of Osaka whenever possible.”
Kyoko Lillian Furumoto
The second daughter of Sam Kiyoto and Yoshi (Nishikubo) Furumoto, she was born Dec. 23, 1933 in Boyle Heights. She attended East First Street Elementary School and private Japanese school and enjoyed going to Franklin Public Library on East First Street.
With the outbreak of World War II, she was sent to Santa Anita Assembly Center in May 1942 with her father, mother, and sisters Mary Katsumi, Yasuko Margie and Kayoko Kay. Six months later, they were sent to the Rohwer camp in Arkansas.
“Many forest trees had been cut down to build barracks, and there were many rattlesnakes in the area, making conditions fearful for a small child,” Furumoto recalled in her autobiography.
In October 1943, the family was transferred to Tule Lake. Since many incarcerees planned to go to Japan after the war, Japanese schools were set up and Furumoto and her sisters attended.
“I learned a great deal about Japanese culture in the two years I was there, and dreamed about going to Japan someday,” she said. “I mastered the Japanese exercises that were conducted every morning. I also learned about Japanese history and folklore, along with many Japanese children’s songs.”
When the war ended, their father was determined to stay in the U.S. but Furumoto and her older sister wanted to go to Japan. In December 1945, the father changed his mind and the entire family was shipped to Japan. They landed in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, the following month.
In February 1946, Furumoto went to her father’s family’s place in Hiroshima. “I saw a totally devastated Hiroshima, a scorched land after the atomic bomb disaster in which over 150,000 people were killed. I remember particularly a half-melted streetcar and burnt tree trunk standing in the middle of nowhere.”
Fifteen family members repatriated from the U.S. and China and lived with her father’s parents and grandmother on a farm in a suburb untouched by the bomb.
As a fifth-grader at Hara Elementary School, Furumoto remembered being made fun of by her classmates for her American attire, including long slacks that were opened wide at the bottom.
She entered Hiroshima Jyogakuin Junior High School in March 1947 and graduated in1950, despite missing almost a semester because she had developed cardiac beriberi
She attended Hiroshima Jyogakuin Senior High School from 1950 to 1953. “I was asked to translate English into Japanese for the missionary teachers when they gave mini-lectures at the morning services. I also interpreted for the Bible class … from 10th grade through 12th grade, one hour a week.”
At the graduation ceremony, Furumoto represented the 221 students in the regular course. “I was also very surprised to be one of only four graduates to receive the Principal’s Award. I didn’t know that until my name was announced.”
She was a typist-interpreter for the National Security Forces Advisory Infantry Major in Kaitaichi, Hiroshima from 1953 to 1954.
Furumoto returned to Los Angeles in May 1954. Her sister Katsumi had moved to Seattle a year earlier. Together they put away enough money to fly their father back to the U.S. The rest of the family followed.
After working at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Los Angeles Testing Laboratory, she moved to New York in 1959 with her parents and Kayoko to help out at her aunt Toshimi Okamura’s restaurant, Aki Dining. She also worked as a statistician-typist at Wilson Paper Company in Times Square. Her parents returned to L.A. and bought a house, and Furumoto followed them.
She found that most potential employers wanted someone with a college degree, and her younger sister Yasuko “made more money in three months of internship as a pharmacy student than I made in a whole year as a clerk typist … I made the great decision to go back to school.”
Furumoto enrolled at L.A. City College from 1960 to 1963, earning an AA in mathematics. “I also compiled a Japanese-English dictionary for myself; I looked up and entered about 200 words a month for many months.”
She transferred to USC and graduated in 1965 with a BA, then earned a California teaching credential in mathematics and Asian studies. She became a teacher of math and Japanese at GHS in September 1966 and remained there until January 1993.
“I never had to fill out an application for the position,” she remembered. “They were in need of a combination math and Japanese instructor, and I filled the bill perfectly. I was very lucky.”
In 1968 and 1969, Furumoto participated in two two-month study programs for Japanese language teachers, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. One was through Georgetown University and the other Seton Hall University in Japan. In 1976, during a one-year sabbatical, she received a master’s degree in education from USC.
For 10 years, GHS had an exchange program with Yoshida High School in Shizuoka Prefecture. Furumoto chaperoned a group of GHS students for the first time in 1974.
During the summer months, she traveled to Mexico, the Soviet Union, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, plus 42 states. In her spare time she served as a bilingual emcee for funeral services and an interpreter for an Ikenobo ikebana group.
She retired from LAUSD after teaching for 26 1/2 years, including Japanese conversation classes at Gardena Community Adult School, but continued to teach at California Academy of Math and Science, Hollywood Community Adult School, Cal State L.A., and a Japanese language school in Venice.
In 1997, Furumoto became an interpreter and assistant to the bishop at Seicho no Ie. “I was appointed Seicho no Ie regional lecturer … to help people with problems and give lectures at church and home meetings.”
As a hospice volunteer at Kaiser Permanente, she was named Volunteer of the Year in 2002.
Furumoto studied Japanese classical dance with Madame Fujima Kansuma and performed at the Music Center for her sensei’s 30th anniversary. She studied tea ceremony and ikebana with Madame Kazuko Shimbashi and calligraphy with Madame Fumiko Okinaka.
She lost her mother in 1972, her father in 1983, her dog Chibi in 1991, and her sister Mary Katsumi in 2001.
“I greatly enjoy my single life,” Furumoto wrote. “When the occasion arises, which is very frequently, I get togther with my two sisters, my brother, my nine nieces and nephews, and my ten grand nieces and nephews. Two more are on the way …
“I am a very happy person, with a positive outlook on life.”
For her 70th birthday, her family enabled her to travel to Hiroshima for her 50th high school reunion.
Marvin Dana Follett
Born on Feb. 22, 1928 in Douglas, Ariz. to Marvin Westley Follett and Vadna Angelia Dana, he was the oldest of four children, with two younger sisters and a younger brother.
His association with Japan began after World War II. He was a staff sergeant in the Army Medical Corps during the U.S. occupation of that country, which continued until 1952.
After his honorable discharge in 1948, Follett returned to Japan as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became fluent in Japanese.
He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and a master’s degree from UC Berkeley, where he met Elizabeth “Liz” Joan Nicholson. They were married on Aug. 21, 1957 at the church’s Salt Lake Temple.
Upon graduation, the couple moved to Southern California, where Follett was a high school teacher in Long Beach before getting a job at GHS, where he set up the first Japanese-language program at a U.S. public high school outside of Hawaii.
Taking groups of exchange students from GHS to Yoshida High School — located in Shizuokaken, Haibara-gun, Yoshida-cho — in the summer was one of the highlights of his teaching career. He and Furumoto took turns as chaperones and also served as advisors to the campus Japanese Club. In the spring, they welcomed Yoshida students and a faculty member to Gardena and helped show them around the L.A. area.
Follett — described in the 1976 yearbook as having “a quiet personality” — retired in 1989 after more than 25 years of teaching Japanese. He returned to Japan many times thereafter.
According to his family, his understanding of the Japanese people, their language and their culture convinced many Japanese that was part Japanese, even though he wasn’t.
In 1998, the couple moved to Cedar Hills, Utah, where they became beloved members of the community. One of his passions was gardening, and he was known for his beautiful gardens, which had a strong Japanese influence.
Follett passed away peacefully on Aug. 29, 2019 at home, followed by his wife on Oct. 5. They were survived by four children, 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Services were held, respectively, on Sept. 7 and Oct. 12, 2019 at Cedar Hills West Stake Center.