Black and white vintage photo of three people in formal attire; a seated man and woman with a young woman standing behind. Text on image: "JAP GIRL - Gifting her Ikigai From a life of Incarceration, Poverty, & Prejudice Memoir Richard Y. Okumoto."

JAP GIRL

Tome (to-meh) is a pre-WWII three-year-old girl cast out from a farming family of nine kids and raised as an only child. When formally adopted she becomes samurai, already schooled in the way of Bushido. Her constructed reality of being the all-American farm girl in Southern California is crushed when she is incarcerated at the age of twenty, without due process, based solely on her Japanese heritage. She accepts being a Jap Girl, a visual immigrant in the eyes of America although she is an American citizen. Throughout her lifetime she actuates her ikigai, her purpose in life. In doing so, she gifts an amazing future to her mystical son.

3D figure placing red puzzle piece into multicolored puzzle wall

In-progress

The Age of Contribution

We will explore the What, the When, and the Who of this phenomenon through real-life stories. Introduced will be such concepts as The Age of Contribution and Purpose Framework (AC&P) and The Power of Not Yet (Dr. Carol Dweck). This book is envisioned to be a biennial publication inclusive of a new collection of real-life stories within each new Edition.

If you have an interesting contributor or contribution story, please subscribe and connect with me. I am always seeking next-edition real-life stories.

In-progress

Trilogy Science Fiction Series

The Simultaneous Equation

Two college roommates in the 1970’s: one with a technical and science background, and the other with a business background become founders venturing into the world of Silicon Valley Tech Startups. Their vision: make humans more like computers versus making computers more like humans.

Networks

ARPANET forms the foundation for this story which takes place from the 1980’s to the early twenty-first century. One founder is now dead and the other is drawn back to his roots in Silicon Valley. The mystery of his disappearance invites many questions about the future of the human species as we know it.

3D figure surrounded by red arrows pointing in various directions, symbolizing confusion or decision-making.

The Last Generation

I wrote the original treatment for this series in 1976, the year Genentech was founded and I was working for Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley. I am writing the third in the series first because AI and Human Cybernetics are happening now.

Physical and digital robots will likely achieve social presence and replace human companionship. Can or should the last generation of twelve change this future trajectory?