The youngest of Telion and Chutaro Gushi’s eights kids, Tokie, as she is fondly called by friends, was born and raised on the island of Mili in the Marshall Islands.
Mili is about 80 miles away from Majuro, the capital city of the Marshall Islands.
Tokie remembers her father, a businessman, built ships and traded copra between Majuro and the other islands in exchange for whatever things they didn’t have on Mili. Her mother, she said, was an excellent weaver.
Tokie tells Variety that her father, an Okinawan, didn’t return to Japan after the war and renounced his citizenship. When her father became a Marshallese, the government offered him the island of Mili.
Asked how big the island is, Tokie approximates “from Pacific Islands Club to Seventh Day Adventists Clinic on Quartermaster Road.”
At an early age, Tokie learned the importance of being an earnest worker on Mili as they had to till the soil and grow crops. “We grew all the things we needed.”
“Everything we had, we had to work for,” says Tokie.
She says she had a good childhood. “We had the island all to ourselves.”
In the Marshalls, all islands are owned and controlled by chiefs. “Everything you have, you have to contribute 10 percent [to the chiefs],” says Tokie.
But when Tokie’s father was awarded the island of Mili, the chiefs ceded all rights to him and he became the head of the island.
On Mili, Tokie says they grew all crops available and they were very self-sufficient.
She also says the things they couldn’t produce they import from Majuro.
Soon, her father began building a church, a school and dispensary on Mili.
Her father, she says, asked the Marshallese government for a paid teacher and paid health and he would build a school on Mili.
Soon, Mili became a boarding school for the neighboring islands where children went for basic education.
Her dad, Tokie says, made it possible for the children living in the neighboring islands to acquire education by inviting them to their school on Mili and lived with them.
“The students don’t pay. Everything is free for the kids,” she says.
Tokie says they all live, study, and work together on Mili the entire year and leave only at the end of every school year. “It was like a big family.”
According to Tokie, as her father believed they needed survival training, all adults would leave the children in the care of the teacher and the health aide the entire year.
The adults relocate to the other islands to allow the young Tokie, her siblings, and other students to fend for themselves under the supervision of the teacher and the health aide.
“We all have our chores every day. We learned not only about school but we managed to learn about survival,” says Tokie.
Each has a job, she says and they rotate in doing the household chores.
“The boys go fishing, repair homes, make sure we have enough coconuts, fish to eat, and take care of the animals. We all take turns in farming,” says Tokie.
There was no rice, she says, as they couldn’t grow it on Mili but had to import it from Majuro.
As for weaving, Tokie says she learned it from her mother as she watched her do it. She would observe and slowly tried it until she was on her own.
In between weaving sessions, Tokie says she would inquire about the Marshallese culture. “I was so curious about our culture,” she says.
In 1970, Tokie says she had to relocate to Saipan where she attended Hopwood Junior High School.
Tokie confesses that it was the most difficult time as she had never spoken English all her life. But this did not deter her from continuing her studies.
She says she turned to television. “I had to watch ‘Sesame Street’ for three months.”
It took her six months before she could communicate in English with the others, she says.
For Tokie, it was frustrating to be all alone. “It was so hard learning on your own, with no help at all. I was very frustrated. But it made me so determined to do better.”
She tells Variety she had to study three times in order to be on the same level as the rest of the students in class. She had no social life and her books and notes were her best friends.
“I had to repeat the eighth grade,” admits Tokie.
Despite this, she still caught up with the rest and finished early.
“There was no doubt I was going to finish college,” says Tokie.
She told herself then she would finish college, get away from home, and make a difference.
On scholarship for two years, Tokie went to the College of Idaho. She also says she worked on campus, at the hospital and at a bar.
With all the efforts and hard work she invested in her studies, Tokie earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration with emphasis on management marketing and minor in art.
“I cried — I couldn’t believe I accomplished what I did,” says Tokie who before she graduated had had to deal with the death of her father.
She says she’s grateful for the support she received from the college, from her foster families Charlotte and Glenn Weed and Archie Stradley.
After college, she says, she returned to the Marshalls and worked for Bank of Guam.
Her homecoming wasn’t as sweet as she thought, says Tokie as she had to deal with resentment from women who were opposed to having a U.S. college educated woman like her to be considered for a managerial position.
At the time, she says, women have yet to emerge from the shadows of men. She’s already her own person, independent, goal-oriented, and driven.
Soon, Saipan beckoned to Tokie and it has been her home ever since.
Looking back, Tokie says, she wouldn’t change the way she lived her life.
She says everything happened for a reason and she was glad she persevered despite the obstacles she had to contend with.
But as she sees the plight of her contemporaries, she says she was lucky to have gone so far in reaching for her goals in life.
When she gets the opportunity to speak to women of the Marshalls, she advises them to find their strengths.
She also advises the young generation to take interest in their culture — “it is who you are, what you are, and where you come from.” She also says, it is in culture “where you’ll find yourself.”
For Tokie, “We women are strong. We are the backbone of our culture and our home.”
To the young generation of women, she gives this advice, “Education is the key to your freedom. If you are determined, you can do everything. It doesn’t matter how long it takes—you’ll get there somehow.”
