DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Retired Judge Riki May Amano has been appointed president and executive director of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Amano posed for a picture Tuesday in the center's exhibit that portrays a typical plantation village.

Cultural center chief
does whatever it takes

Question: What's your job description?

Answer: It's running the center. Whatever it takes to run the center. It's working with the staff on their different programs. It's handling the facilities issues. It's the budget issues. We have regular daily inquiries by e-mail and drop-bys. It's working with other organizations. It's endless. It's working with the board of directors, the board of governors, members, the public and volunteers.

Q: How are you finding it?

A: Wonderful. It's very invigorating, exciting.

Q: Shortly after hiring you, the center's board also hired Allicyn Hikida Tasaka to serve as chief operating officer. What does she do?

A: She's chief of everything. She works with the staff, does programs, works with volunteers, works with the boards. I would say that we work largely in tandem.

Q: Why her?

A: Allicyn has wonderful organizational skills. She and I worked on a project almost five years ago. She was at the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women and I was on the bench. There was a four-person team selected to go to Washington, D.C., to work on woman-offender issues. That's when I met her up there.

Q: What was your impression of her?

A: Sharp. Sharp go-getter, very organized, on top of everything. A year after we got back, the four of us led a group that put on a similar symposium on Hawaii. That project was very extensive. It led me to know how reliable she is. If she says she's going to do something she does it well. All of those qualities are what a chief operating officer needs. The way the job is described by the interim director, Susan Scott, was you can have multiple items on your to-do list and you can be lucky if you hit one or two, because there are so many things to do.

Q: In February, Keiko Bonk, an artist and musician, was fired as president and executive director of the cultural center. Bonk, a former chairwoman of the Hawaii County Council, said she had "philosophical differences" with the board of directors. What were those differences?

A: I think the board and Keiko decided that's what they would explain and I don't have anything to add to that.

Q: Some of the center's building repairs were put on hold during its financial crisis a few years back. How much money are you looking to raise for that?

A: We have a very large operating budget. I think it's a common misperception that once the center was saved that there was no more financial worries. But I'll tell you, maintaining the building is an enormous financial responsibility. The painting, the roofing, the daily maintenance. The painting of the building alone with the roofing is going to run just under a quarter million dollars. We had an estimate done for the next 20 years ... that's going to be in excess of $3 million in costs.

Q: How much have you raised?

A: We've been lucky to get one grant but we're trying to get other assistance. At the same time, we'll need to tap into our operating budget to get that done. It's to be expected. You have a building, you take care of it. We have to keep working hard at it. Having more interesting programs and more relevant programming people will want to take part. Membership is a large part of our base. But you don't join just to pay for the building.

There's something about the culture that needs to be articulated, defined, presented and put out for discussion and preserved for the future. That's why people are members.

Q: What are some new programs?

A: The board just approved the budget for next year. We're going to be hiring someone for the resource center as a librarian. That's the first time in 10 years that there's been an employee in that position. If there's something that needs your attention quickly it's that. World War II is a very important event in the history of the Japanese-American person in the country and here in Hawaii. Where are those veterans now? They are in their 80s. If we don't hurry up and do all these things, it's going to be gone. So I am very keen on getting that resource center up and going. I can only credit the people who have been volunteering all these years. I cannot tell you what it's like being with all these people who are just so dedicated.

Among my hopes is that we'll be able to grow membership. I think that there are a lot more people out there that, given the opportunity, would join.

Q: What's your membership? What's your target?

A: About 5,000 right now. I'd love to see us at 10,000. Absolutely. Hopefully by the end of 2006. That's pretty aggressive, but if we work hard, it will happen.