PARTNER

OBJECT ID

ddr-densho-37-673 (Legacy UID: denshopd-i37-00673)

PARENT COLLECTION

National Archives and Records Administration Collection

DESCRIPTION

Original WRA caption: Sakamoto family picture on golden wedding anniversary of Joseph Gerald Osamu Sakamoto and Mary Ann Tsuchi Sakamoto, both 80, at the Minidoka Relocation Center on December 11, 1943. Married in Japan, they came to the U.S. in 1894. Mr. Sakamoto was an early Seattle hotel proprietor. His son, James Y. Sakamoto, 40, is pictured with his family, Marietta Misao, wife, 37; Marie Mineyo, 11, Marcia Tsuyumi, 6, and Justine Denice, 8 months daughters. James Sakamoto, a U.S. citizen, attended Franklin high school in Seattle and studied at Princeton University in 1921 and 1922. He took up boxing and fought from ban tom weight to junior lightweight. He was probably the first person of Japanese ancestry to fight in Madison Square Garden. His left eye was injured and in 1927 in a fight in Utica, NY his right eye was blinded due to detachment of the retina. He returned to Seattle when he lost his sight entirely. Having done newspaper work in New York as English Editor of the Japanese-American, he turned to journalism in Seattle and on January 1, 1928 started publishing the Japanese-American Courier, first Japanese-American newspaper printed entirely in English. He is a past president of the Japanese American Citizens League.

CONTRIBUTOR

Densho

PREFERRED CITATION

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

RIGHTS