Jack Fujimoto

Jack Fujimoto

Masakazu Jack Fujimoto (born July 19, 1928) was the first Asian American to become president of a major higher education institution in the mainland of the United States when he became president of Sacramento City College in 1977.^[1] He was awarded with Japan's Order of the Rising Sun award on November 15, 2011 for his contributions to the advancement of Japanese language studies and the promotion of Japan studies and Japanese culture.^[2]

Biography

Fujimoto was born in 1928 in National City, California of parents Morizo (Issei from Hiroshima, Japan) and Emi (Nisei born in Glendale, California). When Fujimoto was 13, he was evacuated from Encinitas, California along with his parents and siblings and interned at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona.^[3] Fujimoto and his family were released from Poston in 1945, and they resettled in Encinitas. Following Fujimoto's graduation from high school, he volunteered in the U.S. Army, where he was trained in Counter-Intelligence and served in Japan during the Korean War.^[3]

Coming from a farming background, Fujimoto was expected to follow the tradition of oldest son following the patriarch. However, he was released to be the first in his family to pursue a college education and he obtained his A.A. degree at Pasadena City College and his B.S., M.B.A., and Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles.

Fujimoto's specialty in the Japanese language carried forth in his life. He taught Japanese language for 12 years at Venice Gakuen, a private community school at the Venice Japanese Community Center. He worked closely with Los Angeles Unified School District and Culver City Unified School District schools to get credit for Venice Gakuen Japanese language students to meet the language requirements for the University of California institutions. Today, that credit recognition continues to persist for all private Japanese language learners who pass a credit test.

In 1969, Fujimoto was selected as a dean at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. There, he established the Japanese language as an elective for college credit. He also introduced a course in Man and Humanities in East Asia. Subsequently, Fujimoto became president of West Los Angeles College in 1979, where he introduced and taught Japanese language as a recognized college elective course. He did the same when he became president at Los Angeles Mission College in the San Fernando Valley in 1989. Today, those courses of study in Japanese continue at these colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District. Fujimoto served as president at Los Angeles Mission College for seven years until 1996. From 2002 to 2003, he served as superintendent-president of Imperial Valley College in Imperial County, California.

While designing the Japanese language curriculum and humanities curriculum, Fujimoto visited various universities as well as the Ministry of Education in Japan. For 30 years, he served as advisor to Kobe Women's University in Kobe, Japan and also taught at the Language Institute of Japan in Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan.

For 12 years from 1983 to 1995, Fujimoto chaired the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, a graduate seminary affiliated with the Berkeley, California-based Graduate Theological Union.

Since 1986, Fujimoto has been connected with the Japanese Institute of Sawtelle in [Sawtelle, Los Angeles]. He orchestrated the merger of the Institute and its language school, Sawtelle Gakuin, and in 2000 became its founding chairman and president, a position that he held until 2005 when he chaired the 80th anniversary of the Institute and Gakuin. Today, he serves as senior advisor to the Institute and Gakuin. In 2007, he authored the book Sawtelle: West Los Angeles JapanTown, a pictorial history of the Sawtelle, Los Angeles Japantown.

Honors

Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2011.

Notes

↑ Rebecca Andrade (1997-08-01). "Fujimoto Guided Mission College's Growth". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
↑ "Recipients of Fall 2011 Decorations". Consulate-General of Japan in Los Angeles. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
1 2 Smith, Jennifer Ralton (August 26, 2002), "IVC's interim president recalls days of internment", Imperial Valley Press

External links

Arizona during World War II

People	John Brown, Jr. Thomas Claw Jack Fujimoto Harry K. Fukuhara Ira Hayes Satoshi Hirayama Friedrich Guggenberger Gordon Hirabayashi Philip Johnston Robert Taylor Jones Allen Dale June Yosh Kawano John F. Kennedy Yuriko Kikuchi Hans-Werner Kraus Peter MacDonald Doris Matsui August Maus Pat Morita Joe Morris, Sr. Michi Nishiura Isamu Noguchi Vincent Okamoto Ken Ota Miye Ota Kazuo Otani Sidney Preston Osborn Roy I. Sano Hideo Sasaki Reiko Sato Shinkichi Tajiri Miiko Taka Nao Takasugi Ronald Phillip Tanaka A. Wallace Tashima Hisako Terasaki Paul Terasaki Jürgen Wattenberg Hisaye Yamamoto Wakako Yamauchi Kenichi Zenimura

Airfields	Ajo Army Airfield Coolidge Army Airfield Dateland Army Airfield Davis-Monthan Army Airfield Douglas Army Airfield Ernest A. Love Field Falcon Army Airfield Gila Bend Army Airfield Hereford Army Airfield Kingman Army Airfield Laguna Army Airfield Luke Army Airfield Marana Army Airfield Ryan Army Airfield Sahuarita Flight Strip Thunderbird Field No. 1 Thunderbird Field No. 2 Williams Army Airfield Yucca Army Airfield Yuma Army Airfield

Ground training and storage	Camp Bouse Camp Horn Camp Hyder Camp Laguna Desert Training Center Gila Bend Gunnery Range Fort Huachuca Navajo Ordnance Depot Sahuarita Bombing & Gunnery Range Yuma Proving Ground

Internment camps	Catalina Honor Camp Gila River War Relocation Center Leupp Isolation Center Mayer Assembly Center Parker Dam Reception Center Poston War Relocation Center

Prisoner of war camps	Camp Continental Camp Florence Camp Pima Camp Papago Park

See also	American Theater Arizona World War II Army Airfields Bushmasters Castle Hot Springs Great Papago Escape Machita incident Nevada during World War II New Mexico during World War II Phoenix Massacre Thunder Birds USS Arizona

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