Shiro Kashiwa

Shiro Kashiwa (October 24, 1912 – March 13, 1998) was the first Attorney General of Hawaii to be appointed after it became a state in 1959. He served as a judge on the United States Court of Claims, then the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. from 1982 to 1986. He was the first Federal judge of Japanese-American descent, and was a member of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism.^[1]

Kashiwa was born in Kohala, Hawaii. He received a B.S. from University of Michigan in 1935, and was a member of Phi Kappa Phi. He received a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School in 1936. He was in private practice of law in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1937 to 1959. He was the first state attorney general of Hawaii, from 1959 to 1963. He was in private practice of law in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1963 to 1969. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney General of the Land and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice from 1969 to 1972. There he led the Division's first suit against a thermal polluter, oversaw a major case against Armco Steel,^[2] and represented the government at the Supreme Court.

In 1972 Kashiwa was appointed a judge to the United States Court of Claims by President Richard Nixon, to the seat held by James Randall Durfee. By operation of the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982 he was made a judge of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on October 1, 1982. Kashiwa retired on January 7, 1986.

He died in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Notes

1. The United States Court of Claims: a history / pt. 1. The judges, 1855-1976 / by Marion T. Bennett / pt. 2. Origin, development, jurisdiction, 1855-1978 / W. Cowen, P. Nichols, M.T. Bennett. Washington, D.C.: Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States. 1976. pp. 204–206 of pt. 1.
2. Shiro Kashiwa biography at U.S. Dept. of Justice website

Sources

• Shiro Kashiwa at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: A History: 1990–2002 / compiled by members of the Advisory Council to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in celebration of the court's twentieth anniversary. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 2004. LCCN 2004050209.