Archives West Finding Aid

James ("Jimmie") Sakamoto was a prominent Nisei community leader, activist, and newspaper publisher renowned for his ardent American patriotism. He was born in Seattle in 1903 to Japanese immigrant parents who arrived in the Northwest in 1894. He graduated from Franklin High School in 1920. A year later, he helped to found the Seattle Progressive Citizens' League to oppose the city's anti-alien land law and various other proposed pieces of anti-Japanese legislation. In 1923, Sakamoto moved to the East Coast where he became a professional welterweight (often known as "featherweight") prize fighter. During this time he also worked as English editor of the New York City Japanese American Daily News and took classes at Princeton. In 1927, as a result of injuries suffered in the ring, he went blind and returned to Seattle shortly thereafter.

In 1928, Sakamoto established and became publisher of Seattle's English language newspaper, the Japanese-American Courier , which quickly boasted circulation figures over 10,000. In 1930, he helped to form the Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL) and from 1936-1938 served as the organization's second national president.

The advent of the War in the Pacific led to one of the most influential periods in Sakamoto's life -- the approximately four months he spent as "Chief Supervisor" at the Camp Harmony assembly center in Puyallup. There Sakamoto offered critical support and leadership for his fellow Japanese Americans and was, simultaneously, a trusted functionary of Army officials.

But World War II also brought the end to one of Sakamoto's longest-running professional accomplishments, the Japanese-American Courier newspaper, and compelled him to put aside his vigorous activist work for the JACL. Moreover, he, his wife Misao, their two young daughters, and his wife's parents were forced to leave their home -- along with nearly 13,000 other Washington State residents of Japanese descent -- and were incarcerated for three years at the Minidoka Relocation Center in southern Idaho. At Minidoka, Sakamoto's leadership efforts were not encouraged in the way they had been at Camp Harmony. Although he continued to mediate on behalf of his fellow Nisei -- such as writing letters to political figures (including President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and arbitrating disputes -- he served in no official political capacity.

Upon his release from Minidoka in July 1945, Sakamoto returned to Seattle with his wife and family. In 1946, he began working for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and remained there, as head of the Pick-up and Telephone Solicitation Department, until his untimely death in 1955 after being hit by a car while walking to work.