Minoru Ikoma photo albums, August 1935- July 1938

Minoru Ikoma, born 1892, was a general manager of Nippon Yusen Kaisha (N. Y. K. Line) from Japan who lived with his family in Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon before the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and World War II. As an amateur photographer, Ikoma’s photos depict the NYK line ships coming to port, family trips, and social events.

Ikoma was one of the leading representatives of Japanese businesses in the Pacific Northwest. He launched his career in San Francisco, then worked in New York, Chicago, and Seattle. He spent over 20 years in the U. S. working for NYK and had taken over Seattle, the company’s most important trans-pacific routes, by 1935 and remained there until 1938. The Ikomas returned to Japan in 1938 so that Minoru could take a job as a Passenger Traffic Manager for the N. Y. K. Lines. During World War II he was considered to have been a Japanese Treaty Merchant operating in the U.S. at the orders of the Japanese Imperial Government. Minoru and his wife, Sai, had one daughter, Ayako Elizabeth Ikoma, later Mansfield, born in 1922 in New York. Ayako graduated from Queen Anne High School (Seattle) and attended the Burton Girls Summer Camp on Vashon Island before returning to Japan with her family and working as a translator following World War II.

Source: Zephyr used & Rare books description