Kenichi Takahashi
Sept. 1, 1920 – June 20, 2018
Kenichi Takahashi was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the fishing village of East San Pedro on Terminal Island. His father, Torao Takahashi (later the plaintiff in Takahashi vs the California Fish and Game Commission), was a commercial tuna fisherman, and through the early 1940’s sailed the Pacific coast in pursuit of his catch often with his son by his side. But with the start of World War II, Kenichi spent much of the war imprisoned in an internment camp like so many Japanese Americans. In 1944 he was drafted in the Army and just after the surrender sent to Japan with the Military Intelligence Service where he worked as a translator for the Tokyo War Crimes trials. Here he met a young Japanese typist, Tomiko Ishida, who became his wife.
Kenichi spent over forty years in Japan working as a mechanical engineer for the U.S. Army. After retiring in the 1990’s, he and Tomiko moved to the U.S., eventually settling in Colorado. Tomiko passed in 2010 but he is survived by his children Lilian and Terry, and his 3 grandchildren, Ian, Adam, and Chris.