MURASE, KENJI KENNETH "KENNY", PhD (1920-2009)

   

 Kenji Murase, PhD

      Kenji Kenneth "Kenny" Murase (Poston 308-1-C) , was born on January 3, 1920  in Parlier, California to Japanese immigrant sharecroppers, Mantsuchi and Moto Murase.  He grew up in a  poor family.  He graduated as valedictorian of his Reedley High School class. His  parents did not support his desire to attend college, so he ran away from the family farm, first to U.C.L.A., then U.C. Berkeley, where he was a member of the Japanese Students Club.  His  junior year at U.C. Berkeley was interrupted by the wartime evacuation and incarceration of Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 

     Kenny, his parents and brothers, Charles Manichi and Yoshio Murase,  were evacuated from Reedley, California and first transported on a hot, dusty railroad trip to the station at Parker, Arizona on August 4, 1942.  From there, they continued on a hot, dusty trip out into to the Arizona desert to their final destination at  Poston camp III, block 308-1-C.  

      At Poston, Kenny was worked as the City Editor for the Poston III Press Bulletin, the camp's newspaper.  He  served as the Poston III Representative on the Poston Student Relocation Council, an affiliate of the National Japanese American Relocation Council, which was staffed by the American Friends Service Committee, and promoted by Eleanor Roosevelt.   

    Kenny Murase worked hard to find a way to continue his college education and inquired at Wayne State University in Michigan,  which was the first college to accept a student from the internment camps, until the Detroit City Council adopted a resolution stating that Japanese American students were not welcomed.  Finally, on October 7, 1942 , Kenny departed from the Poston internment camp to attend Temple University in Haverford, Pennsylvania.  His younger brother, Yoshio,  left Poston on February 4, 1944 to attend college in Pocatello, Idaho, and his older brother, Charles,  left Poston to attend college in Chicago on April 3, 1944.  His parents remained at Poston block 308-1-C for the duration of World War II, and finally was able to leave Poston on January 16, 1945 and return to their home near Reedley, California.

     In 1944, Kenny earned a B.A. degree from Temple University, and married Kimi Tanaka (Poston 308-10-D)  in Philadelphia. He went on to earn a Master's degree in social work in 1947, and became the first American Fulbright Scholar in Japan in 1952.  He spent a year at Osaka University and studied the needs of war orphans as well as teaching social work. 

     Kenny Murase served as the field director for Columbia University School of Social Work "Mobilization for Youth Project, which involved low-income, ethnic households in Manhattan's Lower East side, as part of President L. B. Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s.  Kenny earned a Doctorate in Social Work in 1961 from Columbia University.     Kenny was one of the first faculty members recruited for the new Graduate School of Social Work & Social Research at San Francisco State University in 1967, where he taught for 23 years.  
      He authored many publications on the mental health and social service needs of Asian Pacific Americans.  He served on the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Minority Affairs,  the National Association of Social Worker’s National Task Force on Minority Research, and consulted for the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and the President’s Commission on Mental Health. He wrote the original United Way proposal to fund United Japanese Community Services, the Japanese Community Youth Council, and Kimochi, Inc. a senior program in San Francisco.  He also conducted community needs assessments for planning the future Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and the Kokoro Assisted Living Facility projects.

     Kenji Murase, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Social Work Education at San Francisco State University, died at the age of 89 years, in San Francisco on June 2, 2009. He was  preceded in death by his  (social worker) wife, Seiko (Ota) Murase (2007); father,  Mantsuchi (1956);  mother, Moto (1977); and brothers,  Charles Manichi (1997) and Yoshio (2006).

     His is survived by daughters, Emily (Neal), and Miriam (Greg); and son, and Geoffrey (Christine).

Sources: http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-06-15/bay-area/17208094_1_social-work-asian-american-students-internment

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/news/jun09/kenjimurase.html

http://rafu.com/news/2009/06/kenji-murase-89-professor-of-social-work-at-sfsu/

http://www.pacificcitizen.org/node/368

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