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| Thomas Takashi Sato |
Thomas Takashi Sato
(Poston camp 3) was born in San Gabriel, California 1921 to Japanese
immigrant parents, Tamekichi and Koyoshi (Nakaji) Sato. When Tom was 12 years
old, his parents took the family from their San Gabriel Valley farm and went to
Japan. Tom returned to the United States in
1940 at the age of 19, and graduated from Monterey High School in 1942.
After the signing of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, Tom was relocated to the Poston concentration camp 3 in Arizona with his brother, Hiroshi Ken Sato and his wife, Emma. Tom left Poston on February 10, 1944 and went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he attended and graduated from LDS Business College in Salt Lake City. His bilingual English/Japanese skills allowed him to obtain a job at the U.S. Library of Congress translating Japanese war documents for the U. S. Office of Strategic Services. He attended graduate school at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC.
After World War II, he was employed as a research analyst in the Anti-trust & Cartel Division, Economic & Scientific Section, U.S. General Headquarters under General Douglas McArthur.
After the signing of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, Tom was relocated to the Poston concentration camp 3 in Arizona with his brother, Hiroshi Ken Sato and his wife, Emma. Tom left Poston on February 10, 1944 and went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he attended and graduated from LDS Business College in Salt Lake City. His bilingual English/Japanese skills allowed him to obtain a job at the U.S. Library of Congress translating Japanese war documents for the U. S. Office of Strategic Services. He attended graduate school at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC.
After World War II, he was employed as a research analyst in the Anti-trust & Cartel Division, Economic & Scientific Section, U.S. General Headquarters under General Douglas McArthur.
Tom met
Miss Eunice Noda on a blind date in Washington, D.C. They were married on
December 9, 1950. They had a daughter and twin sons before moving to Long Beach
in 1956.
While Mrs.
Eunice Sato was busy in politics and active in a variety of community organizations,
Tom was deeply involved in the commercial fishery business. He was the
president of Tokyo Commercial Company, which at one time had ranked as number
one of the leading exporters of frozen tuna to the United States. His wife, Eunice Sato ran for public
office in 1975, won a seat on the Long Beach City Council and, in 1980, was the
first woman to serve as mayor in Long Beach.
Tom later
went to work for Star-Kist Foods on Terminal Island where he worked for 20
years before retiring in 1983. Tom also founded Marine Trading
Inc., which sold commercial fishing boats on the international market. He
established two offshoot companies, United Southsea, Inc. and White Fuji, Inc.
Tom and his
wife, Eunice Noda Sato raised their family in Long Beach, California, and they
were members of the Silverado Methodist Church in Long Beach. He golfed
and traveled world-wide, including trips to Japan, China, Taiwan, American
Samoa, New Caledonia, Europe, and Seychelles islands in the India Ocean.
Thomas
Takashi Sato, 92, resident of Long Beach, California died on March 2,
2013. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Ken (Emma Manaka) Sato;
and sisters, Yoshihiko Sato, who died at birth, and Kiyo (Frank) Ogata.
He is
survived by his wife of 63 years, Eunice (Noda) Sato (former mayor of Long
Beach, CA); daughter, Charlotte Sato and her husband David Beales of Elk Grove,
CA; sons, Daniel (Leslie) Sato of Denville, NJ and Douglas (Helen) Sato of
Lakewood, CA; and sister, Sadako Sato of Wakayama, Japan; and niece, Hisako
Tajima, of San Francisco, CA.
Sources:
Orange County Register on March 6, 2013
Orange County Register on March 6, 2013
Long Beach
Press Telegram
