From DiscoverNikkei.org

Bill Hosokawa

Journalist, editor and author (1915-2007)

William Kumpai Hosokawa was a journalist, editor, and author. Trained in journalism at the University of Washington, he took assignments in Singapore and Shanghai before returning to Seattle only weeks before December 7, 1941. During his incarceration at Heart Mountain he organized and edited the daily newspaper, The Heart Mountain Sentinel. After his release, he relocated to Des Moines, Iowa, then to Denver, Colorado, taking a copy desk position with The Denver Post, where he eventually became an editor. Upon his retirement from the Post he served as reader representative at the Rocky Mountain News.

  • Obituaries:
Tom McGhee, "Editor stood against bigotry". The Denver Post, November 13, 2007.
Jack Broom, "Newsman Bill Hosokawa defeated bias, his own anger". The Seattle Times, November 14, 2007.
Elaine Woo, "Bill Hosokawa, 92; journalist overcame internment and prejudice". Los Angeles Times, November 18, 2007.
Columnist John Temple reflects on Bill Hosokawa's life, upon the occasion of Hosokawa's being honored with the Anti-Defamation League's 2007 Civil Rights Award.
"Kristen Go (Chips Quinn Scholar '96, '97) recently interviewed Bill Hosokawa, the first Japanese American editor at the Denver Post, about his 54-year journalism career. In his passion and perseverance lie a story for all of us to learn from, no matter our generation or race."
In this opinion piece Smith writes an appreciation of Hosokawa's efforts to pioneer Colorado's development as an international business center.

Works

"In Colorado’s Japanese Americans, renowned journalist and author Bill Hosokawa pens the first history of this significant minority in the Centennial State. From 1886, when the young aristocrat Matsudaira Tadaatsu settled in Denver, to today, when Colorado boasts a population of more than 11,000 people of Japanese ancestry, Japanese Americans have worked to build homes, businesses, families, and friendships in the state."
"Hailed at the time of its publication in 1969, Bill Hosokawa’s Nisei remains an inspiring account of the original Japanese immigrants and their role in the development of the West. Hosokawa recounts the ordeals faced by the immigrant generation and their American-born offspring, the Nisei; the ill-advised government decisions that led to their uprooting during World War II; how they withstood harsh camp life; and their courageous efforts to prove their loyalty to the United States."
Hosokawa contributed occasional columns to Los Angeles' Rafu Shimpo; this column was his last.
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