Esther Takei Nishio

Esther Takei Nishio (February 15, 1925 – October 1, 2019) was an American woman from California, incarcerated at the Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado during World War II. She was the first Japanese-American student to enroll in a California university after returning from camp, in 1944, when she was chosen as a test case for resettlement.

Early life Esther Kazue Takei was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Shigehisa "Harry" Takei and Ninoe Takei. She was raised in Venice Beach, where her Japanese-born parents ran concession stands along the pier. At age 6, she was chosen to be a "mascot" for the Japanese team at the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.

World War II As a teenager, a senior at Venice High School, she was incarcerated with her family at Granada War Relocation Center in Granada, Colorado, from 1942 to 1944 following the signing of Executive Order 9066. "I thought, well, I guess, as a good American citizen, we have to do what the government wants us to do," she recalled many years later. She also briefly worked as a live-in servant for a family in Boulder, Colorado. During her time as a student, she lived with the family of Hugh Anderson, a Quaker accountant in Altadena. Her enrollment was greeted with threats and harassment from anti-Japanese nativists in the area; sympathetic students and others volunteered to walk with her on campus, for her safety. "Her ultimately successful resettlement helped pave the way for the mass return of Japanese Americans to the West Coast beginning in January 1945," noted one profile.

Esther Takei married a fellow Japanese-American internee, Shigeto Nishio, in 1947; they had a son, John. She died in 2019, aged 94 years, in Pasadena, California.