Jack Fujimoto

Masakazu Jack Fujimoto (, July 19, 1928 – November 26, 2021) was an American academic administrator. He was the first Asian American to become president of a major higher education institution in the mainland of the United States when he became president of Sacramento City College in 1977. He was awarded with Japan's Order of the Rising Sun award on November 15, 2011, for his contributions to the advancement of Japanese language studies and the promotion of Japan studies and Japanese culture.

Biography Fujimoto was born in 1928 in National City, California, of parents Morizo (Issei from Hiroshima, Japan) and Emi (Nisei born in Glendale, California). When Fujimoto was 13, he was evacuated from Encinitas, California, along with his parents and siblings and interned at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona following the signing of Executive Order 9066. Fujimoto and his family were released from Poston in 1945, and they resettled in Encinitas. Following Fujimoto's graduation from high school, he volunteered in the U.S. Army, where he was trained in Counter-Intelligence and served in Japan during the Korean War. His younger brother is cinematographer Tak Fujimoto.

Honors ribbon bar Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2011.