James Sakamoto

James Yoshinori Sakamoto (, March 22, 1903 – December 3, 1955) was a Japanese American journalist, boxer, and community organizer. He established the first English-language Japanese American newspaper, the Japanese American Courier, in 1928, and became a prominent national figure as a founding member of the Japanese American Citizens League.

Early life Sakamoto was born in Seattle to Osamu and Tsuchi Sakamoto, Issei who had immigrated to the United States from Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1894. He became a star athlete at Franklin High School, leading the football team to its first victory against cross-town rival Broadway High in 1920. That same year, Sakamoto, then 17, testified before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. Preparing for an upcoming revision to U.S. immigration law, the committee had been charged with collecting information on Asian Americans living in the West Coast states — and Sakamoto's testimony that he "wanted to be American more than Japanese" was received favorably. The Courier was instrumental in promoting and organizing Nisei sporting events, publicizing and encouraging Nisei social groups. Sakamoto would type out the stories on a typewriter, while his wife Misao took charge of the paper's layout and printing, in addition to managing the paper's business operations. By 1940, its readership had grown to 4,275. In the Courier final issue, published April 24, 1942, Sakamoto urged Japanese Americans to accept the forced removal without a fight, calling it their "patriotic contribution."

He was removed to the Puyallup Assembly Center (euphemistically dubbed "Camp Harmony" by the Wartime Civilian Control Administration), where army officials allowed the Emergency Defense Council to take charge of much of the administration of the camp. As chief supervisor of the "Japanese staff," Sakamoto and his JACL appointees held a sizeable share of control in the assembly center's day-to-day management — an arrangement that proved unpopular with many Puyallup inmates who viewed the JACL as government collaborators, or "inu" (literally, "dogs"). Sakamoto was transferred to Minidoka in the fall of 1942, but War Relocation Authority restrictions on inmate self-governance in the larger "relocation centers" — combined with growing anti-JACL sentiment — effectively ended his role as a camp leader.

Misao and the couple's two older daughters took advantage of the WRA's resettlement program and left camp for Indiana, while Sakamoto remained in Minidoka to care for their youngest daughter and his elderly parents. After the war, the family returned to Seattle, where, unable to finance a new start for the Japanese American Courier, they lived on government assistance until Sakamoto was able to find a job with the St. Vincent de Paul Salvage Bureau, a Catholic-run charity thrift store. He was struck by a car while walking to work on December 3, 1955, and died later that day.