Ken Kashiwahara

Ken Kashiwahara (born July 18, 1940) is a broadcast journalist. He was a correspondent for ABC from 1974 to 1998, and was one of the first Asian American journalists to appear on national television. On August 21, 1983, he was traveling with Ninoy Aquino when the exiled Filipino politician was assassinated upon his return to Manila, Philippines.

Early life and education Kashiwahara was born in Waimea, Kauai, on July 18, 1940. He is a third-generation Japanese American, and his parents were teachers. When he was ten years old, his family moved to Okinawa, but they returned to the United States and lived in Pennsylvania when Kashiwahara was a teenager. He later moved to Maryland and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1958. He entered Washington and Jefferson College,

In 1978 Kashiwahara met his wife, Filipino filmmaker Lupita Aquino, while covering a story on opposition to Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. She was the daughter of Benigno Aquino Sr. Aquino's brother, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was a political prisoner at the time who was later exiled. Kashiwahara was accompanying Benigno Aquino Jr. on August 21, 1983, when the exiled politician returned to the Philippines and was assassinated.

Kashiwahara won Emmy Awards for his stories in 1986 and 1988. In 1993 Kashiwahara was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Journalists Association and retired in 1998.