Mitsumyo Tottori

Mitsumyo Tottori (May 6, 1898 January 6, 1976) was a Buddhist priest and missionary who was active in Hawaii. He was one of the few Buddhist priests in Hawaii who was not interned during World War II, and is best known for the memorial tablets he created for Japanese American soldiers in the 442nd and 100th.

Early life and education Tottori was born in Shizuoka, Japan on May 6, 1898. He studied at what is now Shuchiin University, and graduated in 1924. He then studied at the Koyasan before being assigned a mission in Hawaii.

Hawaii Tottori moved to Hawaii in 1925 and served at the Hawaii Shingon Mission in Honolulu. In 1927 he became the priest at the Komyoji Temple in Wailuku. He met and married Aiko Fujitani before returning to Oahu to serve at the Koshoji Temple in Haleiwa.

Throughout the war, Tottori held private services and wrote memorial tablets for Japanese American soldiers who had died on the battlefield. He maintained a prayer book for them regardless of their own religious beliefs. He also gave them posthumous Buddhist names. After World War II, he conducted services for men who died in the Korean War. He was also awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government.

Tottori died on January 6, 1976.