Sakaye Shigekawa

Sakaye Shigekawa (January 6, 1913 – October 18, 2013) was an American physician who specialized in obstetrics. Born to Japanese-American parents, she was imprisoned and forced to live and work at an internment camp in California, providing medical care to fellow Japanese-American internees during World War II. She completed her training in Chicago before returning to Los Angeles in 1948, where she practiced for more than 50 years.

Early life Shigekawa was born in 1913 in South Pasadena, California. Her father, Tsunetaro Shigekawa, worked as a gardener and a hog farmer, while her mother, Shina (Nagasaki) Shigekawa, was a picture bride; both had migrated to the United States from Shikoku. She and her twin sister, younger sister, and younger brother grew up in a house on Central Avenue in Los Angeles, in a neighborhood that housed numerous Japanese Americans. She was inspired to become a physician when her father was hospitalized for pneumonia. After graduating from Jefferson High School, she studied at University of Southern California (USC) and then the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago. She graduated from Loyola in 1940.

Career Shigekawa completed her medical internship at Mercy Hospital in Bay City, Michigan, where she became the second female medical intern.

In 1993, Shigekawa received Loyola University's Stritch Award "for outstanding research or humanitarian contributions in medicine". She served as president of Japanese Community Health Inc. and was a member of the Japanese American Medical Association.

Death Shigekawa died in Los Angeles on October 18, 2013, aged 100.