Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi

Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi (née Setsuko Matsunaga; October 17, 1921 – November 18, 2012) was a pioneering community activist and researcher in the area of American race relations as well as professor of sociology at the City University of New York where she taught the first courses on Asian American studies.

Early life and education Born in Los Angeles, Nishi was the daughter of Hatsu and Tahei Matsunaga who had emigrated to the United States from Kumamoto, Japan. Her father was a hotel owner in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School before enrolling as a music student at the University of Southern California. A trained classical pianist, she often played with her sister Helen who was a violinist. Despite writing a telegram to President Roosevelt complaining about "internment as undemocratic", she had to interrupt her studies and her music career in spring 1942 when, as Japanese Americans, she and her family were incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and signing of Executive Order 9066.

Nishi died in Cape Breton, Canada, on November 18, 2012. She is survived by her five children: Geoffrey, Lisa, Paula, Stefani, and Mia, and six grandchildren: Emiko, Lian, Mia, Béla, James, and Chloe.

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