Frank Iritani: Champion for peace, tolerance and justice
By: Susanna Iritani Minard, Ken Iritani and Bonita Iritani
Topics: local history, bakersfield, Japanese Internment, civil liberties, japan, democrat, League of Women Voters, Kern Asian Pacific American, Human Relations Commission
Anonymous user Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:31:12 PDT
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Frank Iritani, a lifelong advocate for peace, tolerance, and social justice, died from pneumonia on September 30 in Sacramento, CA at the age of 87. He had lived in Bakersfield with his wife, Joanne, and children Susanna, Ken and Bonita, from 1962 to 1992. Frank had served as a social service worker for the Welfare Department of Kern County . He also devoted himself to improving understanding among and justice for all people through his volunteer work.
With his wife, Taeko Joanne Ono Iritani, herself an internee at the Poston, AZ, relocation camp, Frank set out in the 1980s to locate and document the remains of the nation’s 10 relocation camps, which the government had largely demolished after the war. The Iritanis wrote and published Ten Visits: Accounts of visits to all the Japanese American Relocation Centers, in 1994. Begun as a pamphlet of photocopied maps, descriptions and photographs for friends, Ten Visits was among the first publications to describe the nearly impossible to locate camps’ whereabouts, history, and current conditions. A third revised and expanded version of the book was published by the Japanese American National Museum in 1999 with all proceeds going to the museum.
During the summer of 1987 Frank and Joanne also traveled throughout the sprawling 22nd Congressional District from Lancaster to Arroyo Grande and the whole of Kern County. They met with former internees, non-internees, community and church groups, and legislators to build support for federal legislation, HR 442, which became the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The law included the establishment of a trust fund to pay reparations to the nearly 120,000 “persons of Japanese descent, aliens and non-aliens” (77,000 were U.S. citizens) who had been forcibly incarcerated in the American relocation camps.
In recognition of his work for this legislation he was invited to attend President Ronald Reagan’s signing of the bill in 1988.
Born outside Denver, Colorado, and raised on a farm, Frank was the oldest son of Japanese immigrants. In 1937, his parents sent the 16-year-old to Tokyo for two years of traditional education in a Buddhist school for Japanese Americans. His student tours took him all over Japan, Okinawa, and the far reaches of the Japanese Empire, including Korea and Manchuria. He experienced the rise of Japanese militarism and the start of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. He saw uncles whom he had just met receive orders to deploy to China to die in the war. After returning to the United States, he graduated from Englewood High School, studied for two years at the Colorado School of Mines then volunteered to serve in the Army. He joined the Military Intelligence Service at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. After Japan’s surrender, he was stationed in the Philippines then Tokyo, Japan as a translator and interpreter for two years.
His first-hand experience of the suffering caused by the war led him to search for ways to reduce human suffering through Christian ministry, education, and political activism.
Upon discharge from the MIS he earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1949. He became baptized during this time and later enrolled in the Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, Calif., where he attained a Bachelor of Divinity in 1955.
He was a Christian Minister assigned to Japanese American Methodist churches from Alameda, CA to Oxnard, then Portland, OR. In 1961 he changed careers and worked as a social service worker for first San Joaquin then Kern Counties.
For most of his adult life, Frank worked with community groups to educate others about their rights and responsibilities in a democracy. He organized and manned tables at festivals and shopping centers to register people to vote. He was an active member of the League of Women Voters. Frank was also a Central Committee member and state delegate of the Kern Democratic Party. For his service he received the Horace Massey Award as “The most dedicated Democrat of the Year.”
To promote "better human relations, awareness and involvement" among the diverse groups of Asians around Bakersfield, Frank and Joanne developed and published the Kern Asian Pacific American (KAPA) monthly newsletter from 1989 until 1992 . He was a founding member of the Kern County Human Relations Commission, a member of the St. Andrews United Methodist Church, a member of the Bakersfield-Wakayama Sister City program. Frank was also a Scoutmaster for his son's Boy Scouts of America troop.
Frank and Joanne moved to Sacramento in 1992 where they continued to be active community members and were honored by the Florin Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League’s Community Service Award in 2004.
Frank is survived by his wife of 52 years, Taeko Joanne and their three children, their spouses, and six grandchildren: Susanna Iritani Minard, Richard Minard, Jr., and son Alden of Bow, NH; Ken Iritani, Lesley Iritani and sons Daniel, Kevin, and Jacob of Sacramento, CA.; Bonita Iritani, Jon Hussey, and children Marisa and Alex of Chapel Hill, NC. He was predeceased by his sister Frances, formerly of Northglenn, CO and a brother, Dr. Roy Iritani, formerly of Honolulu, HI. He also leaves his brothers Will Iritani of Seattle, WA, and Dan Iritani of Englewood, Colo.; his cousin Mary Ida of Brighton, Colo., as well as nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends and colleagues, new and old.
A Memorial Service will be held on November 1 at Centennial United Methodist Church in Sacramento at 10 AM with a reception following in the Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Centennial UMC/ Frank Iritani Fund (5401 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95822, (916) 452-4477).
***
Susanna attended Bakersfield College, CSU-Chico, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan and CSU- Northridge. She is a speech-language therapist. Ken attended UC-Davis and is a manager at Oracle. Bonita attended UC-Santa Cruz, Stanford University and Bryn Mawr College. She is a researcher. They continue to cherish the lessons learned from their teachers at William Penn Elementary, Panama School, Stine School, Thompson Jr. High and West High School as well as from their parents, relatives and friends during their lives in Bakersfield.
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