Nao Takasugi (April 5, 1922 – November 19, 2009) was an American politician from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, a member of the Republican Party, and a survivor of the Japanese American internment camps.

Early life

Born and raised in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd-most-populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately west ...

, Takasugi was the valedictorian of his

Oxnard High School Oxnard High School (OHS) is a public four-year high school serving grades 9–12 in Oxnard, California. The school is part of the Oxnard Union High School District and serves students in the western portion of the city of Oxnard, north Port Hue ...

class and worked in the family grocery store, the Asahi Market, before he enrolled at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. After the Japanese attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

and President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's Executive Order 9066, he was pulled out of the university at the age of 19 and removed with other Japanese Americans to the Tulare Assembly Center, where he shared a converted horse stall with his family. While in Tulare, Takasugi worked as a teacher's aide at the camp high school, teaching business and Spanish. He was later transferred to the

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

camp at Gila River, Arizona.Nao Takasugi, 87; Former Internee was a Popular Oxnard Mayor, Assemblyman
" (November 24, 2009) ''Rafu Shimpo''. Retrieved November 4, 2014. In February 1943, Takasugi became one of 4,000 students released from camp to continue college and relocated to the East Coast. He earned his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

in 1945 and his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1946. After graduating from the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

school, he applied to multiple accounting firms in Philadelphia; he was turned down at each firm, later explaining, "They'd say, 'With that Asian face, we can't put you in the field." He instead returned to Oxnard to work in his family's Asahi Market. The Takasugi family had opened the store in 1907 and had left it in the custody of employee Ignacio Carmona when they were forced to enter camp. Upon the Takasugis' return from Gila River, Carmona returned control of the store to the Takasugis. In 1952, Takasugi married his wife, Judy, with whom he had five children, Scott, Russell, Ron,

Tricia Tricia is a feminine given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Patricia. It may refer to: ;People: * Patricia Tricia Brock (born 1979), American contemporary Christian singer-songwriter * Tricia Brown (born 1979), Australian rugby union player ...

and Lea.

Public service

After the City of Oxnard turned down his efforts to get a new sign for his family's market, Takasugi felt the city needed someone with a head for business to cut through the bureaucracy and decided to run for the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

and won a four-year term in his first election in 1976. He was reelected to the council in 1980 and then was elected Mayor of Oxnard in 1982. Takasugi won re-election as Mayor four more times before winning election to the Assembly. Takasugi won election to the California State Assembly in 1992, then becoming the only Asian American in the legislature at that time. A moderate, he succeeded conservative icon

Tom McClintock Thomas Miller McClintock II (; born July 10, 1956) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2009. His district stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the outer suburbs of Fresno; it includes Yosemite National ...

in the

Ventura County Ventura County () is a County (United States), county in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, California ...

based 37th district (formerly the 36th)."Complete Primary Results," by A.G. Block, California Journal, July 1992, p.357. He won easy reelection in 1994 and 1996 but

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s prevented him from running again in 1998. In the year 2000 Takasugi ran for a seat on the board of the Oxnard Harbor District and won. He remained in the position until retiring in 2008.

Later life

In his final year in the Assembly at the age of 76, Takasugi suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

while jogging outside his

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

apartment near the

California State Capitol The California State Capitol is the seat of the California state government, located in Sacramento, the state capital of California. The building houses the chambers of the California State Legislature, made up of the Assembly and the Senate, a ...

. The Takasugi family was featured in the book " The Greatest Generation" by

Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...

. During his interview with Brokaw, Nao Takasugi said "I find that I am compelled to remember the best – not the worst – of that time. To focus not on the grave deprivation of rights which beset us all, but rather on the countless shining moments of virtue that emerged from the shadows of that dark hour". At the age of 87, Takasugi died of complications from a stroke on November 19, 2009, at 8:20 P.M. at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Judy.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takasugi, Nao 1922 births 2009 deaths People from Oxnard, California American mayors of Japanese descent American politicians of Japanese descent California city council members Asian-American city council members Japanese-American internees California politicians of Japanese descent Mayors of places in California Republican Party members of the California State Assembly Temple University alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni 20th-century American politicians Burials at Ivy Lawn Cemetery Asian conservatism in the United States