Gikaku Steere Noda ( 1892 – March 29, 1986) was a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, and

baseball player Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

in the

State of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Early life

Noda was born in 1892 at the Ewa plantation to Esaki and Suma Noda, immigrants from Kumamoto, Japan. In 1905, six years after Takie Okumura started the first Japanese baseball team in Hawaii in 1899, Noda founded the Asahi Nisei Baseball Team. The team would later grow to become the Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA) baseball league. At 13 years old, he was the first baseman, captain, and general manager for the team. He graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute and Hawaii High School (a

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

school) in 1911. He married Alice Sae Teshima in 1912. He served in the Hawaii National Guard from 1916 to 1917.

Career

In 1912, Noda started working for the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

, making him the first

nisei is a Japanese language, Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the nikkeijin, ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or . The , or Second generation imm ...

to work in Hawaii's federal government. He later became the first nisei to work in Hawaii's judicial system when he obtained a position as a clerk for the Honolulu District Court in 1916. In 1924, he was licensed as an attorney. During his time as an attorney Noda also worked as a sports promoter for amateur and professional athletes from the mainland

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Noda served as member of Territorial House of Representatives from 1948 to 1958 and was a delegate to the 1950 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention. His time in the House of Representatives ended when he entered the

Hawaii State Senate The Hawaii State Senate ( Hawaiian: Ka ‘Aha Kenekoa) is the upper house of the Hawaii State Legislature. It consists of twenty-five members elected from an equal number of constituent districts across the islands and is led by the President o ...

in 1959. During his time in office he focused on helping the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

, and helped to end the 1949 dock strike. Throughout his life Noda did community service for the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts or Boy Scout may refer to: * Members, sections or organisations in the Scouting Movement ** Scout (Scouting), a boy or a girl participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America ...

and the

Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce The Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce is a business organization that promotes economic growth in Hawaii and Japan. History After the Chinatown fire of 1900, 37 Japanese businessmen formed the Emergency Japanese Association to help Japa ...

, and started the Honolulu chapter of the JACL. Noda died on March 19, 1986.

Honors

In 1967 Noda received the La Croix De Chevalier Avec Ruban from the International Amateur Wrestling Foundation. He earned the Fifth Class

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese honors system, Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge feat ...

by the Japanese government in 1968. It was awarded to him for his role in promoting goodwill and friendship between Japan and the United States. In 1970, he was given the National Award by the US Amateur Wrestling Foundation.

References

External links

Steere Gikaku Noda archival collection finding aid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noda, Gikaku 1892 births 1986 deaths American baseball players of Japanese descent 20th-century American sportsmen Hawaii politicians of Japanese descent Asian American and Pacific Islander state legislators in Hawaii Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th class 20th-century members of the Hawaii State Legislature