Local leader Kenji Takeuchi passes away
STOCKTON — Kenji Takeuchi had every reason to be bitter.
But he never lived with resentment.
Instead, Takeuchi devoted his life spreading peace and love.
Takeuchi died on Oct. 17 in Mission Viejo, where he spent the final years of his life close to his family, including sons Kevin and Derrick, both attorneys. He was 97 years old.
On Saturday at the Buddhist Church of Stockton, under cloudy skies, Gary Podesto, the former Stockton mayor, and Hiromasa Miyagishima, the former mayor of Shimizu City, Japan, were among a large gathering that paid tribute to a fixture in the Stockton Japanese community and far beyond.
“It was his goal always to have folks from other countries get together and that was the peace that he saw happening in the world,” said Podesto, Stockton’s mayor from 19972005 and a current resident of Aptos. “We need a lot more Kenjis.”
Born on Oct. 27, 1920 in Seattle, Takeuchi moved to Japan at the age of 4 along with his younger brother and older sister to learn the culture of their native land.
Takeuchi was educated in Japan until he was 16 years old, when just prior to World War II, the Japanese discovered he was an American and kicked him out of the country.
Takeuchi returned to the United States and was interred for four years during the war at the Tule Lake relocation camp. There, he met his wife of more than 60 years, Grace Itsuko Takeuchi, who passed away in 2010. Following the war, Grace and Kenji made their home in Stockton and in 1958 opened Charter Way Florist.
In 1959, Kenji went about healing some of the wounds between the U.S. and Japan, adversaries during a brutal and deadly world war. Takeuchi was instrumental, along with the Port of Stockton, in establishing the Stockton Sister Cities program. Shimizu, Japan, which later merged with Shizuoka, Japan, is Stockton’s first sister city.
“Next year marks the 60th anniversary between our two cities,” Miyagishima said through translator Hiroku Suzuki, who works for the Shizuoka City Association for Multicultural Exchange. “So, our relationship is one of the oldest between U.S. and Japan sister cities.”
Takeuchi visited Shimizu several times and helped foster exchange programs between American and Japanese students and teachers. He helped usher six more Stockton sister cities from around the world and in 2009 was the guest of honor at the program’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Takeuchi helped establish the San Joaquin County International Spring Festival, the Japanese Garden at Micke Grove and the Stockton/Lodi Gardener’s Club. He was director of the San Joaquin Florist Association and a 26-year sponsor of Southern Little League Baseball. Takeuchi was honored by the Buddhist Church of Stockton for his work on the Obon Festival and was awarded the Sacred Treasure Gold and Silver Rays by the Emperor of Japan for his community service and for promoting better understanding between the United States and Japan.
“He passed on to us to always think of other people and try to persevere through difficult times, which he did,” Derrick Takeuchi said. “He was able to make life much easier for us and provided us with the opportunity to get our education here and go onto working lives here in the U.S.”
Derrick said he carries on his father’s legacy through his career as an international business attorney.
“We do a lot of work with Japanese companies doing business in the United States, which we learned from our father,” Derrick Takeuchi said. “We deal with both worlds.”