Hosokawa, William K. 1915-

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HOSOKAWA, William K. 1915-

(Bill Hosokawa))

PERSONAL: Born January 30, 1915, in Seattle, WA; son of Setsugo and Kimiyo (Omura) Hosokawa; married Alice Tokuko Miyake, August 28, 1938 (died, 1998); children: Michael C., Susan (Mrs. Warren Boatright), Peter E., Christie (Mrs. Lloyd C. Harveson). Education: University of Washington, B.A., 1937. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Protestant preference."

ADDRESSES: Home—140 South Upham Ct., Denver, CO 80226.

CAREER: Writer for Singapore Herald, Singapore, 1938-40, Shanghai Times and Far Eastern Review, Shanghai, China, 1940-41; Heart Mountain Sentinel, WY, editor, 1942-43; Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA, editor, 1943-46; Denver Post, Denver, CO, associate editor, 1946-83; editorial page editor, beginning 1977; Rocky Mountain News, ombudsman, 1985-93. Author of weekly column, Rocky Mountain Jiho. Lecturer in journalism, University of Colorado and University of Northern Colorado. Delegate, Japanese-American Assembly, 1972; member of board of directors, Iliff School of Theology, 1985-91.

MEMBER: American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors (president, 1956), American Association of Newspaper Editors, Japanese American Citizens League, Colorado Freedom of Information Council (president, 1988-91), Japan America Society of Colorado (senior vice-president, 1992), Denver Press Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished achievement award, Japanese-American Citizens League, 1952; Nisei of Biennium, 1958; Western Heritage Award from Cowboy Hall of Fame, 1966; named Outstanding Colorado Journalist by University of Colorado School of Journalism, 1967; named Outstanding Journalist by the Colorado chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, 1976; Outstanding Communicator Award, Denver Press Club, 1985; Japanese Order of the Rising Sun (gold rays with neck ribbon), 1987; Lowell Thomas award, Colorado Society of Professional Journalists, 1990; honorary D.H.L., University of Denver, 1990; World Citizen Award, Institute of International Education (Denver, CO), 1991; inducted into American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors Hall of Fame, 1998.

WRITINGS:

under name bill hosokawa

Nisei: The Quiet Americans, University Press of Colorado (Boulder, CO), 1969, published with a new afterword, 1992, revised edition, 2002.

(With Jim Yoshida) The Two Worlds of Jim Yoshida, Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.

Thunder in the Rockies: The Incredible "Denver Post," Morrow (New York, NY), 1976.

Thirty-five Years in the Frying Pan, McGraw (New York, NY), 1978.

(With Robert A. Wilson) East to America: A History of the Japanese in the United States, Morrow (New York, NY), 1980.

JACL in Quest of Justice, Morrow (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Mike Masaoka) They Call Me Moses Masaoka: An American Saga, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987.

Old Man Thunder, Father of the Bullet Train, Sogo Way (Denver, CO), 1997.

Out of the Frying Pan: Reflections of a Japanese American, University Press of Colorado (Niwot, CO), 1998.

(With Shinsaku Sogo) From Foe to Friend: One Man's Experience in Japanese/American Trade, Fulcrum (Golden, CO), 2002.

Colorado's Japanese Americans, University Press of Colorado (Boulder, CO), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: William K. Hosokawa overcame discrimination early in his career to make a name for himself as one of the top newspaper editors in the United States. Hosokawa's parents were Japanese immigrants, raising their children in Seattle. Hosokawa first demonstrated his interest in journalism while attending high school, where he edited the sports page of the weekly newspaper. While attending the University of Washington, he was urged by his advisor to choose another course of study, because no newspaper in the country would hire a Japanese reporter at that time. Hosokawa chose to continue his studies, but after graduation, he found that the advisor had been correct. Unable to find work in the United States, he went to the Far East, where he worked as a reporter for the Singapore Herald, Shanghai Times, and Far Eastern Review.

Hosokawa returned to his homeland five weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a few months later he found himself living in one of the detention camps that had been quickly established for Japanese-Americans by the American government, spurred by fears that this ethnic group posed a threat to national security. Hosokawa eventually ended up in the camp at Heart Mountain, in Wyoming. He became editor of the camp's weekly newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel. It wasn't until 1943 that he was allowed to leave the detention center and go to work as a copy editor at the Des Moines Register. A few years later he moved to the Denver Post, where he served in several capacities, including copy desk chief and page one editor. After a stint in Korea as a war correspondent, he returned to take over the Denver Post's Sunday magazine, Empire. Under his direction, it became one of the country's most successful Sunday magazines.

In an interview for the Chips Quinn Scholars Web site with Kristen Go, Hosokawa was asked how he coped with the injustice of his long internment. He replied: "Of course, there was disappointment in me, anger in me. But I don't think I was ever consumed by anger. There are some Japanese Americans who are still very angry about it. But when people ask me about that, I tell them there are a lot of other things to do in life, and if I remained angry for 50 years I would go crazy." Asked what lessons young journalists might learn from his experience, he mused, "It's that the opportunity is there if you are prepared to seize it. You have to be qualified. You have to have an education. But if you have the stuff to make good with, the opportunity is there."

In addition to his long career as a newspaperman, Hosokawa is also the author of several books, many of them focusing on the experiences of Japanese-Americans. The first was Nisei: The Quiet Americans. First published in 1969, it was issued in a revised edition in 2002. "Nisei" is a word meaning the first generation born in America to Japanese parents, and the book is divided into three sections: before World War II, during the conflict, and after. Blending straight history with memoir, this detailed work does a "sensitive job of balancing subjective and objective elements" of the story, reported a contributor to Kliatt. In the New York Times Book Review, Gladwin Hill called the book "an absorbing chronicle of this important slice of history," and noted that Hosokawa covers the story with "detachment," even though he lived through the painful experience of evacuation.

In East to America: A History of the Japanese in the United States, Hosokawa and Robert A. Wilson "show how Japanese-Americans have overcome stiff odds to make vital contributions to the United States," wrote John K. Roth in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. The authors report that after 1907, Japanese entry into the United States was restricted and then prohibited altogether for nearly thirty years by the Immigration Act of 1924. Moreover, first-generation arrivals—known as the Issei—had no access to citizenship via naturalization; being neither white nor black, they were excluded by legal interpretations based on racial criteria. Roth praised the book, saying it "meets the need for a scholarly overview of a minority too little studied." Hosokawa took a more personal stance in Out of the Frying Pan: Reflections of a Japanese American. The first half of this book is a memoir, relating his early years and experiences in the detention camps, while the second half of the book is a collection of his columns and essays. Hosokawa is praised for his even tone in this narrative as well. Tom Walker stated in a Denver Post review: "Although it would have been easy to write his story from the realm of the self-righteous, there's a dignity in Hosokawa's writing that allows no hatred, no self-pity. It's straight down the line journalism and a remarkable story."