KITANO, Harry H(aruo) L. 1926-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born February 14, 1926, in San Francisco, CA; died of a stroke October 19, 2002, in West Los Angeles, CA. Sociologist, educator, and author. Kitano was an expert in race relations in America, especially with regard to the Japanese-American experience. During World War II he and his family were among the many Japanese Americans who were unjustly sent to internment camps by the U.S. government. After the war he worked for a time as a farm hand and musician before enrolling at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned degrees in social work and sociology before receiving his doctorate in education and psychology in 1958. He then joined the staff of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) as an assistant professor, eventually becoming a professor of social welfare and sociology. At UCLA he also served twice as the acting director of the Asian-American Studies Center. Kitano first gained national attention in 1969 with his book Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture, which was the first book to discuss the Japanese-American experience from a sociological point of view. He was also the author of several other books, including Race Relations (1974; Kitano was working on the sixth edition when he died), and Generations and Identity: The Japanese American (1993). Most recently, he coauthored the 1999 book Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Notable Asian Americans, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2002, p. B15.