Bill Hosokawa dies at 92

Former Denver Post editor, internment camp survivor leaves legacy

By Joe Nguyen, AsiaXpress.com

Nov. 27, 2007

Bill Hosokawa was a Japanese internment camp survivor, a pioneer for Asian-American journalists, and for 60 years, a member of Denver's community.

Hosokawa died of natural causes on Nov. 9 in Sequim, Wash. where he lived with his daughter. He was 92.

“Bill Hosokawa was a giant in the Japanese-American community because of his books and decades of writing in JA publications,” said Gil Asakawa, director of content for Examiner.com. “But he was also a giant in the larger Asian-Pacific-American community. He was the highest-level Asian American in journalism and helped serve as a role model for many of us.”

Hosokawa wrote seven books and co-wrote two others. He was Denver's honorary Japanese consul for 25 years. And for 38 years, he worked for The Denver Post as a reporter, editor and columnist. It was a career he said he loved, but it had a rocky start.

In an interview with the Maynard Institute, he said he dreamt of becoming a journalist as a boy in Seattle. But while in college, he discovered the harsh reality when his classmates went to newspapers to work during Christmas break. Hosokawa, however, wasn't allowed to go.

“It was very obvious that if Bill Hosokawa, the Asian American, and Jack Armstrong, the All-American-Boy, went to apply for the same job – and we had identical qualifications – that I wasn't going to get the job,” he said in an interview with the Maynard Institute.

When he graduated in 1937, he had to travel overseas to find a job, working for the Singapore Herald and Shanghai Times. In October 1941, he returned to the U.S. to be with his wife. It was five weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

“In the eyes of the government, I was not a native-born American citizen — I was an enemy alien,” he said in an interview. “Why? Because my parents were born in Japan, a country with which we were at war.”

Seven months later, Hosokawa and his family – and thousands of other Japanese Americans – were sent to Camp Harmony in Puyallup, Wash. before being moved to Heart Mountain, Wyo. There, he began publishing an eight-page weekly called The Heart Mountain Sentinel.

After leaving the camp, he found work at The Des Moines Register in Iowa on the copy desk. In 1946, Hosokawa returned west and found work with The Denver Post where he climbed the ranks to become the editorial page editor, the highest-ranking position of any Asian-American journalist during his time.

"Bill Hosokawa was ever the gentleman, and unusually calm for a newspaper editor," said Fred Brown, retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post. "His wit was often sharp, and his language could be quite sharp sometimes, but he never raised his voice or an eyebrow. And he was a multitasker before the word was even invented."

After “retiring” in 1984, he became the readers' representive for the Rocky Mountain News. But Hosokawa never truly retired, he just went onto new opportunities.

“If there's any lesson, it's that the opportunity is there if you are prepared to seize it,” he said in an interview. “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.”

Joe Nguyen is the editor in chief of AsiaXpress.com. Joe can be reached via e-mail.