Betty Fujioka Obituary

BETTY CHIZUKO FUJIOKA On November 15, 2024, the matriarch of our family passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home. By coincidence, it was her mother's birthday. The eldest of six children of Lawrence Takeo and Ayako Kagawa, she was born on August 9, 1926, in Honolulu. She grew up in Kaimuki and attended Roosevelt High School, but did not graduate from there due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her father, L.T. Kagawa, was the founder of Occidental Life Insurance of Hawaii and considered by the FBI to be a leader within the local Japanese American community. So, in late 1942, the Kagawa family was shipped to the mainland (along with 1,300 other Hawai'i families), to join over 120,000 west coast Americans of Japanese ancestry, who were incarcerated in one of ten concentration camps located in the most inhospitable locations for the duration of World War II. The Kagawa family ended up in Jerome, Arkansas, where Betty would make the best of the circumstances by becoming her high school graduating class valedictorian behind barbed wire. She would go on with her sister, June Reinwald, to graduate from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She also met John Fujioka from Waialua, who was forced to leave USC Dental School in Los Angeles because of FDR's Executive Order 9066 and ended up completing dental school at St. Louis University in Missouri. They wed on March 4, 1951, and enjoyed almost 50 years of marriage before he passed in October 2000. While there were turbulent and uncertain times, she never displayed anger or harbored any ill will for what transpired during the war. She was a remarkable woman, full of beauty and grace, who gave of herself completely to her family. She is survived by sons, Robert (Carolyn) and Dr. Lawrence (Richelle); daughters, Patricia Ohtani, and Joanne (Jeffrey) Wahba; nine grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and three sisters, June Reinwald, Joy Tanaka, and Carol Ouchi. Private services were held by the family. In lieu of koden (monetary gifts), please make a donation to the charity of your choice in Betty Fujioka's memory. Arrangements Provided By: Hosoi Garden Mortuary