Don Matsuda Obituary

DON AND KIMI MATSUDA Celebrating the lives of Don and Kimi Matsuda: parents, teachers, organizers. We lost Grandpa Don Matsuda (born June 5, 1924) on March 3, 2024. He joined Grandma Kimiko Carolyn Ogata Matsuda (born January 14, 1925) who died of COVID on December 31, 2020. They are survived by children Mari, James, and Bill Matsuda, son-in-law Charles Lawrence, daughter-in-law Tracy Langhurst, and grandchildren Kimiko and Paul Matsuda-Lawrence, and Ben and Lucas Matsuda. Kimi Matsuda, second youngest of 10, grew up barefoot and poor at Makawele plantation, Kaua'i. She graduated from McKinley High, and went on to UH, where she was president of Hawai'i Youth for Democracy, part of the international student movement against fascism. Kimi says she got her political education at the Honolulu Labor Canteen, organized as a CIO-backed alternative to the segregated USO. After graduation, Kimi left for New York. A masters degree from Columbia, training in early childhood ed from Bank Street, and teaching at Wochika, the worker's children's camp, followed, as she dove into political action in NYC. She sold the Daily Worker outside the gates of Columbia, marched on Washington to end lynching, picked glass out of her hair at Peekskill, and organized with Nisei Progressives. Don Matsuda, oldest son of an oldest son/immigrant from Kin, Okinawa, was born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. He held records in track, and with his parents participated in the literary magazine LooChoo, and in the International Labor Defense. He was forced to leave his beloved multicultural home in LA by the unconstitutional WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. He was first sent to a horse stall at Santa Anita, then to frigid Heart Mountain, Wyoming. From behind barbed wire he lied about his age to volunteer at age 17 for what he called a war against fascism. He joined the 442nd, and was then sent as a replacement for the 100th Infantry "Purple Heart" Battalion. He credits the 100th old timers with keeping him alive through suicide missions like Vosages, Monte Cassino, and the Lost Battalion Rescue. He fell in love with the pidgin cadences and Hawaiian mele of his comrades, a prelude to falling in love with a Hawaii-born Nisei. Don returned to Chicago after the war, the only survivor of his machine gun squad. He attended the University of Chicago on the GI bill, won a Southside Golden Gloves championship, and dropped out to organize in the steel mills. Don and Kimi met and fell in love while organizing with Nisei for Wallace, supporting the Progressive Party candidate for president. They moved to LA, where they joined the American Society for the Protection of the Foreign Born, fighting politically-motivated deportations. During the McCarthy period, Don was called before HUAC and fired from 13 jobs, but the Matsudas never stopped fighting for peace, civil rights, and labor rights, raising their 3 children on the picket line. Kimi organized cooperative preschools, and joined the war on poverty as a Headstart trainer. Don ran an electronic repair shop. The Matsudas moved to Hawai'i when Kimi became Pacific Regional Training Officer for Headstart. She championed the Headstart philosophy: quality early childhood education changes lives. Kimi was an advocate for professional early childhood educator training and certification. She and Don closed out their careers at Honolulu Community College, she as an instructor in early childhood ed, and Don in electronics. They were the teachers who gave out their home phone number and fielded calls for advice from students past and present. Don and Kimi remained politically active in retirement, canvassing and sign waving for progressive Democrats, walking the picket line with ILWU and HGEA retirees, and protesting the building of a military base - and destruction of a reef - at Henoko, Okinawa. Kimi pushed a long-term care bill through the Hawai'i legislature, unfortunately vetoed by then-governor Lingle. Don participated in a weekly vigil with Veterans for Peace for the entire duration of the Iraq war, and authored the book Electronic Troubleshooting, which he wrote because "there are books that tell you how to fix something, but no books that tell you how to figure out what is wrong." The celebration of life for Don and Kimi Matsuda is at Hosoi Mortuary, August 30. Visitation 5pm, service 6pm. Arrangements Provided By: Hosoi Garden Mortuary