01 Mar Passing of Kanji Sahara, former Vice-president, community activist and visionary extraordinaire
Kanji Sahara d February 15, 2025
The Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition (TCDSC) is deeply saddened by the passing of Kanji Sahara, former Vice-president, community activist and visionary extraordinaire. A key figure in keeping the history of World War II’s incarceration alive, it was his passion to expand the mission of the TCDSC to highlight the detention of persons of Japanese, German and Italian decent and to prevent injustice of any kind. This passion has been indelibly stamped upon all who knew him.Tuna Canyon Coalition President Oda said, “Kanji’s bright light will shine forever.”
Kanji Sahara was born on April 4, 1934 in Hiroshima, Japan, during a family visit. Returning to Los Angeles at a few months old, Sahara grew up in “Uptown” a Japanese American enclave a few miles from Little Tokyo. With the advent of Pearl Harbor, life changed for both immigrants and citizens whose countries were at war with the United States, the largest being the Japanese American community. In April of 1942 the Sahara family was forced to leave their home and transported to Santa Anita Race Track, revisioned as an Assembly Center. From there they were relocated for incarceration in Jerome, Ark. from 1942 to 1944 and then to Rohwer, Ark. from 1944 to 1945.
At war’s end, the family resettled in Chicago where Sahara went on to receive his B.S. in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. After graduation, he returned to California as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company in Pomona where he met and married Jane Sachi Sakata and welcomed two children, Richard and Judy. After Raytheon Technologies acquired General Dynamics, the couple moved to Arizona before retiring in Torrance after 37 years developing rocket schematics.
‘Retirement’ allowed Sahara to pursue his passion, first as a docent at the Japanese American National Museum lecturing and guiding visitors through the World War II experience. Sahara deepened his involvement in the ensuing years: Past president of both the East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center and the Greater Los Angeles Japanese American Citizens League; founder and leader of El Camino College’s Democratic Club; the Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force; continuing his speaking engagements including the ABCUSD Day of Remembrance and activism and visiting all ten Japanese American interment camps. Among his other honors, Sahara was awarded the National Bienimum Award and prestigious Nisei Week Pioneer Award in 2023.
At a Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Meeting, Sahara met Kyoko Nancy Oda, who spoke of a World War II prison camp located in the foothills above Los Angeles. The former CCC camp had been repurposed to detain ‘enemy aliens’ considered ‘dangerous’ as leaders of the Japanese, German, Italian and Japanese Peruvian communities. On the night of December 7, 1941, immediately after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and mandated exclusively by Presidential Proclamations, the FBI began the arrests. Upon hearing the story Sahara enthusiastically embraced the TCDSC mission and joined the board of directors, eventually serving as Vice-president.
Sahara is remembered by the TCDSC board as a man with ideas and the determination to see them through. As one board member recalled, “Kanji was a very passionate guy who was totally committed to his grand plans for honoring those who were interned. He wanted to tell their stories and educate the world that this injustice should never happen again to all people!” Besides developing ideas for a memorial park, one of his proudest contributions was the organization’s traveling exhibit highlighting the over 2,000 detainees held at Tuna Canyon. This exhibit continues to travel from its opening at the Japanese American National Museum to the West coast and beyond, with future plans to travel to the United Kingdom.
As a visionary Sahara never stopped developing concepts and pursuing them, the latest being the acquisition and funding of the World War II Camp Wall in Torrance, California to honor all of those who had suffered injustices during the war, regardless of ethnicity. Fellow TCDSC board member and Torrance resident, Nancy Hayata, joined Sahara in his efforts and now shepherds his vision. Accompanied by a ukulele, his dry sense of humor and infinite kindness and generosity, Hayata recalls, “I learned so much from Kanji, he taught me to stick up for what I believe as he always did !”