List of Japanese Americans

The Television & Movie Wiki: for TV, celebrities, and movies.

The following is a list of famous Japanese Americans who have made significant contributions to the American culture or society artistically or scientifically, or have appeared in the news numerous times:

Contents 1 Arts and Entertainment 2 News/Media 3 Military 4 Politics and Law 5 Science and Education 6 Sports 7 Misc Articles Wanted 8 see also

Arts and Entertainment

• Keiko Agena, actress (Gilmore Girls)
• Devon Aoki, model and actress
• Dean Cain, actor (born Dean Tanaka; one quarter Japanese)
• Tak Fujimoto, cinematographer of many Hollywood films including The Silence Of The Lambs and Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• James Iha, Guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle
• Willie Ito, animator/cartoonist for Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera
• Bob Kuwahara animator for Walt Disney and Terrytoons. Created Hashimoto-san series.
• Sean Ono Lennon, musician, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono
• Mako, actor
• Pat Morita, actor and comedian
• Kent Nagano, conductor, Los Angeles Symphony
• Jon Nakamatsu, pianist
• Isamu Noguchi, artist, sculptor, designer
• Ryo Okumoto, Spock's Beard band member
• Seiji Ozawa, director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973-2002
• Douglas Robb, lead singer of Hoobastank, whose mother is Japanese American
• Stan Sakai, cartoonist, creator of Usagi Yojimbo comic series
• Harold Sakata, Actor and Wrestler
• James Shigeta, actor
• Jenny Shimizu, fashion model, former girlfriend of Angelina Jolie
• Sab Shimono, actor
• Larry Shinoda, automotive designer noted for his work on the Corvette and the Boss 302 Mustang
• Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park band member (father is Japanese)
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor
• Iwao Takamoto, animator/producer for Hanna Barbera
• George Takei, actor, Sulu on Star Trek
• Iva Toguri D'Aquino, radio broadcaster who has been nicknamed "Tokyo Rose"
• Tamlyn Tomita, half-Japanese half-Filipino actress
• Utada, singer/songwriter. Multi-million selling Japanese pop music star. Topped Billboard Club chart with "Devil Inside" in 2004
• Rachael Yamagata, singer (second-generation Japanese-American father & German-Italian mother)
• Hiro Yamamoto, original bass player for Soundgarden
• Minoru Yamasaki, architect, best known for the New York World Trade Center "Twin Towers."
• Patti Yasutake, actress who played Nurse Alyssa Ogawa on Star Trek: The Next Generation

News/Media

• Ann Curry, newsreader on Today (mother is Japanese)
• Michiko Kakutani, author
• Ken Kashiwahara, former San Francisco bureau chief for ABC News
• Guy Kawasaki, author, Apple evangelist
• Robert Kiyosaki, financial expert and author
• Karuna Shinsho, news anchor for CNN and NHK

Military

• Alice K. Kurashige, the first Japanese American woman to be commissioned in the United States Marine Corps
• Eric Shinseki, United States Army General, Army Chief of Staff, 1999-2003

Politics and Law

• George Ariyoshi, first Asian American governor of a U.S. state, Hawaii
• S. I. Hayakawa, former Senator from California and linguistics scholar
• Gordon Hirabayashi, plaintiff in Hirabayashi v. United States, which challenged Japanese-American internment during World War II
• Mike Honda, Congressman from California and community leader
• Daniel Inouye, Senator from Hawaii
• Lance Ito, judge, presided over O. J. Simpson criminal trial
• Yuri Kochiyama, the Japanese American civil rights activist and friend of Malcolm X
• Fred Korematsu, Medal of Freedom reciepient who argued against the internment
• Spark Matsunaga, US Senator from Hawaii
• Robert Matsui, Congressman from California and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• Stan Matsunaka, Colorado State Senator
• Norman Mineta, politician and current Secretary of Transportation
• Patsy Takemoto Mink, congresswoman from Hawaii
• Paula A. Nakayama, Associate Justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court
• Paul Tanaka, Mayor of the City of Gardena and Assistant Sherrif of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Science and Education

• Ted Fujita, creator of the Fujita scale
• Francis Fukuyama, economist and historian
• Yamato Ichihashi, one of the first Asian academics in the US
• Michio Kaku, scientist known for his string field theory
• Dorinne K. Kondo, anthropologist
• Yoichiro Nambu, physicist
• Ellison Onizuka, first Asian American astronaut; one of the "Challenger Seven"
• Charles J. Pedersen, organic chemist, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry (mother is Japanese)
• Ronald Takaki (author), historian, UC Berkeley professor
• Susumu Tonegawa, Nobel Prize, Physiology or Medicine, 1987

Sports

• Chad Morton, running back for the Washington Redskins
• Johnnie Morton, wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs
• Hikaru Nakamura, chess grandmaster
• Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic short track speed skating competitor (father is Japanese)
• Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater
• Wally Kaname Yonamine, Football player, first Japanese American in the NFL

Misc Articles Wanted

• Kristina Reiko Cooper, cellist
• Laura Frautschi, violinist
• Glen Fukushima, Co-President and Representative Director, NCR Japan, Ltd., and former President, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
• Paul Igasaki, former Vice Chair and acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Kevin Kumahsiro, gay education expert
• Mari Matsuda, first tenured Asian-American, female law professor in the United States
• Karen Narasaki, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
• Sharon Tomiko Santos, Democratic Whip of the Washington State House of Representatives
• Hisako Terasaki, artist
• Dr Paul I. Terasaki, A pioneer in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing research. UCLA
• James Yaegashi, actor
• Dr James N. Yamazaki, WWII combat surgeon, Professor of Pediatrics, Co-author of "Children of the Atomic Bomb" UCLA
• Akira Yoshimura, production, Saturday Night Live
• James Yoshimura, producer, Homicide for HBO
• Roger Yasukawa, auto-racing driver (IRL)

see also

• 日系人ja:日系アメリカ人