Jiro Takahashi

Jiro Takahashi (b. 1886) was a Japanese-born fisherman who emigrated to Hawaii at the turn of the century. He never took to the United States, as he was suspicious of its culture, and he never learned English. He was disappointed with how immersed in American culture his sons Hiroshi and Kenzo had become by 1941.

Takahashi owned a fishing sampan called the Oshima Maru. The family was on the sampan working when word came that the Imperial Japanese Navy had attacked Pearl Harbor. Takahashi felt a great deal of pride, likening the attack to the Russian-Japanese War with excitement. He quickly realized that his sons did not share that excitement and national pride, but rather shared the American feelings of rage and embitterment.

He was one of the few Japanese smuggled out of Hawaii by submarine. He returned to his place of birth, Hiroshima.