It was 50 years in the making, but Zenichiro Uchida was finally
recognized as a man who changed lives and altered the course of
Japanese American relations.
San Francisco – It was 50 years in the making, but Zenichiro Uchida was finally recognized as a man who changed lives and altered the course of Japanese American relations.
Uchida was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays – the highest honor a civilian can receive – by the Japanese government Thursday night at Consulate General of Japan’s San Francisco home. Uchida, 84, died March 29 – four days after learning he would receive the honor. His son, Ted Uchida, accepted the award in his place.
“If my dad was here he’d say ‘This award is for all of us,'” Ted said. “I know that he’d say, ‘It’s not me who did it all. It’s all of you. We made history together. We got this award together.'”
Uchida brought the first wave of Kagoshima immigrants from Japan to America in the 1950s after campaigning the U.S. government for 325 visas for immigrants to establish a new life in America. He was inspired to immigrate the U.S. after participating in a cultural exchange program to learn American farming techniques in 1953.
Throughout the 1950s Uchida traveled back and forth between the two countries comforting the families and encouraging the original 325 men he had promised a better life to while they struggled with homesickness and fatigue in labor camps. He served as a father figure to all, traveling up and down the coast of California, checking up on the immigrants he convinced to come here. He is credited with bringing about 1,500 Kagoshima immigrants to the U.S.
The Uchida family invited 45 of the people Zenichiro would have wanted to be present at the ceremony including a U.S. immigrations official and many of the original Kagoshima immigrants.
“He was widely respected as the father of postwar immigration from Japan, but his life should also be understood for his major contributions in the development of friendship and goodwill between Japan and the United States,” said Consul General Makoto Yamanaka during his presentation of the award to Ted Uchida.
The award honors his life-long dedication to the cause and for fostering good relations between the U.S. and Japan.
Uchida owned and operated the Zen Flower Garden on Monterey Road since 1978 and during the 1980s, he began a sister city exchange program between Gilroy and Takko-Machi, Japan.
“We’re very, very fortunate that this immigration act, this immigration movement was done by the people,” Ted said. “It was grassroots. I think that is what the foreign affairs ministry was hard to accept what my father started. But I guess after 50 years you have to.”
