Chiyoko Sakamoto.

I think her family story is is really interesting.

The Sakamoto family, so, Chiyoko's parents and her older sister Tay emigrated from Japan in the early 20th century, and Chiyoko was born here along with two other brothers, and you see the differences in opportunities between the siblings who were born in the United States versus the sister that was born in Japan, because a sister who was born in Japan, despite coming as a toddler and living her entire life in the United States, was not able to become a naturalized citizen until 1952, but Chiyoko who was born here, had a lot more opportunities, so we have some artifacts in the collection that talk about her law school career and subsequent career in law.

-What must that have been like?

I mean, she was the only woman, the only person of color in this law school class?

-Yeah, I can only imagine the challenges and obstacles that she faced in getting her law degree.

-Where'd she go?

-It was called American University, and was located in downtown Los Angeles, so I think it no longer exists, but this is a pendant from a Honor Society.

-Scales of Justice -And then we also have her law school class ring.

So Chiyoko lived in the Saint on neighborhood near Crenshaw, which translates to Southwest Los Angeles.

The Sakamoto family were forcibly removed from Los Angeles.

They first went to San Anita race track, and then ultimately to Amache, which was one of the concentration camps in Colorado.

-Did she bring any of her legal experience or expertise into that?

-She did.

She worked in the Legal Affairs Office at Amache, and she was working with incarceries who had property back home, helping them because they were still responsible for paying taxes.

-They had to pay taxes on their... -Yeah, so she's helping them sort those types of things out.

Chiyoko met her husband in camp, and then they first resettled in Ohio, and they eventually came back to Los Angeles, and Chiyoko did not think she would restart her law career, because, again, it was really difficult to find employment, but Hugh Macbeth, the prominent black attorney civil rights attorney that stood up for Japanese and Japanese Americans there throughout the war, hired her to work in his law firm.

-For this civil rights law firm?

-That's right, yeah.

-Doing very prominent, important work in the area.

-So they had an office in the Crenshaw area, and and they also had an office in downtown Los Angeles.

-Oh, these are her business cards.

-That's right, yeah.

-Well, it's first business card is when Chiyoko Sakamoto is working with Hugh Macbeth Senior and Junior, and then after Hugh Macbeth Senior passed away, she started her own firm, and so this is the business card that represents her firm.

-Chiyoko Sakamoto Attorney at Law 3324 West Jefferson Boulevard -She was instrumental in starting the Japanese American Bar Association, which still exists today, and then also involved in a Professional Organization for female attorneys as well.

Part of her professional work is to start these organizations that were trying to advocate to create a pipeline for leadership of women, and also people of color, in the field of law.

-And she did that, and those organizations are still doing that today.

-That is correct.

-Wow.

-Yes.

This is her?

-That's right, yeah, before the war.

I love this Photograph.

So, this is Chiyoko in the middle here, and then you see her mother, Kume, and her sister, Tay, Again, Tay and her mother become eligible for naturalization in 1952.

It takes that long, despite living in this country, you know, for fifty years or so.

So, they're standing in front of their house in that Crenshaw area, and what I love is that these three women supported each other, and eventually were able to buy this house in that neighborhood.

-I mean, a collection like this makes this story that you tell about somebody just so much more personal.

-Exactly.

-I mean, she wore that ring on her finger.

-Exactly, yeah.