FUSAYO KOIKE / 1910-2003
Deejay kept Japanese
in contact with homeHer show included news,
interviews and the latest music
WAILUKU >> For nearly 50 years, her radio program was a major way Japanese immigrants on Maui received news about the Valley Isle and remained connected to Japanese culture.
Fusayo Koike, who died Monday at Maui Memorial Medical Center, once received a proclamation signed by then-President Ronald Reagan for having the longest-running ethnic show in the United States. She was 93.
COURTESY PHOTO
Fusayo Koike: She received a proclamation from President Reagan for her ethnic show
Koike began the Japanese-language radio show "The Yamato Program" with husband Haruo in 1947 on KMVI radio. She continued it for 17 years after his death in 1977.
Haruo was also a principal and teacher at a Japanese-language school, and she was a teacher at the school.
The radio program included news, music and live interviews with visiting entertainers from Japan.
Koike was born in Keahua Camp in lower Kula on Maui and was educated for several years in Japan, acquiring knowledge of Japanese culture, including the tea ceremony and art of flower arrangement.
The Koikes' daughter, Claire Ching, said her mother was pregnant with her second child when Haruo, who was a Japanese citizen, was held in internment camps for three years starting in 1942.
"It was a painful time," she said.
Ching said her mother had no hard feelings against the United States and viewed the incarceration as exceptional circumstances arising in a war.
The Koikes started their Japanese program about two years after the end of World War II and helped to reassure some members of Maui's Japanese community that it was all right to reconnect with their heritage and culture, Ching said.
Wayne Tanaka, who worked for a sister news media company as sports editor in the 1950s and 1960s, said Koike treated people of all races equally well, despite her husband's internment.
"She was very nice and humble," he said.
Susanne Hotta, owner of Gilbert's Formal Wear in Wailuku, said the old Japanese immigrants loved the program, which featured the latest in Japanese music.
"They all loved her Japanese music," she said. "When she retired we had no program like that for the older persons. We all miss her very much. She was a very sweet lady."
Besides Ching, Koike is survived by son Kazuo, of Waikele; sister Mutsuyo Takemoto, of Wailuku; and grandson Colton Ching.
Services will be held 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Wailuku Hongwanji Mission, with a reception to follow.
