RALPH HONDA / 1907-2004
Nisei championed goodwill
between America, Japan
For his 88th birthday, Ralph Honda wrote what he called his "life history" -- the chronicle of a nisei who had gone from working as a water boy at the Ewa Sugar Plantation to becoming a prominent businessman and member of the Japanese-American community.
Former Honpa Hongwanji Mission Bishop Yoshiaki Fujitani pulled Honda's paper out yesterday -- eight years after it was written -- and remembered the life of a man he's admired since childhood.
"He was very outspoken, very assertive," Fujitani said. "And he was, of course, very ambitious."
Honda, a founding member of the Japan-America Society of Hawaii and champion of goodwill between the United States and Japan, died May 9 at Kapiolani Medical Center at Pali Momi. He was 96.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Honda is credited with moving the U.S. government after World War II to acknowledge Buddhism so that soldiers could practice the religion formally and have its symbol on their gravestones.
"He was very principled and always told us nothing is impossible," said his daughter, Vivian Umaki.
In 1927, Honda graduated from St. Louis College and was chosen by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission to study Buddhism in Japan on a scholarship. Three years later, he returned to Honolulu and was named the director of the Young Men's Buddhist Association.
During the Great Depression, Honda was appointed to the Work Project Administration and helped find jobs for thousands of unemployed island residents.
Later, he took a public relations position at Castle & Cooke. In 1938, Honda became a salesman with the Office Appliance Co. A year later, Honda became president of the business, which he grew into a million-dollar corporation.
Meanwhile, Honda also served as director of the Young Buddhists Association Federation and of Honpa Hongwanji Mission.
"During World War II," Honda wrote in his life story, "when there was a movement to suppress Japanese religious and social gatherings, I helped to keep the temple open in order to service the needs of its members, especially for funerals."
In 1959, Honda helped create the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship, which provided scholarships to both U.S. and Japanese scholars to study in each other's countries.
To date, the scholarship has gone to 116 students and grown from a $3,000 fund to $120,000.
"The genesis of the whole thing was as a wedding gift to the emperor," said Howard Hamamoto, the scholarship's chairman and Honda's longtime friend. "The idea was to create ambassadors of goodwill."
Honda retired in 1978 and for the next 10 years was president of the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism in Hawaii.
Besides daughter Vivian, Honda is survived by wife Ellen Masako Nakao; daughters Madge Takemori and Peggie Tsukimura; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.Services are scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday at Honpa Hongwanji Mission.