When Frank M. Iritani moved to Sacramento with his wife in 1992 to help care for their grandkids, it didn't take his new neighbors long to realize what a bonus they were getting.
Mr. Iritani, who died of pneumonia Sept. 30, was a champion of peace, tolerance, understanding and justice for all. He was 87.
A historian, social worker, retired Christian minister and World War II Army veteran, Mr. Iritani registered thousands of voters in his life, including hundreds after he got to Sacramento, said his son, Ken Iritani.
Mr. Iritani and his wife, Taeko Joanne Ono Iritani, a retired special education teacher, became active in the Japanese American Citizens League's Florin chapter – known for its efforts to promote understanding across race, religion and ethnicity.
The Iritanis won the chapter's community service award in 2004.
Mr. Iritani often declared, "We have IQ to measure intelligence, but we need a human relations quotient to measure how well we get along with others," said his son.
He was born Jan. 25, 1921, in Colorado to Japanese American produce farmers who sent him back to Japan in 1937 for two years at a Buddhist school.
Mr. Iritani was shaped by his experiences in Japan, Korea and Manchuria where he witnessed the rise of Japanese militarism, said his daughter Susanna Minard of New Hampshire.
Mr. Iritani, who lost two uncles in Japan's war in China, returned to the United States, graduated from high school, attended the Colorado School of Mines and joined the Army Military Intelligence Service.
After working as a translator and interpreter in the Philippines and Tokyo, "his firsthand experience of the suffering caused by the war led him to search for ways to reduce human suffering through Christian ministry, education, and political activism," Susanna Minard said.
He earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1949, was baptized and enrolled in the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where he attained a degree in 1955.
Mr. Iritani was extremely passionate about reparations for nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans – 77,000 of them U.S. citizens – who were forced into internment camps during World War II.
In October 1990, surviving internees received $20,000 reparations checks and an apology delivered by President George H.W. Bush.
Mr. Iritani and his wife, who was interned at the Poston, Ariz., relocation camp, embarked in the 1980s on a journey to document the remains of the nation's 10 relocation camps, which the government had largely demolished.
They met with former internees, non-internees, community and church groups and legislators to build support for federal legislation, HR 442, which became the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The law included the establishment of a trust fund to pay reparations.
In recognition of his work for this legislation, Mr. Iritani was invited to attend President Reagan's signing of the bill in 1988, Minard said.
The Iritanis published "Ten Visits: Accounts of Visits to All the Japanese American Relocation Centers" in 1994.
Shortly after arriving in Sacramento, Mr. Iritani wrote a letter to The Bee on the controversy over the national JACL's decision to encourage Japanese American internees to fight for the United States in World War II even though their families were locked up behind barbed wire.
Some Japanese Americans chose to resist the draft, rather than serve, and demanded an apology from the JACL.
"Instead of apology, I think the Christian path of compassion and forgiveness should be tried to bring harmony and peace in our relations with one another," Mr. Iritani wrote.
"That letter is the epitome of his life philosophy," said his son.
Mr. Iritani and his wife raised their three children in Bakersfield, where he served as a charter member of the Kern County Human Relations Commission, a trustee of St. Andrews United Methodist Church and a member of the Kern Democratic Central Committee. He was also a charter member of the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles.
In Sacramento, Mr. Iritani promoted the Japanese American Archival Collection at California State University, Sacramento, volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and co-chaired the Greater Sacramento Valley Southeast Asian Refugee Scholarship Project.
Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.
