Dr. Takashi Hoshizaki, a former Heart Mountain incarceree who recently turned 100 years old, and Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi have received commendations from the Japanese government for their work promoting stronger U.S.-Japan ties.
Hoshizaki was named the recipient of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, Silver Rays, for his work “improving the status of the Japanese American community and promoting mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.”
The sole surviving resister of the military draft during his incarceration at Heart Mountain, Hoshizaki later served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was pardoned by President Harry Truman on Dec. 24, 1947, and became an eminent botanist whose research into circadian rhythms took him to Antarctica and a career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He is the fifth former Heart Mountain incarceree to receive the Order of the Rising Sun. Previous recipients include Secretary Norman Mineta, Raymond Uno, Jeanette Misaka and William I. Higuchi, Shirley Ann Higuchi’s late father. Other prominent recipients include the late Senator Daniel Inouye and actor-director Clint Eastwood.
Higuchi received a commendation from Shigeo Yamada, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, for her leadership in the Washington, D.C., legal community, including her current presidency of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. Higuchi was also the president of the DC Bar in 2003 and 2004.
“In addition to her distinguished legal career, she has made outstanding contributions to the preservation of Japanese American history and the protection of their civil rights, thereby promoting mutual understanding between Japan and the United States,” the commendation for Higuchi said.