Clarence Takeya Arai
Clarence Takeya Arai, born on June 25, 1901, in Seattle, Washington, was a pivotal figure in the Japanese American community. His father, Tatsuya Arai, was an influential banker and a leader in the local Japanese Association. Arai was a trailblazer, being the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Washington School of Law and the first nisei to earn a commission in the US Army Reserves. He played a significant role in establishing the Seattle Progressive Citizens League, advocating for the assimilation of Japanese Americans into American culture, and was a founding member of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the oldest Asian American civil rights organization in the U.S.
During World War II, Arai and his family were interned due to wartime fears, which took a toll on his health. Despite these challenges, he continued to contribute to the community, engaging in legal work within the internment camp. After the war, Arai's life was marked by personal tragedy and declining health, leading him to pursue photography as a hobby. He remained active in his church community until his death on August 12, 1963. Arai's legacy is significant in advocating for civil rights and addressing the injustices faced by Japanese Americans, particularly through his involvement with the JACL, which fought for legislative changes and recognition of the internment experience.
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Subject Terms
Clarence Takeya Arai
Lawyer, politician, and photographer
- Pronunciation: tack-AY-ah ah-RI
- Born: June 25, 1901
- Birthplace: Seattle, Washington
- Died: August 12, 1963
- Place of death: Seattle, Washington
Clarence Takeya Arai was a prominent figure in Seattle’s Japanese American community. He organized the Seattle Progressive Citizens League and was the first Seattle delegate to the Japanese American Citizens League. Although a captain in the US Army Reserves, he and his family were sent an internment camp at Minidoka, Idaho, during World War II.
Areas of achievement: Law, government and politics
Early Life
Clarence Takeya Arai was born on June 25, 1901, in Seattle, Washington. His father, Tatsuya Arai, a banker, was the second Japanese person to make his home in Seattle and the first president of the Japanese Association. He also served as president of Seattle’s Japanese Commercial Club. Clarence Takeya Arai’s mother, Kan Arai, moved from Japan to join Tatsuya in 1900. Arai was the first of four children.
He attended Seattle’s Main Street School, Rainier Elementary School, and Franklin High School. In April 1920, Arai organized one of the first nisei (second-generation Japanese American) Boy Scout Troops in the United States. For more than forty years, he was scout leader for Troop 53 at Seattle’s Japanese Baptist Church.
Arai was the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Washington School of Law. After earning his law degree, he was admitted to the bar on July 24, 1924. Arai practiced law from his Seattle home, serving as a liaison for issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) and acting as a mediator between labor unions and members of the Japanese community. He was also the first nisei to earn a commission in the US Army Reserves, becoming a second lieutenant in the US Infantry in March 1923.
Life’s Work
On September 21, 1921, Clarence Takeya Arai and fourteen other nisei formed the Seattle Progressive Citizens League (SPCL). Arai was instrumental in championing the organization, which advocated patriotism and the assimilation of Japanese people into wider American culture. Arai was elected president of the SPCL in 1928. In April of that year, Arai and SPCL vice president George Ishihara took a trip to California to push for a national citizens’ league. Arai consulted with San Francisco movement leaders to form a permanent national organization.
While visiting Los Angeles, Arai met Yone Utsunomiya. The couple married in 1930.
Arai’s 1928 trip to California instilled new life into the citizens’ league movement. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) was formed on April 6, 1929, at the Japanese Reformed Church in San Francisco, California, with Arai serving as its first Seattle delegate. The first national JACL convention took place in Seattle in August 1930.
Arai was active in Republican Party politics. He served as a precinct committee member, a delegate to the Washington state convention and also served as vice president of the Young Republicans League of King County. In 1934, Arai mounted an unsuccessful bid to become a Washington state representative, finishing in last out of the five candidates and winning just 320 out of 3,827 primary votes cast. Nonetheless, Arai was the first nisei in the continental United States to run for state office.
During World War II, the United States and Japan went to war. The Arai family, like other Japanese families nationwide, was moved to camps by the government, who feared they would assist the Japanese war effort against the United States. Arai was evacuated to Washington’s Puyallup Fairgrounds before being sent to an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Arai had suffered from hypertension before being moved to Minidoka, and his health deteriorated in the camps. He suffered a stroke yet continued his part-time duties in the camp’s legal department. Arai also planted a garden, growing radishes, beets, Chinese lettuce, and onions.
The Arai family returned home to Seattle in 1945. Three months later, their only son, Ken, died of a brain tumor. Following Ken’s death, Arai’s health progressively worsened, forcing him to give up practicing law full time. He took up photography as a hobby.
Arai was a fifth-generation Christian, having learned the faith from his mother. At the time of his death, he was the oldest nisei of Seattle’s Japanese Baptist Church, where he served as a Sunday school teacher, member, and deacon. Arai died on August 12, 1963, at the age of sixty-two and was survived by his wife, his brother Thomas, and his sisters Lillian Ogawa and Kathlyn Sanders.
Significance
Arai’s legacy is rooted in his early support for the JACL. The JACL is the oldest Asian American civil rights organization in the United States. Some of the JACL’s earliest victories were the overturning of alien land laws that forbade issei from owning property. The group also helped to establish citizenship rights for Japanese soldiers who served in World War I and World War II, and amended the Soldier Brides Act to allow Japanese wives of US servicemen into the country.
In 1979, the JACL lobbied Congress to form a committee to investigate the Japanese internment camps. In 1982, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians issued a report entitled Personal Justice Denied. The report found that the internment of Japanese Americans during the early 1940s was unnecessary and that the establishment of the camps was an act of racial prejudice. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law, authorizing payment of $20,000 and an apology to the estimated sixty thousand former internees.
Bibliography
Fugita, Stephen S., and Marilyn Fernandez. Altered Lives, Enduring Community:Japanese Americans Remember Their World War II Incarceration. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2004. Print. Places the JACL and other antidiscrimination activist groups in the context of prewar American society. Briefly mentions Arai’s involvement in the movement.
Hosokawa, Bill. JACL in Quest of Justice: The History of the Japanese American Citizens League. New York: Morrow, 1982. Print. An official history commissioned by the JACL that traces the accomplishments of that organization and Arai’s early role within it.
Takahashi, Jere. Nisei / Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1997. Print. Details Arai’s role in the JACL’s formation and links his activism with his political ambitions.