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Content provided by the American Bar Association Division for Public Education. Visit the Division for Public Education's website to learn more about the law and its role in society (www.abanet.org/publiced). For more profiles of pioneers in the legal profession, visit the Division for Public Education's Raising the Bar: Pioneers in the Legal Profession website at www.abanet.org/publiced/raisingthebar.html.
Senator Spark Masayuki Matsunaga
(1916-1990)
(1916-1990)
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"If in our teaching we emphasize the life and work of our great contributors… people will come to realize that moral courage is bravery of the highest type, and America will be called the Champion of Peace." These words, written in 1938 by Spark Matsunaga when he was a young education major at the University of Hawaii, foreshadow the contributions he was to make during his outstanding career as attorney, public servant, and peace advocate. Born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, on October 8, 1916, Masayuki Matsunaga's boyhood friends nicknamed him "Spark," the name he later adopted legally. While attending the University of Hawaii, he served in the Reserved Officer Training Corps and was commissioned in the Army after his graduation in 1941. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, while Matsunaga was on active duty on the island of Molokai, he and other Japanese-Americans were relieved of their duties. They were shipped away to Camp McCoy, a military facility in Wisconsin, while the War Department pondered whether they should be allowed to fight for America. After Matsunaga and other soldiers petitioned President Roosevelt for a chance to serve and prove their loyalty, the president determined that Japanese-Americans would be loyal to the United States. About 1,500 Japanese-Americans, including Matsunaga, then formed the 100th Infantry Battalion and trained for combat. They were sent to Italy, where Matsunaga was seriously wounded twice. He received two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star for his heroism. Later he returned to the U.S., where he presented speeches aimed to help Japanese-Americans who had been detained in camps during the war readjust to life in mainstream America. After returning to Hawaii after the war, Matsunaga worked in veterans' affairs briefly, married, and then entered Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1951. Returning to Hawaii, he served as Assistant Public Prosecutor for the city and county of Honolulu and was a member of the Hawaiian statehood delegation to Congress. He was a member of the territorial legislature from 1954 to 1959, and served as majority leader from 1957 to1959. Matsunaga and other Japanese-Americans helped lead Hawaii's bid for statehood, which passed in 1959. In 1962, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he made the rights of immigrants, the welfare of veterans, and the defense of Japanese-Americans and other minorities his hallmarks. His 18-hour workdays were legendary-later, his colleagues in the Senate called him "Senator Stamina." He was re-elected to Congress six times (serving from 1963 to 1977) due to his steadfast commitment to serving the needs of his constituents while promoting his visionary legislative agenda. In 1976 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where his achievements were many. He supported legislation to establish a research organization called the United States Peace Institute and worked to authorize the post of Poet Laureate. He was a strong proponent of using renewable energy resources and introduced the first ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) bill in 1980. He suggested the establishment of the Pacific International Center for High Technological Research and encouraged Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan and President Ronald Reagan to share his enthusiasm for international cooperation in such matters. The Spark Matsunaga Hydrogen Research and Development Act, which provides funding for research into alternative energy sources, was passed in 1990. Possibly Senator Spark Matsunaga's greatest achievement was obtaining redress for the Japanese-Americans whose forced evacuation and relocation into internment camps during World War II had been described by President Ford in 1976 as a "national mistake." The bill he introduced in 1987 would give surviving Japanese-American internees financial reparations of $20,000 each for the economic losses they had suffered. In April 1988, the Senate passed the bill and the House followed with its approval on July 4, 1988. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on August 10, 1988. Senator Matsunaga's last official act, before his death on April 15, 1990, was to cast a vote in favor of the Clean Air Act. Author, poet, public servant, and attorney, Senator Spark Matsunaga was himself a "Champion of Peace." In his honor, the University of Hawaii established the Matsunaga Institute for Peace in 1986. "Befriend your foe and secure your own peace." From a poem by Spark Matsunaga, copyright 1985 (Originally published in 2002) |
