Toshiko Sagimori Yoshida, 82; Japanese American Activist

Toshiko Sagimori Yoshida, 82, who survived the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and became an activist at a time when few such women raised their voices in the political arena, died May 20 at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles of kidney failure as a complication of diabetes.

During World War II, the Berkeley-born Yoshida and her family were briefly incarcerated at Tanforan race track, an assembly center for Japanese Americans in Northern California, until her husband was offered a war-related job in Denver.

They returned to California in 1945, where Yoshida completed her studies at UC Berkeley. After earning a degree in statistics in 1947, she worked as a public health analyst for Los Angeles County, where for 32 years she was involved in budget planning and analysis of disease data and birth and death statistics.

She eventually became an activist who worked on numerous local, state and national campaigns. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1976 and in the 1980s was an advisor to and later president of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission.

“After the war, many Japanese Americans were very reticent about being too visible,” said actor-activist George Takei, a longtime friend of Yoshida. “I consider her a real pioneer in the Japanese American community as far as active participation in the political arena. She was vocal, energetic and very unusual.”