Satoshi Ito

On September 30th, 1942, five-year-old Ito and his parents were forced to leave Gardena under Executive Order 9066. They stayed in a horse stall on a racetrack as temporary housing before being sent to a prison camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. 

Ito notes that American culture was unobtainable within the camps, and all news, media, and pop culture were quite literally outside his access. He describes a feeling of loss as he could never regain the time he lost while incarcerated. They were released after three years, and the family returned to Southern California. 

After incarceration, the Ito family returned to Southern California. Ito’s father told him to pretend like he was Chinese to escape the discrimination targeted at Japanese after the war. Because they moved to a predominantly white area, Ito was able to assimilate at an early age into white middle class culture.

His parents returned agricultural work. He described how different his life was after incarceration, with living indoor plumbing in a residential neighborhood for the first time. He also noted his parents’ expectations to further his socio-economic status through education and not to “be like us.” 

He began his post-secondary education at El Camino Community College, citing it as the cheapest option for his relatively poor family. He eventually transferred to California State University - Long Beach before obtaining his M.A. and PhD in Sociology at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Ito noted his early life shaped his empathy towards immigrant families and other minority groups. When applying to graduate programs, Ito was purposeful in leaving the west coast and what he called an “ethnic enclave” and become part of a “better nation and better world.” He found wider educational and teaching horizons at UNC Chapel Hill, which was a very politically active campus during Ito’s time.

This empathy and widened perspective was reflected in his work at W&M and the larger Williamsburg community. Ito began working at W&M in 1965 as an Instructor of Sociology before being promoted all the way to Professor Emeritus. He helped begin the Africana Studies department in the early 1990’s and taught a variety of classes on African-American experience, immigration, and sociological theory. He worked on the Human Rights Committee at Eastern State Hospital and served on the Anti-Racism Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia among other community involvements.

His dedication to education and advocacy continued after his retirement in 2002. He taught classes on Japanese incarceration during WWII and recent immigrant experience. He remained active in the greater W&M community until his death on January 19th, 2022. His legacy is one marked by activism, community involvement, and education. His life is a stellar example of cross-cultural unity and agency in the face of state-sanctioned discrimination.