Bill Kajikawa
ABT 1915
bornOxnard, California, USA
SchooltblData
BiographyCoach and Assistant Professor of Men's Physical Education, Arizona State Teachers College/Arizona State University, c1937-1978.His family moved to Phoenix in 1929. He attended Phoenix Union High School and won nine varsity letters. He played freshman football as a student at Arizona State Teachers College in 1933, and graduated with a degree in education. Immediately following graduation, he joined the coaching staff and served as assistant professor of Men's Physical Education.
During World War II, Japanese-Americans who lived within the Western military security zone, which included southern Arizona, were forced to live in internment camps. Kajikawa lived north of the boundary, and so was not forced to relocate, but he was restricted from entering areas south of "the Line," which in Tempe, ran along Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard.
Shortly after the war broke out, Kajikawa attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army but was rejected because of his ancestry. He later enlisted as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team under the 100th Infantry Battalion, the all-Japanese-American battalion that became the most decorated American unit during the war. He fought in seven major campaigns in Italy, France, and Germany. After the war, he returned to Arizona State College and, in 1948, earned his Master's degree. From 1948 to 1957, he served as the school's head basketball coach. About 1958, he became assistant to head football coach Frank Kush, and served as the Freshman football coach. He also served as ASC/ASU’s head baseball coach.
In 1986 he received the Don Carlos Humanitarian Award.
BIO-Kajikawa
Bill Kajikawa oral history, THM
Ned Wulk oral history, ASU Archives
Hopkins and Thomas, The ASU Story, p. 242
Margaret Kajikawa obit, AR, 10 Sep 1998
Person TypeIndividual
