Toshiko Sakamoto

Toshiko “Toe” Sakamoto was born in San Jose, CA, to Zenichi Kurotsuchi and Fumi Kuchii Kurotsuchi on October 16, 1924. Her parents were from Wakayama prefecture in Japan, who had immigrated to California in 1904. She is the last of the Sakamoto-Kurotsuchi family in the illustrious Nisei (2nd generation) of Japanese immigration to the US. Her life paralleled the history of the Japanese-Americans as all the Issei (1st generation) and Nisei (2nd generation) of Japanese immigrants came to experience first-hand. She was born in 1924, the same year the Asian Exclusion Act took effect, halting all immigration to the US from Asia. In 1942, under the War Powers Act, at the age of 17, she and her family were incarcerated at the Poston III Relocation Center in AZ (America’s version of concentration camps). She was able to complete her final year in high school thanks to the volunteer teachers at the camp. She was able to depart from the camp in 1944, thanks to church groups that sponsored Nisei to move East away from the Pacific Coast, which was designated a war zone.

Toe moved with her sister Betty to Chicago. She married Dr. Frank Fumio Sakamoto in 1950. She is survived by her son Randall F. Sakamoto, OD, PhD (wife: Tomoko Sakamoto, MD), and Glenn David Sakamoto, MD (wife: Christine Darr-Sakamoto, MD), and grandchildren Derek Sakamoto, Claire Sakamoto, and Devin Sakamoto. Besides being an exemplary mother, she was active with her husband, Frank, in the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League), which was formed before the war to lobby for the rights of Japanese-Americans for over 45 years.

Among her personal interests, she studied flower arrangement in the Misho-Rui school for 20 years, attaining her Teacher-Instructor Certificate. She was an avid tennis player and played senior doubles until she was 93 years old.

Toe moved from Chicago to Denver in 1995 when her husband, Frank, retired, allowing them to be closer to Glenn and Chris’s family and their grandchildren. Over her entire life, her close relationship with her siblings, Betty Inouye, Roy Kurotsuchi, and their children, Cathy Koshiyama, David Inouye, Susan Kurotsuchi, James Kurotsuchi, and Karen Kurotsuchi-Inkelas, created the center of the Sakamoto-Kurotsuchi family activities and relationships over the years. In particular, her love for her grandchildren, Derek Sakamoto, Claire Sakamoto, and Devin Sakamoto, was a source of pride in her final years.

She will be missed by her family and friends alike. Her life represents 100 years of love and dedication, marked by an unwavering positivity towards life despite adversity.

A visitation for Toshiko will be held Thursday, June 26, 2025 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Olinger Hampden Mortuary, Ponderosa Room, 8600 East Hampden Ave, Denver, CO 80231. A funeral service will occur Friday, June 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM, also at Olinger Hampden Mortuary with a reception to follow.