Masaru Akahori was born in 1884 in Tokushima Prefecture. He moved to the United States in 1904 where he resided in the San Francisco Bay area and worked in Sacramento and Placerville, California. After World War II he resettled in Los Angeles, California. Materials in this collection include diaries, memoirs, correspondence, and business and professional records related to the Akahori family. There are English and Japanese materials in this collection.

Masaru Akahori was born in 1884; a native of Tokushima Prefecture, he arrived in the United States in 1904. He resided in the San Francisco Bay area and worked in Sacramento and Placerville, California, as a reporter for a Japanese language press. Mr. Akahori returned to Japan in 1919 as a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun in Tokyo. He returned to the United States in 1922 and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he became managing editor of the Taihoku Nippo (The Great Northern Daily News). Mr. Akahori also served as Pacific Northwest region correspondent of the Nichibei Shimbun (The Japanese American News) of San Francisco until World War II. Following World War II, he resettled in Los Angeles, California, and began publishing The Town Crier, a mimeographed Japanese language daily. His various pen names include: Meishu, Bennaishi, Bennosuke, Manako, and Oishi Hyoroku; he was also known as Ben M. Akahori.AKAHORI Masaru ([characters], 1884-). Author, journalist, and businessman. A native of Tokushima Prefecture [characters]. He graduated from Tokushima Chgakk [characters] [Tokushima Middle School], at which KAGAWA Toyohiko [characters], well-known Christian social reformer and labor leader, was his senior classmate. Akahori arrived in the United States in 1904, initially resided in the San Francisco Bay Area, and later worked in Sacramento and Placerville, California, as a reporter of a Japanese language press. In 1919 he went back to Japan as a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun [characters] in Tokyo. He returned to America in 1922, and was involved in various business ventures in Southern California, including the Hritsu Jimusho [characters] [Legal Office] until 1932. He then moved to Seattle, Washington, became Managing Editor of the Taihoku Nipp [characters] [The Great Northern Daily News], and also served as the Pacific Northwest region correspondent of the Nichibei Shimbun [characters] [The Japanese American News] of San Francisco, one of the largest and influential Japanese language newspapers in America, until the Pacific War broke out. Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, he was arrested by FBI agents as one of the suspected enemy aliens, and was incarcerated in various internment camps. When he was finally released from the internment camp in March 1946, he and his family were resettled in Los Angeles. In the following month he began publishing the Town Crier, a mimeographed Japanese language daily, in Little Tokyo. He was married twice. He had two sons (residing in Japan) by his first marriage, and a Nisei daughter (Tomoko Marjorie) by the second. His pen names were: Meishu ([characters]), Bennaishi ([characters]), Bennosuke ([characters]), Manako ([characters]), and ISHI Hyroku ([characters]). Among his American friends, he is known as Ben M. Akahori.

40 boxes (20 linear ft.) 1 oversize box

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