Yonekazu Satoda Dies at 96

SAN FRANCISCO — Yonekazu “Yone” Satoda, 96, died peacefully at home in San Francisco on Dec. 6.

Yonekazu Satoda

Born in Hanford, Satoda graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in business administration and from Golden Gate University in San Francisco with a B.A. in accounting. During World War II, he and his family were incarcerated at the concentration camp in Rohwer, Ark.

He served in the U.S. Army with the Military Intelligence Service and was stationed in postwar Japan. He retired with the rank of major.

Satoda was active in the community and was a strong supporter of Japanese American causes, serving as national treasurer of the Japanese American Citizens League and board president of Asian Inc. and Buddhist Church of San Francisco.

He loved vacationing in Hawaii, watching local sports teams and tracking the stock market. He was grateful to have lived long enough to see his grandsons go to college. He told anyone who would listen that he was “the luckiest man alive” and that he had “no regrets.”

Satoda is survived by his wife, Daisy Uyeda Satoda; children, Caroline (Al Suen), Nancy, and David (Allie); grandsons, Christopher, Nicholas and Timothy Suen and David Jr. and Tyler Satoda; sister, Fumiye Yebisu; and many other relatives. Services were private.