Ronald Takaki, a Scholar on Ethnicity, Dies at 70

Ronald Takaki, who made it his life’s work to rewrite American history to include Asian-Americans and other ethnic groups excluded from traditional accounts and who helped start the first doctoral program in ethnic studies in the United States, died Tuesday in his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 70.

The cause was suicide, said his son Troy. He battled multiple sclerosis for years. “He struggled, and then he gave up,” his son said.

Mr. Takaki, whose Japanese grandfather immigrated to Hawaii in the 19th century and worked on a sugarcane plantation, became a leading scholar of ethnicity and multiculturalism in works that challenged ethnic stereotypes and chronicled struggles of non-European immigrants.

His works like “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” (1993) became seminal texts in emerging fields that he helped institutionalize by establishing a doctoral program in ethnic studies in 1984 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 30 years.

Don T. Nakanishi, the director of the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Berkeley Web site: “Ron Takaki elevated and popularized the study of America’s multiracial past and present like no other scholar, and in doing so had an indelible impact on a generation of students and researchers across the nation and world.”

Ronald Toshiyuki Takaki was born in Honolulu and, in his youth, spent most of his time surfing. On the beach, [and at his alma mater, 'Iolani School] he was known as Ten-Toes Takaki for his hang-ten style.

He found his vocation while earning a bachelor’s degree in history at the College of Wooster in Ohio. While in Ohio he married Carol Rankin, who survives him. Besides his son Troy, of Los Angeles, he is also survived by another son, Todd, of El Cerrito, Calif.; a daughter, Dana Takaki of Chester, Conn.; a brother, Michael Young of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; a sister, Janet Wong of Chatsworth, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.

He continued his education at Berkeley, where he earned a master’s degree in 1962 and a doctorate in history in 1967. He was deeply influenced by the Free Speech movement at the university and by the civil rights struggles in the South. “I was born intellectually and politically in Berkeley in the ’60s,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2003.

He wrote a dissertation on slavery in the United States and returned to the subject in his first book, published in 1971, “A Pro-Slavery Crusade: The Agitation to Reopen the African Slave Trade.”

At U.C.L.A., Mr. Takaki taught the university’s first black-history course, created in response to the Watts riots. When a student asked what revolutionary tools he would be teaching, Mr. Takaki said: “We’re going to strengthen our critical thinking and our writing skills. These can be revolutionary tools if we make them so.”

In 1971 he became the first full-time teacher in Berkeley’s new ethnic studies department, where he taught a highly influential survey course that took a comparative approach in describing racism as experienced by different ethnic groups in the United States. In addition to helping establish the graduate program in ethnic studies, he helped put in place the requirement that all undergraduates take a course intended to broaden their understanding of racial and ethnic diversity. He retired in 2003.

His many books include “Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America” (1979), “Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans” (1989), “Democracy and Race: Asian Americans and World War II” (1995) and “Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II” (2000).

-------------------------------------------

Here is the obituary from The Advertiser:

Ronald Takaki, surfer, author, teacher, scholar

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Ronald Takaki grew up in Palolo as a self-described surfer boy with modest educational ambitions. At the time of his death on Tuesday at the age of 70, he was an accomplished author, teacher and one of the nation's pre-eminent scholars in multicultural studies.

Multiple news sources in California have reported that the Alameda Country coroner's office confirmed Takaki's death as a suicide. Takaki had suffered from multiple sclerosis for the past 15 years.

Takaki spent 34 years teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, helping to develop an undergraduate ethnic studies major and the country's first ethnic studies doctoral program. He retired in 2003.

He also was the author of 12 books, many of which are taught in college classrooms today, including "Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans," "Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth Century America" and "Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawai'i."

"His contribution was being there from the beginning of ethnic studies in the early 1970s," said University of Hawai'i Ethnic Studies professor Jonathan Okamura. "His books, especially 'Strangers from a Different Shore,' were very well received. He was a very good writer and he was good at synthesizing information from lots of different sources in his work."

Last month, Takaki was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Association of Asian American Studies conference in Honolulu. Takaki's longtime friend and colleague Michael Omi accepted the award on his behalf.

The grandson of immigrant plantation workers, Takaki grew up in Palolo Valley, where he earned the nickname "Ten-Toes Takaki" for his surfing exploits.

In a commencement address at Whitman College in 2006, he recounted how his mentor at 'Iolani School, Shunji Nishi, sharpened his critical thinking skills and later inspired him to leave Hawai'i to pursue higher education.

Takaki attended the College of Wooster in Ohio, where, he realized, many of his fellow students "could not and did not see (him) as an American" because of his Japanese appearance. His experiences at Wooster would spark a lifelong interest in race relations and the social conditions and structures that perpetuate racial attitudes.

Takaki would go on to earn a Ph.D at UC Berkeley before starting his teaching career at UCLA, where he taught the college's first African-American history course.

In 1972, Takaki returned to Berkeley, where he would prove to be a highly influential figure until his retirement. Takaki is credited with helping the university develop its American Cultures requirement for graduation. He also lent his support to students protesting Proposition 209, which effectively ended affirmative-action admissions on California college campuses.

Takaki is survived by his wife Carol, three children and several grandchildren. He was buried yesterday in a private service.

--------------------------------------

As reported in the UC Berkeley News:

Ronald Takaki, pioneering scholar of race relations, dies at 70

By Yasmin Anwar, Public Affairs | 27 May 2009

BERKELEY — Ronald Takaki, a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and prolific scholar of U.S. race relations who taught UC's first black history course, died at his home in Berkeley on Tuesday (May 26). He was 70.

During his more than four decades at UC Berkeley, Takaki joined the Free Speech Movement, established the nation's first ethnic studies Ph.D. program as well as Berkeley's American Cultures requirement for graduation, and advised President Clinton in 1997 on his major speech on race.

A descendent of Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii, Takaki left the islands in the late 1950s to study at Ohio's College of Wooster, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in American history from UC Berkeley in 1967 and was hired at UCLA, where he taught the campus's first black history course. He joined Berkeley's Ethnic Studies department in 1971 and served as chair from 1975-77.

Among his numerous accolades for scholarship and activism, Takaki received a Pulitzer nomination for his book, "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America" (Little Brown and Company, 1993); a Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Berkeley and the 2003 Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association.

"When I think of Ron, the words that come to mind are: solidarity, justice, easy-going, self-effacing, generous, creative," said Beatriz Manz, chair of UC Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies. "He poked fun at himself and had a contagious laughter. He embodied kindness. He was agreeable, conciliatory and non-confrontational."

He is survived by his wife, Carol, his three children and his grandchildren.