IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 


DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018

Good morning, my name is David Kasai, and we are here today to remember my father,
Hideo Kasai. I am the youngest of his three children, here with my brother Brian, and my
sister Linda. We all have our own special memories of him. Today I’d like to share some
reasons why I believe he was the strongest man I know.

Hideo was a private man. Only a few knew of his recent illnesses. For many years he
struggled with emphysema, and over the last 10 he endured a mild concussion, blood clot,
kidney failure and lung cancer. We were all very optimistic about his recovery and at one
point in the hospital, I told him he was the strongest man I knew and I truly meant it. I am
thankful I had the opportunity to tell him I loved him, because even though he had a hard
time saying the words himself, I could feel it from the look in his eyes and with a gentle
squeeze of his hand when he couldn’t speak. I knew deep in my heart that he did. He was a
fighter all the way to the end.

Words that come to mind when I think of him are: 


Intelligence, Respect, Dignity, Integrity, Honesty, Fairness, Reliable, Thoughtful, and Caring.

Growing up, I can honestly say a sense of humor was not my father’s strongest quality. But I
think everyone who knew him would agree he had an extraordinary talent for “details”. Want
to plan something? he was your man. Want to recall an event? he knew exactly when and
where it took place because he had a records of it somewhere. Want to know about history,
or travel to any place, need guidance on real estate or financial planning, or just a little
advice on life?...he had wise words to share. He was great at analyzing, researching,
collecting data, and presenting. That was dad...great with details. This same quality, is what
made my father kind, giving, and compassionate. He remembered the small things about
you. He knew that my wife Sherri and my daughter Aya loved rack of lamb, and would make
it for us on visits. He knew Linda loved to dine at fine restaurants and would treat her to
delicious meals for her birthday. He knew Brian was a good eater, and made sure to have
plenty for him during holiday dinners. My father was a foodie before the word was ever
invented. He remembered small things about family members and close friends. Which
made you feel cared for and special when he showed you he remembered.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
One particular way he showed his love for me is the love he showed my daughter, Aya. He
helped us take care of her for the first 4 years of her life watching her all day every
Wednesday and then cooking my family a delicious meal. I’ll miss those dinners with him. I
know my sister Linda will miss her special time she had with him at the dinners they planned
together. He taught me so much all my life. Many of these things I didn’t understand or
appreciate until later in life. Maybe this is a common lesson learned too late, because my
father spoke of this when he lost his own father. He wished he spent more time with his
father, and then made sure he took this lesson to heart by spending more time with his
mother in her last years. A lesson we could all take to heart ourselves, especially with the
sense of loss we are experiencing today.

Born in San Francisco on December 17, 1930, to Kenji and Aya Kasai who both migrated to
the United States from Japan. At the age of 5, his parents rented a four-story brick building
on the corner of Pine and Buchanan in San Francisco to accommodate two growing
businesses of his father’s investment securities and his mother’s finishing school. Before the
outbreak of the War, this home was a very warm and happy place for the young Hideo. In
1942 he moved to Visalia with his mother and brother while his father was placed in an
internment camp. Then shortly after they too were placed in camp at Poston, Arizona, on
August 6, 1942.

He spoke of his experience at Poston as giving him the foundation to becoming a survivor.
Once again, showing his strength and character as a young boy. When conditions were bad,
he adapted and overcame. He learned to pass the time, by staying active and being creative.
Qualities he proved to be helpful in his later years.

On January 19, 1944, he was moved to camp Crystal City and was reunited with his father.
Again, my father recalls being too young to experience a loss of freedom at a level many
others were feeling. He only remembers school, and a sense of community among the
Japanese residents. Sports programs, including basketball, baseball, swimming, judo, and
kendo were organized by the adults, which made camp life a little more bearable. My dad
relates the experience at Crystal City as the closest thing to a normal home life since the war
started. He remembers his mother’s cooking. Again, food was part of a good memory for
him.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
His family eventually left Crystal City in the spring of 1946, finding housing with their longtime
friends at the Sutro Forest. He went on to attend Commerce High School which had already
seen the first influx of Japanese-American students. Here, academics were not difficult for
him. Two years later, he went on to attend the School of Engineering at UC Berkeley at age
16. The Korean War was on, and the draft was active. My father realized attending collage
and majoring in engineering where he could find employment in a defense job would be key
in draft deferment. During the summer he worked at farms first in Suisun, California, and
later in Wheatland, California where he worked for the mere wage of $0.10 per box of
peaches picked. He got really good at it, averaging $2.00 per hour. He mentions this giving
him pride to be compensated for the actual work performed rather than on an hourly basis.
Again, my father showing his strength and determination in hard work.

Definitely not all about work and no play, he admits to being a little wild with a gang of friends
from Commerce High and UC Berkeley called the “Dukes”. They ran with a group of girls,
called — the “Jynx” where their weekends were made up of hanging out at the pool hall,
going to movies, playing cards and dice, dating, having dance parties, and going to jazz
concerts to listen to Billie Holliday, and Ella Fitzgerald. I think these are more of the traits that
I got from my father. ☺

In the spring of 1952, during his last semester of college, he was offered a job at Northrop
Aircraft before he even graduated. He was employed as a drafting engineer working on the
design of the F-89 fighter plane.

In August of 1953, My mother, Yayoi, and my father were married in Mt. Eden, California on
a sunny summer day. Newly married and working as an engineer, he attended night classes
in economics and finance to be able to pursue a different career when the draft had ended.
For 3 1/2 years, he continued to work at Northrop, waiting for the draft to end so he could
pursue a career in the investment banking field and to further his plans for his family.
In June of 1955, he decided to leave his draft deferred employment, return to the San
Francisco Bay Area, to get his family life together by starting in the securities business.
Within a month of his resigning, he received his draft notice to appear at Fort Ord, in
Monterey, California by October of that year. By this time, my mom was now 3 months
pregnant, expecting their first child in April of the following year.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
After basic training, he was shipped to Fort Meade in January of 1956, near Baltimore,
Maryland. He mentioned being 24 years of age and going through basic training, which
wasn’t easy and the physical demands placed on young soldiers was difficult. But he had the
mental and physical strength, yet again, to overcome the grueling demands of military
training.

While in the military he worked in the testing of the Glenn L. Martin and Hughes Aircraft radar
system. The military needed radar specialists to conduct tests in the Nevada Atom Bomb
Test Site at Camp Desert Rock, Nevada, located 60 miles north of Las Vegas. This was not
a volunteer assignment, they were direct orders and he was required to go. Car packed and
pulling a trailer, he took his family and household goods back to California.

The assignment was to locate our radar equipment upwind within a few miles of the atom
bomb drop site and attempt to track an airplane that was flying through the mushroom
immediately after the bomb was detonated. The exercise was to see whether an enemy
aircraft attack from the other side of the atom bomb mushroom would be able to be detected
on a radar screen even with all those metal particles from the disintegrating ground debris
being carried up into the mushroom. Over the 4 months he was in the desert, he witnessed
about 10 atom bomb drops.

20 years later, he would become an advocate for the National Association of Atomic
Veterans, a veterans’ group representing the victims of exposure to the radiation. He was
active in this group for about 3-4 years, giving speeches, doing radio interviews, arranging
television interviews for some of the atomic veterans, as well as networking with other
radiation victim’ groups,

After completing his two years of active duty in October 1957, he returned to family life in
California and started his career as an investment broker, much to the satisfaction of his
father who owned and operated Kasai Securities Company in San Francisco for many years.
After a few years he partnered with Nikko Securities, a brokerage firm in Japan, and formed
the Nikko Kasai Securities Company. Before long, offices were opened in New York and Los
Angeles, as well as in San Francisco. During the late 1940’s into the early 1950’s, my father
was very active in the sale of Japanese securities.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
Because of my father being in the military and his career as a stockbroker, my family moved
quite a bit and we visited him at various locations early on in our family life. His first born,
Brian Ken, born at a military hospital in San Francisco on April 30, 1956 while he was on
duty at Forte Meade, Maryland. On January 6, 1958, his second child, Linda, was born. He
said she was a very healthy child and the first and only one of his three with whom he was
present to experience the birth.

In 1959, my father and mother purchased their first home in San Francisco. But within a year
of moving to this home, plans were already forming to live in Japan which happened in
October of 1960. In the summer of 1962, my mother returned with my brother and sister to
Mt. Eden again, this time to give birth to me on June 26.

In February of 1968, my father joined First California Company in Los Angeles as a

securities salesman. Within 1 1/2 years, he became Vice President, with about 450 brokers
spread out over 40 offices throughout California, and achieved a status of being one of the
“Top Ten” producers for that year, an achievement for which he was very proud.
In 1963, my father was transferred from Tokyo, to New York. The family joined him there,
and we lived in a very nice area of the Bronx, called Riverdale. We were barely able to get
settled in New York City, when my father was again transferred to Los Angeles in the autumn
of 1963. Since it appeared that the stay there would be more permanent, my father and
mother were able to purchase a home in Monterey Park. My father spoke of it being such a
hardship to move so much and be away from his family for long periods of time. My father
showed his strength by working hard, and making all efforts to see his family as much as he
could. We relied on his strength as head of the family and provider and he came through for
us.

When my mother and father divorced in 1972, Brian was 16 years old, Linda was 14, and I
was 10. My father speaks of going through this period as “finding himself”. He tried
woodworking, jewelry design, metal sculpting, and even macramé! He always took pride in
making things with his hands . He found that he no longer felt lonely, and was beginning to
like who he was.

After spending 17 years in the securities market, he tried his efforts as an entrepreneur in
partnership with a brilliant man named “Kirk” in developing a method patent. This was short
lived once the petroleum crunch came since the material used was petro chemically based.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
In 1982 he made the decision to go back to sales, but this time in real estate. This was his
fourth career in which he was extremely successful. He started at Century 21 George
Michael Realty in Alhambra and by the summer of 1985, he had taken over the position of
Manager for the office. Again proving himself to be the strongest man to get the job done.
The office received an award for high volume of production, with the office being designated
as a “Gold Medallion Office” which meant it produced $1 million or more in sales
commissions. In 1986, and each year subsequent, he was able to achieve this coveted
status. As this type of business started to decline during 1995, he was starting to approach
his 65th birthday. This was when he decided to retire from the sales end of the business.
With his business sense he was able to manage property and live a comfortable retirement.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
My dad once said “Life certainly is a delicate path which can so easily be altered.” I think this
is so true on the story of how he met his second wife, Etsuko “Ets” Matsuzaki. The old Dukes
and Jynx groups had decided to hold a 25 year reunion, with all the old friends who had
scattered throughout California getting together. He had no intention of going, but his friend
Judy, had asked him to go to San Francisco and attend the function with her. When we got
to the social hall, the person who was checking them in said -- “I’m not talking to you!”. It
turned out to be Ets Matsuzaki pretending to hold a grudge towards him about not speaking
to her at an event they had attended some time earlier, but my father didn’t recognize her at
that time. The irony was, Ets was also not planning on attending this Dukes and Jynx
reunion, having just gone through a separation from her husband but was dragged there by
friends to cheer her up. Another coincidence was that, they were classmates at Camp
Crystal City.

They talked all night and soon my father was taking several trips to San Francisco, starting a
relationship with her and resulted with Ets becoming his wife on December 12, 1981. With
her kids, Zane, Ross, Jan and Sandy, we became a much larger family. My father speaks of
Ets and him having very similar backgrounds. Both were the youngest in the family, were
depression babies, were not from wealthy families and both either wanted to or needed to
work hard in order to get the better things in life. He felt they were both conservative in their
thoughts and were willing to make sacrifices for a better future. Both became avid travelers,
enjoying sightseeing and experiencing the history of the past and after each trip he would put
together a photo album complete with descriptive notations. Altogether they had 38 albums
of travel and memories. He and Ets travelled the globe, many of them very exotic and
memorable. They were able to see the pyramids of Egypt, the Red Square and onion domes
of Moscow, the Great Wall of China, as well as many of the countries of Europe, Asia, and
South America. They would partake and enjoy the tapas of Spain, the pastas of Italy, French
cuisine, barbecued beef tongue of northern Japan, pig’s ear and the bitter melon of Okinawa.
(I told you my dad was a foodie)

They were loyal Lakers fans being season ticker holders for 49 years. He says of Ets that his
marriage to her was a very good thing that happened to him, they had good communication
and lived their lives together enjoyable and comfortable.
I was fortunate enough to come across something my father wrote which is why I can speak
with certainty on how he felt on some matters. Maybe something from it will touch you in a
way it has me. He wrote:
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
“Looking back on my life, I feel that all in all I had a very good life. Though the war years did
bring some disruption to a normal family life, the hardships of wartime and the days
immediately after could have created within me a survivor attitude. I look at each period of
my life -- the years without my father during the first part of the war, the family life that I was
able to enjoy at Crystal City, the work ethics and the values I had established in the various
jobs I had undertaken during my school years, and my five careers I have had, have all been
a contributor to the creation of my being. My career as an engineer taught me to think and
solve, as a stockbroker I was taught to evaluate and take risks, and I learned to administrate
as one of the owners of a business. All of these experiences helped me in my career as a
realtor, manager of a real estate office, and as an investor in real estate properties. LIFE
HAS BEEN FAIRLY GOOD TO ME. Whatever struggles and pain I may have endured in the
past, they must have been all part of my development to be able to really enjoy my future.
What a lucky person am I.”

Wouldn’t we all like to be able to write something like that about our own lives? I think he
summed it up nicely.

My father finally was finally able to grow a sense of humor in his later years. He said “I have
always felt that, as we grow older, our passion to do things diminishes to just a few important
areas, which I call the 3 F’s ---- Family, Friends and Food.” I believe he is right in that.

My father was 87 when he passed away on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2018. Even
with his passing, my father has taught me a lesson. That life is short, and sometimes even
brutal, but there is so much to celebrate by appreciating the small details...the larger
moments....and everything in between.

The family appreciates you coming out today to remember my father, and giving me the
opportunity to share with you in a very small way, the strongest man I knew. He probably
wouldn’t have wanted anyone to make a fuss over him, but his heart would have been made
full at seeing all of you here for him. We ask just one thing of you...that you remember him
from time to time in the details.
IN REMEMBERANCE OF:
 HIDEO KASAI 

DECEMBER 17, 1930 – MAY 28, 2018
As my father would have liked, we invite you to share in the 
 3 F’s, and enjoy Family,
Friends, and Food. 


Please join us at the Double Tree Hotel to share your memories of Hideo Kasai immediately
following this service.