Masao W. Satow (1908-76)
Masao W. Satow Building, JACL National Headquarters (1765 Sutter Street, San Francisco)
Masao W. Satow was born in San Mateo, California, and grew up in Los Angeles. He was the general secretary of the YMCA, Los Angeles Chapter and worked with youth at the Japanese Union Church. During that time, people of Japanese ancestry were not allowed in YMCA pools and Masao changed that. In 1936, he was elected assistant executive for the Japanese American Citizen League (JACL) and appointed the chair of the Second-Generation Development Program. After the war, Masao became a national JACL secretary and later its national director. In 1977, the JACL's San Francisco headquarter building was named after him in his honor. A public library was also named after him in Los Angeles.
(Portrait by Joyce Bantugan, SFSU 2020)