[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 178 (Thursday, December 3, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2892-E2893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF NAO TAKASUGI

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELTON GALLEGLY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 3, 2009

  Mr. GALLEGLY. Madam Speaker, I rise in memory of Nao Takasugi, a 
former California assemblyman and Oxnard mayor, who passed away last 
week after 87 years of dedication to family, friends, his country and 
his community.
  Nao and I served together on the Ventura County Regional Sanitation 
Board more than 30 years ago and he and his wife, Judy, quickly became 
friends with me and my wife, Janice. I have also been friends with his 
son Russell for more than 30 years though Russell's law partnership 
with Bob Huber. They are a close and strong family.
  Nao was an incredible gentleman. I don't think I ever heard him raise 
his voice. His strength was in quiet determination, a will to do good 
always, and an undyingly optimistic outlook.
  Nao's parents immigrated to the United States from Japan and set up 
shop in Oxnard, California, where Nao was born on April 5, 1922. When 
World War II broke out, Nao was

[[Page E2893]]

a junior at UCLA and he was called home to help his family pack their 
belongings. With thousands of other Japanese-Americans, the Takasugi 
family was sent to internment camps, first at the Tulare County 
fairgrounds and then at Gila River, Arizona.
  Nao's parents would have lost the Asahi Market his father had owned 
and operated since 1907 if it hadn't been for an employee, Ignacio 
Carmona, who offered to run it in their absence. When the family 
returned, Ignacio handed the keys over and thanked Nao's father for the 
opportunity to run the business.
  Nao's family spent the entire war in an internment camp but Nao was 
offered an opportunity to continue his studies through a program run by 
the American Friends Service Committee and the Quakers in Philadelphia. 
He completed his business degree at Temple University in 1945 and went 
on to earn his master's from the Wharton School at the University of 
Pennsylvania.
  Then he returned to Oxnard to help run Asahi Market.
  In Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, Nao described the 
internment camp experience this way: ``I find that I am compelled to 
remember the best--not the worst--of that time. To focus not on the 
grave deprivation of rights which beset us all, but rather on the 
countless shining moments of virtue that emerged from the shadows of 
that dark hour.''
  Nao's road into politics mirrored my own. When the city denied his 
plans for a new sign, he decided politics needed a businessman's 
perspective. He was appointed to the planning commission, ran for city 
council and won, ran for mayor and won consecutive terms, ran for the 
California Assembly and was elected to three terms, then was elected to 
two terms on the Oxnard Harbor Commission.
  Nao experienced the best and the worst that America had to offer 
during often trying times. Many Americans experienced the best America 
has to offer because of Nao's friendship, compassion and dedication to 
his country. I will miss him.
  Madam Speaker, I know my colleagues will join me in sending our 
condolences to Judy, their children, and all their family and friends, 
and in remembering a gentle man who left an indelible mark.

                          ____________________