Local Hero to Be Featured in NHK Documentary
Takeshi “Tak” Furumoto is a Japanese American who was born in an incarceration camp, raised in Hiroshima, and fought in the Vietnam War. In the NHK documentary Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam, Furumoto travels in search of closure to his complicated past.
About Tak Furumoto
Born in 1944 in Tule Lake War Relocation Center, one of the ten Japanese American incarceration camps established for the mass incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast, during World War II, Tak Furumoto is the youngest of Sam Kiyoto and Yoshi Furumoto’s five children. Raised in his father’s war-torn hometown in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, Furumoto’s family returned to the U.S. in 1956, settling in Los Angeles. After Furumoto graduated from UCLA in 1967, he volunteered to enter the Army. Despite the injustices his family endured in the U.S. during WWII, Furumoto valiantly served our country in the Vietnam War, earning a Bronze Star.
A New Jersey resident since 1971, Furumoto and his wife, Carolyn, have run Furumoto Realty in New Jersey, New York City, and Westchester for more than 50 years. They have dedicated their lives to the betterment of the Japanese American community in both New Jersey and New York. They were instrumental in New Jersey’s adoption of Fred T. Korematsu Day in 2023, relentlessly advocating for the state of New Jersey to recognize January 30 as the Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, a day that honors civil rights hero Fred Korematsu, a California native who refused to enter the incarceration camps in 1942.
To learn more about Furumoto and his contributions to our community, please read Karen Kawaguchi’s in-depth article in Discover Nikkei.
Tak Furumoto still from NHK World Japan
On-Air Schedule
NHK World will broadcast Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam on the following days:
Friday, March 21 from 8:10 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22 from 2:10 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. | 8:10 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. | 2:10 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.
NHK World is available in New York at these channels: Spectrum 1279, Optimum 142, FiOS 482, Xfinity 265 and 1157, and OTA channel 58.2 To find the full details of where you can watch the documentary in your area, please visit the NHK World Channel List on NHK’s website.
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