Daizo Sumida was a Japanese American businessman.

Early life

Daizo Sumida was born on August 7, 1887, to a farming family in what is now Aki District,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Sumida moved to

Hawaiʻi Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

in 1904, after his brother Tajiro started a company there.

Career

Sumida was co-owner of Marumasa Soy Sauce, along with his brother Tajiro and nephew Shinzaburo Sumida; Marumasa Soy Sauce later became known as Diamond Shoyu. However, they were most notable for founding the Honolulu Sake Brewing Company. It was the first

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

brewing company founded outside Japan. During prohibition the company sold ice. After

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

ended, in the early 1930s, Honolulu Ice Co. Ltd. changed its name back to Honolulu Sake Brewery & Ice Co. Ltd. Daizo Sumida was the president at the time. This period of production was called their "golden age". After the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

both Daizo and Shinzaburo were incarcerated in several

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

on the U.S. continent. After they were released, they restarted sake production. In 1947, Daizo Sumida became the first president of the Honolulu Businessman's Association, previously known as the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Sumida died on December 30, 1961, after having a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

the previous summer. Sumida posthumously received the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

, fifth class in 1962. The medal was presented to his wife, Fusao Sumida.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumida, Daizo 1887 births 1961 deaths People from Hiroshima Prefecture 20th-century Japanese businesspeople Japanese emigrants to the United States Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class American people of Japanese descent American businesspeople Japanese-American internees