Hiroto "Hiro" Hirashima (July 11, 1910 – November 23, 2007) was a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

civil rights activist who was pivotal in obtaining equal rights and privileges for his fellow Japanese American bowlers, as well as other minorities, at a time when non-caucasians were ineligible for

American Bowling Congress The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier of all tenpin bowling stand ...

(ABC) membership. With ABC's racial barrier finally removed in 1950, Hirashima organized nine teams of

Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

bowlers for the 1954 ABC Tournament in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

.Vint, Bill. "Japanese-American pioneer Hiroto Hirashima dies." Article at www.bowl.com, December 14, 2007. In 1963, he was elected to the ABC board of directors, becoming the first minority to serve on the board. Hirashima was inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame as an ABC Pioneer in 1995. He is the founder of the Hawaii State Bowling Association and the Oahu Bowling Association. He was honored as an ABC life member in 1995, and served on the ABC Board of Directors for over 30 years. Born in

Kaneohe, Hawaii Kāneohe () is a census-designated place (CDP) included in the City and County of Honolulu and located in Hawaii state District of Koolaupoko on the island of Oahu. In the Hawaiian language, ''kāne ohe'' means "bamboo man". According to an an ...

, he was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame by Governor Ben Cayetano in 1997.

References

External links

ABC Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirashima, Hiroto American ten-pin bowling players 1910 births 2007 deaths Japanese-American civil rights activists People from Hawaii American sportspeople of Japanese descent