was an American businesswoman who helped establish

Uwajimaya Uwajimaya, Inc., doing business as , is a family-owned supermarket chain with its corporate headquarters in the International District, Seattle, Washington, and with locations in Greater Seattle and Oregon. Uwajimaya sells mainly Asian food—w ...

with her husband Fujimatsu Moriguchi.

Biography

Sadako was born as the second daughter of Shozo Tsutakawa in Seattle in 1907. Her younger brother was

George Tsutakawa George Tsutakawa (February 22, 1910 – December 18, 1997) was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs. Born in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, he was raised in both the United States ...

. Although she spent her childhood in Seattle, she went to Japan for formal education. On October 20, 1932, Sadako married Fujimatsu Moriguchi in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

. According to family tradition, Sadako's father arranged a marriage with Fujimatsu. Sadako helped open the first

store in Tacoma. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Moriguchis were interned at

Pinedale, California Pinedale is a previously unincorporated community in Fresno County, California. It lies at an elevation of 348 feet (106 m). It was once a rural community located on the Southern Pacific Railroad north-northwest of Clovis but has since become s ...

, where Sadako gave birth to a daughter, and then at

Tule Lake Tule Lake ( ) is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon. Geography Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River. The eleva ...

, where she gave birth to two children. After the war, the family moved to Seattle's

Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little ...

, where they set up Uwajimaya again at a small building on South Main Street. In 1962, Uwajimaya made exhibitions at the

Century 21 Exposition The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, United States.Burke Museum The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Burke Museum) is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club fo ...

. Moriguchi spent her last days at Seattle's Keiro Nursing Home. She died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on July 25, 2002. A café at Uwajimaya's store in

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

, Sadako's Café, was named for Moriguchi.

References

External links

* * Becky Fukuda and Tomio Moriguchi,
Tomio Moriguchi Interview I
,
Densho Digital Repository
', Densho ID: denshovh-mtomio-01 (20 October 1999). {{DEFAULTSORT:Moriguchi, Sadako 1907 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American people of Japanese descent Businesspeople from Seattle Deaths from dementia in Washington (state) Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Japanese-American internees