Yasuo Matsui (1877 – 1962) was a prominent 20th century Japanese American architect.Gray, Christopher (2012)

in The New York Times. (Accessed: 11 February 2017)

Early years

Immigrating from Japan to the United States in 1902, Matsui attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

and afterward worked for

Ernest Flagg Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility. Early life and education Flagg was born in Brooklyn, N ...

. He was one of the architects who worked on the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...

. He eventually rose to the position of President at F.H. Dewey & Company, an architectural firm, which was involved with many prominent skyscraper projects on the East Coast. Their most prominent project was the 71-story

40 Wall Street 40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, is a Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau Street (Manhattan), Nassau and William Street (Manhattan), William streets in the Financial District, Manh ...

building. He also designed the Japanese Pavilion at the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

World War II

Along with other prominent Japanese living throughout the United States, Matsui was arrested by the FBI after the

bombing of 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 Haw ...

. He was taken to

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...

on December 8, 1941, and interned for two months until he was paroled in February 1942. For the rest of the war his freedom to travel was curtailed, he had to report his activities to the federal government every month, and he was barred from owning a camera. He was released from parole in October 1945.

Death

He died a naturalized American citizen in 1962. He was predeceased by his daughter, Margaret, who died on July 19, 1942, at the age of 29 . Margaret was employed by ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'', and was at the time of her death married to ''Life'' photographer John Phillips.

Bibliography

References

1877 births 1962 deaths Skyscraper architects Japanese emigrants to the United States 20th-century American architects Japanese-American internees Japanese architects Naturalized citizens of the United States Empire State Building {{US-architect-stub

Early years

World War II

Death

Bibliography

See also

References