Patsy Mink - Family Background

Family Background

Mink's parents were second-generation Japanese Americans or Nisei. She was a Sansei, or third-generation descendant of emigrants from Japan. Her father, Suematsu Takemoto, was a civil engineer. Her mother, Mitama Tateyama, was a homemaker. Takemoto graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1922. Takemoto was the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Hawaii.

For several years, Mink's father Takemoto was the only Japanese American civil engineer working in Maui. He was passed over and not promoted several times during his career and instead, the positions were offered to white Americans. He resigned his local position in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, and moved to Honolulu with his family. Takemoto established his own land surveying company in Honolulu.

Mink's maternal grandparents were Gojiro Tateyama and his wife Tsuru. Gojiro was born in the Empire of Japan during the 19th century. He arrived in the Territory of Hawaii late in the century, and was employed on a sugar plantation. He later moved to Maui, and was initially employed as a worker for the East Maui Irrigation Company. Subsequently, Gojiro was employed as a store manager and filling station employee. He also delivered mail throughout the backcountry of Maui.

The Tateyamas lived in a shack by Waikamoi Stream. They had eleven children. William Pogue, Gojiro's employer at the Irrigation Company, arranged to have the Tateyama female children educated at the Maunaolu Seminary, a boarding school for Christian girls located in the town of Makawao.