Ruth Yamauchi taught hundreds of students in the Denver area about forgiveness after surviving a Japanese internment camp during World War II .
Yamauchi died April 25, two months and one day shy of her 101st birthday.
“She was the mother of all mothers, even though she was my grandmother,” said Kimiko Gustafson.
The Los Angeles native was forced to spend two years in an internment camp in Utah after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war, Yamauchi and her husband settled in Denver, where she lived until she died of natural causes.
Gustafson said her grandmother began sharing tales of her experience in the internment camp after the two of them sat down to do a school project together. They created a diary about what it was like to be confined in the camp.
“She had to leave everything,” Gustafson said. “She had to pack a suitcase. She said she left the rest of her things on the curb.”
Yamauchi taught lessons of positivity, resilience and gratitude each time she addressed groups of elementary, middle, high school and college students.
“She was not angry that she was put in an internment camp, and she made that aware to us,” Gustafson said. “You cherish where you live right now. That’s what she wanted to communicate.”
Yamauchi cherished the redress letter she received years after her time in the camp.
“She taught us forgiveness, as far as her treatment and being stereotyped for who she was just by her nationality,” said Carin Lawrence, Yamauchi’s granddaughter. “She was very proud to be an American.”
Yamauchi taught origami and lectured in Denver area schools until she was 94 years old. Her friends and family remember her as a giving, intelligent and kind woman who was always quick to make a joke. Her love for the U.S. was rivaled only by her love for family and John Elway. “She loved the Broncos,” Gustafson said. “If they scored, she would do the splits.”
Some of her granddaughters’ fondest memories involve playing cards around the kitchen table and attending traditional Japanese dance classes.
“She got us really involved in the Japanese side of our upbringing,” Lawrence said.
Yamauchi received a number of awards for her contributions to the community. Most notably, she was honored with a Martin Luther King Peace Award in 2006. In 2015, Gov. John Hickenlooper invited her to deliver the Pledge of Allegiance at the state Capitol on Senior Day.
Yamauchi is preceded in death by her parents, all of her siblings, her son, Bryan Honda, and her daughter, Elyse Yamauchi. She is survived by her daughters, Gayle K. Simon and Lynda S. Sutherland; four grandchildren, Carin Sutherland Lawrence and her husband, Pete; Kimiko Sutherland Gustafson and her husband, Brendan; Klee Yamauchi and his wife, Salvation; and Yuzo Nieto and his wife, Simone; and eight great-grandchildren, Nicholas and Erik Lawrence; Kensley Gustafson; Keaden, Eleann and Zander Yamauchi; and Zora and Theo Nieto.
A memorial service will be held in her honor at noon May 15 at Simpson United Methodist Church in Arvada.
Katy Canada: 303-954-1043, kcanada@denverpost.com or @KatySusanna
