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After climbing onto the roof of his house on Kalakaua Avenue the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and watching as Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Robert Fukuda dedicated his life to public service, his daughter said.
Fukuda, 91, of Honolulu, died July 12.
Upon graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1943, Fukuda went on to serve in World War II as a Japanese language interpreter and translator for the Army, his daughter Anna Arii said.
He was among 6,000 Japanese-Americans awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010 for their work with the Military Intelligence Service during the war, she said.
Fukuda left the Army in 1946 and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1951. He then returned to Honolulu to serve as a deputy attorney general of the Territory of Hawaii, from 1953 to 1959.
During that time he also served as the attorney for the Hawaiian Homes Commission and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
"He dedicated his life and career to helping others," Arii said.
Fukuda was elected to the first state Legislature in the House of Representatives in 1959 and served for three years.
In 1969 he became the U.S. attorney for the state of Hawaii and held that position until 1973. Then, from 1982 to 1986 he managed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Hawaii and Guam for four years.
Between these jobs he practiced law.
A 1939 graduate of Roosevelt High School, Fukuda wrote in a 2006 article published in the Hawaii Reporter about five generations of his family living in Hawaii for a total of more than 120 years.
His grandparents arrived here to work on sugar plantations as part of an 1885 treaty between Japan’s Emperor Meiji and Hawaii’s King Kalakaua, and his father and three aunts were born in Hawaii, he wrote.
Arii said her mother, Loretta K. Fukuda, served in public service roles as well. Fukuda’s wife died 21 years ago after the couple had been married for 34 years, Arii said. She was 65.
Fukuda is survived by Arii, daughter Sylvia F. Tsang and four grandchildren.
A visitation will begin at 4 p.m. Aug. 11 at Harris United Methodist Church on Vineyard Boulevard, with services following at 5 p.m.
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