Ariyoshi, George R. (George Ryoichi), 1926-

GEORGE RYOICHI ARIYOSHI is the first American of Japanese ancestry to be elected governor of a state. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1926. He served as an interpreter with the Military Intelligence Service, U.S. Army, in Japan at the end of World War II. He attended the University of Hawaii and transferred to Michigan State University where he graduated with a Bachelors of Art. In 1954, Ariyoshi was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives. Four years later, he was elected to the territorial Senate, and finally elected to the state senate. In 1970, he was elected lieutenant governor. In 1973 he succeeded Governor Burns and served the reminder of the term as acting governor. In 1974, he was elected as governor and reelected in 1978 and 1982. The governor served as chair of the Western Governors’ Conference in 1978 and served as first chair of the newly established Western Governors’ Association in 1984 and 1985. In addition, he was a member and president of the Pacific Basin Development Council and a member of the Standing Committee of the Pacific Islands Conference. He was the member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates in 1969, and served as president of the Hawaii Bar Association, the Hawaii Bar Foundation, and the Military Intelligence Service Veterans Club. As a businessman, Ariyoshi was the corporate director of the First Hawaiian Bank, Honolulu Gas Company, and Hawaiian Insurance and Guaranty Company. After leaving public office he joined the law firm Ing & Kawashima, specializing in international, Hawaii and U.S. business consulting.

<p>George Ryoichi Ariyoshi (有吉 良一, Ariyoshi Ryōichi, born March 12, 1926) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the third governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. A Democrat, he is Hawaii's longest-serving governor and the first American of Asian descent to serve as governor of a U.S. state. He assumed gubernatorial powers and duties when Governor John A. Burns was declared incapacitated in October 1973 and was elected in 1974 (assuming governorship December 1974), becoming the first Asian-American to be elected governor of a U.S. state or territory. His lengthy tenure is a record likely to remain unbroken due to term limits enacted after he left office. Ariyoshi is now considered an elder statesman of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi.</p>

<p>Ariyoshi was born in Honolulu, then in the Territory of Hawaiʻi, to Japanese immigrant parents, who named him after George Washington. Ariyoshi graduated in 1944 from McKinley High School. As World War II drew to a close, he served as an interpreter with the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service in Japan. Upon returning stateside, he first attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, then transferred to Michigan State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. He then went on to receive his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1952.</p>

<p>Ariyoshi's political career began in 1954 when he was elected to the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives. He was later elected to the Hawaii Territorial Senate in 1958, then to the Hawaii State Senate in 1959. He served in the senate until 1970 when he ran for and was elected lieutenant governor of Hawaii in 1970 with Governor John A. Burns. When Governor Burns fell ill in October 1973, Ariyoshi assumed his constitutional role as acting governor.</p>

<p>George Ariyoshi was born on March 12, 1926, the eldest son of Japanese immigrants. His father, Ryozo, arrived in Hawai'i from Chikujo-gun, now Buzen City in Fukuoka, Japan in 1919 as a twenty-four-year old crewman aboard a Japanese ship. He worked as a stevedore, construction worker, and proprietor of a rice shop, saimin stand, beer parlor, and tofu shop before establishing R & M Dry Cleaning in Kalihi. Ryozo was also a sumō wrestler who wrestled under the name Yahatayama in exhibition bouts on the Big Island where he met his future wife, Mitsue Yoshikawa. As a child, Ariyoshi attended a variety of schools and completed kindergarten in the Wai'alae area, first grade in Lā'ie, and he attended Central Intermediate School in downtown Honolulu where his teacher Mrs. Margaret Hamada encouraged him to think about various career options including law. After meeting a local attorney, Arthur Trask, Ariyoshi "decided lawyers help people in trouble, and that is what I wanted to do." From that moment in eighth grade, Ariyoshi embraced law as his goal and was supported by his father who often said to him: "I can give you money, but you can spend it all. If I help you get an education, it will be with you forever."</p>

<p>In 1944, Ariyoshi graduated McKinley High school as the senior class president, his early years at McKinley shaped by Principal Miles Cary who promoted progressive education. During World War II, Ariyoshi was drafted into the army and served as an interpreter in the Military Intelligence Service in occupied Japan for several months before returning to Hawai'i. After attending the University of Hawai'i for a short period under the GI Bill , Ariyoshi finished his education at Michigan State University where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science in 1949. Three years later, Ariyoshi graduated from the University of Michigan law school and returned to Hawai'i to open his own practice. In 1953, at a party given by a mutual friend, Ariyoshi met Jean Miya Hayashi who was a student at the University of Hawai'i majoring in mathematics and speech. After one year, George and Jean were engaged on her twentieth birthday—October 30, 1954—and the couple married on February 5, 1955. Their engagement came right before he decided to make a successful run for the territorial House of Representative as Ariyoshi became part of the 1954 Democratic Revolution in Hawai'i.</p>

<p>Ariyoshi served in the territorial House until 1958 when he was elected to the territorial Senate where he served until 1970 when he was elected lieutenant governor with Governor John A. Burns . In 1973, Burns fell ill with cancer and Ariyoshi served as acting governor. Following Burns' death, he was officially elected to the position the following year, with Nelson Doi elected as his lieutenant governor. During his second and third terms, Jean Sadako King and John Waihee served as Ariyoshi's lieutenant governors. During his political career, Ariyoshi guided the state through its first post-statehood economic recession and wrestled with the challenge of land development and population growth and the effect on Hawai'i's limited natural resources. He revised the state's welfare laws that previously allowed newcomers to receive government aid shortly after their arrival. In 1984, Ariyoshi also negotiated an eleventh-hour agreement that prevented a statewide walkout of public workers.</p>