Masakazu Jack Fujimoto (born July 19, 1928) was the first Asian American to become president of a major higher education institution in the mainland of the United States when he became president of Sacramento City College in 1977. He was awarded with Japan's Order of the Rising Sun award on November 15, 2011 for his contributions to the advancement of Japanese language studies and the promotion of Japan studies and Japanese culture. Biography Fujimoto was born in 1928 in National City, California of parents Morizo (Issei from Hiroshima, Japan) and Emi (Nisei born in Glendale, California). When Fujimoto was 13, he was evacuated from Encinitas, California along with his parents and siblings and interned at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona following the signing of Executive Order 9066. Fujimoto and his family were released from Poston in 1945, and they resettled in Encinitas. Following Fujimoto's graduation from high school, he volunteered in the U.S. Army, where he was trained in Counter-Intelligence and served in Japan during the Korean War. Coming from a farming background, Fujimoto was expected to follow the tradition of oldest son following the patriarch. However, he was released to be the first in his family to pursue a college education and he obtained his A.A. degree at Pasadena City College and his B.S., M.B.A., and Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles. Fujimoto's specialty in the Japanese language carried forth in his life. He taught Japanese language for 12 years at Venice Gakuen, a private community school at the Venice Japanese Community Center. He worked closely with Los Angeles Unified School District and Culver City Unified School District schools to get credit for Venice Gakuen Japanese language students to meet the language requirements for the University of California institutions. Today, that credit recognition continues to persist for all private Japanese language learners who pass a credit test. In 1969, Fujimoto was selected as a dean at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. There, he established the Japanese language as an elective for college credit. He also introduced a course in Man and Humanities in East Asia. Subsequently, Fujimoto became president of West Los Angeles College in 1979, where he introduced and taught Japanese language as a recognized college elective course. He did the same when he became president at Los Angeles Mission College in the San Fernando Valley in 1989. Today, those courses of