Shizue Howard's Obituary
Shizue was born in Tokyo, Japan to Shizuo Katayama and Kotoko Shinada on September 15th, 1921. She was the beloved mother of three children Jiro, Arthur and Portia Howard, two grandchildren Penelope and Anthony Howard and three great grandchildren Devin, Ericka and Journe Pegues.
In 1946, Shizue went to work as part of Prime Minister Yoshida’s household staff. Yoshida was the first Prime Minister of Japan. She later served on the staff for General Douglas MacArthur and his successor Matthew Ridgway.
Shizue met Joseph Howard in 1958 while Joe was working in Japan for Philco Electronics as a defense contractor. They married that same year and continued living in Japan until 1962. The family then moved to Frankfurt, Germany where Joe’s contract was purchased from Philco by the U.S. Government making Joe a Civil Service employee with the U.S. Army Electronics Command. In 1963, the Army sent Joe and his family to Seoul, South Korea to be in charge of Army electronics. Then in 1965, the family moved to El Paso, Texas where Joe attended White Sands Missile School to receive training on the Hawk missile system. After that, there was a short stay in Lowell, Massachusetts working with Raytheon before being shipped to Tokyo, Japan in 1966. In 1969, the family was transferred again this time to Taipei, Taiwan. In 1971, dad was assigned to Fort Lewis for the first time before being reassigned to Okinawa, Japan in 1973. The family returned to Washington in 1976 this time for good when dad retired. During her travels, Shizue was grateful for the many friends she was able to make.
Shizue was an active member of the Japanese American community in the Lakewood/Tacoma area for many years. She served as Vice President for Nikkei Jin Kai, a Japanese American Civic Organization in the 80’s and 90’s. She was a writer for the North American Post Newspaper a Japanese paper covering the Puget Sound area. She wrote the section called Tacoma News. Mom also served as Master of Ceremonies for many of the Karaoke events in the South Sound area. She was involved with the Tacoma-Kitakyushu Sister City High School Baseball program where every other year the sister cities would send a group of all-stars either here or to Kitakyushu to play a series of games. She was also a member of the Whitney Memorial Methodist Church where she organized a fund raiser for her friend Princess Lee (Yi Panja) of Korea for the mentally handicapped children of South Korea.
What’s your fondest memory of Shizue?
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Share a story where Shizue's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Shizue you’ll never forget.
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