Melvin Inamasu
Melvin Inamasu was born and raised on the island of Maui. His interest in science eventually led him to a degree in medicine from the John A. Burns School of Medicine. After additional training in internal medicine and medical oncology, He spent the next 33 years in private practice in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, caring for cancer patients and adults with general medical problems. Since retiring from patient care in 2014, he's been a volunteer at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i and is currently an interviewer for their collection of oral history conversations, preserving the evolving history of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i.
Updated December 2022
Stories from This Author
Honoring the Legacy—Arthur Ushijima
June 14, 2023 • Melvin Inamasu , Violet H. Harada
The Queen’s Health System – Fulfilling a Royal Legacy As a child growing up on Maui, Arthur Ushijima remembered his father, James Sueki, telling him that one always took care of family first. Beyond the family, his father added, “You go out and help others.” Ushijima took that advice to heart. Until his retirement in 2020, he devoted four decades of his life to health care and, for the past 30 years, has served the Hawai‘i community at the helm …
Honoring the Legacy – Warren Nishimoto
Dec. 18, 2022 • Melvin Inamasu , Violet H. Harada
Warren Nishimoto retired in 2017 after 37 years as director of the Center for Oral History at the University of Hawai‘i. During the nearly four decades of his leadership, the Center produced over 850 interviews focusing on the working class in Hawai‘i. He is quick to acknowledge that the arduous and precise work of interviewing subjects and transcribing the interviews was spearheaded by master researcher and interviewer Michiko Kodama-Nishimoto, his wife, and longtime staffers Cynthia Oshiro, who transcribed the majority …
