Kenichi K. Yabusaki, better known as Ken, is a retired biochemist, who was born in an American concentration camp called Minidoka. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and President FDR’s signing of Executive Order 9066, Ken’s family along with thousands of Japanese were uprooted from Seattle and endured three years behind barbed wire and under armed guard in the harsh environment of Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Growing up in Seattle and living in the back of his family’s small grocery store, he learned harsh lessons under the legacy of “Yellow Peril” that continued after WWII ended. He was told by a college advisor he was more suited to be a Japanese gardener, but his tenacity forged during a time of racism helped him surpass all expectations. Ken went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Western Washington University, and he was then drafted out of graduate school. He received a direct commission from the Army during the Vietnam War, became an Army paratrooper with the Airborne Artillery, and received a top-secret security clearance to train on nuclear weapons. While readying for basic training, he met the love of his life, Ann. After marriage and the Army, he went on to graduate school and received his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Arizona, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley under a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Unsuccessful attempts for an academic position led him to co-found three small biotech companies before going into private consulting in the design and development of immunodiagnostic and DNA tests in the San Francisco Bay and San Diego areas. He is an inventor and co-inventor and holds several patents involving clinical tests and DNA probe technologies. He advocated for human and civil rights as co-president of the Japanese American Citizens League’s Berkeley chapter. Currently, he serves as a director of the Hawaii Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Action Group. Ken and his wife, Ann, have been married for fifty-five years, have two adult children, grandchildren, and a great grandchild. They live in Hawaii where Ken continues to write poetry and philosophical essays. His first award-winning book, During the Pause: A Collection of Tanka Poems, was published in 2022. Ken and Ann enjoy fly fishing and the natural world through travel and visiting America’s national parks.
