Ken Mochizuki, pioneering voice in Asian American children’s literature, dies at 71

Ken Mochizuki, the Seattle author, journalist and educator who introduced Japanese American incarceration to generations of students through children’s literature, died Sept. 20 at his home in Maple Valley, Washington. He was 71 and had esophageal cancer. His body of work, spanning books, journalism and the arts, placed Asian American history at the center of American storytelling.

Mochizuki was born May 18, 1954, and raised in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood by parents who had been incarcerated during World War II. After graduating with a communications degree from the University of Washington in 1976, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, appearing in stage productions and television, including an episode of “M*A*S*H.” In 1981 he returned to Seattle and turned to journalism, writing for the International Examiner and Northwest Nikkei. His first children’s book, “Baseball Saved Us” (1993), told the story of life inside a wartime incarceration camp and went on to sell more than 1 million copies.

He later published additional works for young readers including “Heroes,” “Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story,” “Beacon Hill Boys” and “Be Water, My Friend.” Many of his books were illustrated by Dom Lee and are frequently used in classrooms nationwide. In August 2025, the Asian American Journalists Association honored Mochizuki with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in October the International Examiner will present him a posthumous Community Voice Award.

A public memorial is planned, and the family has requested donations to the Wing Luke Asian Museum or the International Examiner in lieu of flowers.