Sherman Mikio Kishi was born in Livingston, California to Japanese immigrant parents. He was raised on a farm with his four siblings and lived on that same farm for almost all of his one hundred years.
On Sherman’s seventeenth birthday, he, his family and all people of Japanese ancestry on the west coast were forced to move to prison camps. His family was first sent to a temporary holding site at the Merced Fairgrounds and later transported to Amache, Colorado where they lived under guard towers for four years. However, when Sherman was eighteen, he asked his father’s permission to join the Army and with his father’s consent, he volunteered. He served in the Military Intelligence Service, receiving a crash course in the Japanese language. He was sent to occupied Japan to serve as a translator/interpreter. He said going to Japan and meeting family felt like “going home.”
After he finished his military service, he married his high school sweetheart, June Morimoto. They lived in Berkeley where Sherman went to the University of California and earned a BS degree in Wildlife Management. About a year after graduating, his mother wrote and asked him to go back to Livingston and help his brother Fred run the farm. Kishi Brothers Farm was created. The brothers grew crops as the market demanded, producing eggs, growing chickens, grapes, peaches, nectarines, sweet potatoes and almonds. Sherman always said that farming was a gamble. He learned to roll with the punches and keep his eye on the big picture, able to make changes as demands shifted.
“Sharky” was very active in the Livingston United Methodist Church, the Livingston Farmers Association and the Japanese American Citizens League. He was a Rotarian and served on local school boards for over 20 years. He spoke to organizations and to young people from fourth grade through college, teaching about the loss of civil rights and the illegal incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. He bowled in the Nisei Bowling League for over 60 years and enjoyed playing tennis and golf with friends until he was in his mid-90s. He sang in the church choir his whole adult life, even singing a solo at 99.
June passed away in 2020. They were married for over 74 years. Sherman is survived by his two daughters, Kiyono (Scott Yoshida) and Cynthia (Larry Robinson), his granddaughters Miya Dunets and Surya Grover (Nick), and three great grandsons, Mikio, Isao and Masi.
Sherman was a beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather, uncle and community member. A natural leader, he generously gave of his time and talents. He served others throughout his life and made a positive difference in his community and beyond. A memorial will be held at the Livingston United Methodist Church on Sunday, July 12 at 1:00. If you would like to make a donation in his honor, he would have appreciated donations made to the University of California Merced.
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