Kip Yoshio Tokuda was a Sansei (third generation) Japanese American civil rights leader, public servant, Washington State legislator, and advocate for the rights of children, disabled persons, and LGBTQ+ individuals. He is credited with the co-founding of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington in Seattle, the state legislature’s annual observation of the Japanese American Day of Remembrance, and the state’s Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, which now carries his name. He created leadership programs for Asian American youth, including the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation, mentoring and nurturing future generations of Asian American leaders.
"Quite Rebellious"
Born October 8, 1946, in Seattle to parents George (1912-1985) and Tama Inouye Tokuda (1920-2013), Clifford "Kip" Tokuda was the second of five siblings. His mother’s parents immigrated from Kochiken Prefecture in Japan, while his father’s parents immigrated from Shigaken Prefecture. George’s family settled in Mukilteo and Tama grew up in Japantown, Seattle, where she attended the Seattle Japanese language school and Japanese Dance School and was an accomplished dancer. George and Tama met during World War II when both were incarcerated in the Minidoka, Idaho, incarceration camp. She was a librarian, and he started checking out a lot of books, a story chronicled decades later by Tokuda's niece Maggie Tokuda-Hall (b. 1984) in a 2022 bestselling book, Love In The Library.
Tokuda's older brother Floyd (1944-2020), known as "Butchie," was born at Minidoka. Because Butchie had a severe developmental disability, Tokuda's parents treated Kip as an unofficial "eldest son" and often put him in charge of Butchie and the other children who followed: Valerie (b. 1948), Wendy (b. 1950), and Marilyn (b. 1953). Tokuda became his older brother’s unofficial protector and, much later in life, one of his legal guardians. The experience of protecting his brother left a lifelong impact on Kip and the rest of the Tokuda children. In a 2024 interview, younger sister Wendy credited Butchie’s life with teaching all of the Tokuda siblings about the value of compassion and standing up for others.
Before World War II, George Tokuda operated the Tokuda Drugs store through several moves in the Central District, and eventually to Main Street in Seattle’s Nihonmachi (Japantown). George Tokuda was a charismatic, active member of the Japanese American community. Kip’s younger sister Wendy noted that because George was a small-business owner, he relied on the community, and in reciprocity the family frequently patronized other small businesses in Seattle.
Kip was the first child born to the Tokudas after their wartime incarceration. While they were gone, the owner of George Tokuda’s old drugstore had posted a "No Japs Allowed" sign. It took three years of hard work for George to buy his store back. The trauma and injustice of the incarceration, the loss of the family business, as well as the disability of their oldest son made life difficult for the Tokudas. As with many other Nisei, the Tokuda parents rarely spoke of these tragedies, daughter Wendy said, leaving a great deal of unprocessed grief amidst their postwar endurance and resilience.
The Tokuda children grew up in Seattle’s Central District and later the Beacon Hill neighborhood. At Garfield and Cleveland high schools, Kip played football and served on the student council. Wendy described him as "one of the toughest kids on the block," which was useful in protecting Butchie. The Central District years were formative for Kip, as the neighborhood transitioned to become predominantly Black. "All of us learned to get along with everybody," remembered Wendy in 2024. Several blocks away was a street that created a racial and economic dividing line, Wendy recalled: "On the west side of that street was Black and other, and on the east side of that street down to the lake lived wealthier, white professional families. The racial and class disparities were profound" (Wendy Tokuda interview with author).
In a speech, Kip described his younger self as "an average student who spent more time in the gym than in classrooms ... quite rebellious and got into the usual trouble that an inner city kid experiences ... [one that] was taken to juvenile court more than once” (Kip Tokuda SOAR speech). Each time, he was redirected to his parents and told to go home and be good. Many of his friends also had trouble with the law but received more severe punishment. This taught Tokuda that the justice system does not treat everyone equally.
Children’s Rights Advocate
After graduating from Cleveland High School, Tokuda graduated from the University of Washington in 1969 with a BA in sociology. In 1973 he added a master’s degree in social work and worked with the groundbreaking Asian Counseling and Referral Service in its original temporary quarters at Blaine Memorial Church on Beacon Hill. He began his career with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as a social worker in Child Protective Services, going on to work as a social-services coordinator at the Northwest Kidney Center, director of the Seattle Children’s Home, a residential psychiatric treatment center, and as a program manager in child-abuse prevention for the Division of Children and Family Services.
While Tokuda was quietly establishing a reputation as a trusted expert on child welfare, he remained somewhat overshadowed in the community by his father and his family. Wendy was a prominent TV journalist; Marilyn was a successful actor, playwright, and artistic director; and after her retirement from UW Libraries, Tama, who had always encouraged her daughters’ interests in the arts, achieved new success as a writer and performer. After George Tokuda died in 1985, Wendy explained, Kip "blossomed" (Wendy Tokuda interview).
In 1986, Washington Gov. Booth Gardner (1936-2013) appointed Tokuda as Executive Director of the Governor’s Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, working to advance child-abuse prevention policy by funding and empowering local communities. Tokuda continued to lead what became known as the Washington Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (WPCAN) for eight years, building a public profile as an advocate and lobbyist on children’s issues.
It was at this time that Tokuda met his future wife, the clinical psychologist Barbara Lui, then a graduate student at UW and board member for a King County child-abuse prevention agency, who agreed to work on a Metro bus sign campaign he had proposed. Lui, the daughter of Yuen and Mayme Lui, had known Wendy Tokuda from middle school on Beacon Hill, and also came from a family with a prominent local business, the Yuen Lui photography studio. A graduate of Franklin High School, she attended UW as an undergraduate, and took her first graduate degree at Smith College before receiving her doctorate from UW in 1990, the same year she was married. The couple shared an interest in community mental health that grew out of the racial-justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and worked with many of the same local agencies throughout their careers. Like her husband, Lui was committed to mentorship; she went on to establish a longstanding training program at Therapeutic Health Services.
In his position at WPCAN, Tokuda frequently traveled to Olympia, where he worked with then-Rep. Gary Locke (b. 1950), who served as chairman of the Appropriations committee and pushed Tokuda to better articulate why his policy ideas were a sound public investment, and Rep. June Leonard, who also focused on children’s issues and initially recruited him to run for the legislature. In 1989, Tokuda managed the successful Seattle school board campaign of his longtime friend Al Sugiyama (1950-2017), and by the following year, he was being publicly touted as a potential legislative candidate himself. "I was surprised he went into politics," said his sister Wendy, "but he loved it and it turned out he was good at it. He said politics was like chessboard. He was a natural" (Wendy Tokuda interview). The chessboard metaphor would become particularly clear across several levels of Tokuda’s activism and public service.
Civic Activist in Olympia
After Locke’s election as King County Executive in 1993 created an opening in his former 37th District, Position 2 seat in the state legislature, Tokuda’s bid to replace him initially failed, as longtime community activist Vivian Caver (1928-2021) received an interim appointment. Undaunted, Tokuda mounted a successful campaign for the subsequent election, gathering endorsements from a powerful set of Asian American officials, including Locke, Sugiyama, state Reps. Paull Shin (1935-2021) and Velma Veloria (b. 1950), and City Councilmembers Cheryl Chow (1946-2013) and Delores Sibonga (b. 1931). The legendary local powerbroker Ruth Woo (1927-2016) was a crucial supporter. "He depended on Ruth Woo for everything," Barbara Lui noted in a 2024 interview. "If he was late coming home, I always knew he was down there. They just laughed and laughed, and talked about everybody, and talked about politics" (Liu interview with Schleitwiler).
"Kip spent a lot of time knocking on every possible door," Lui said, running the campaign out of the family home, with the help of Joby Shimomura (b. 1972) and mapping expertise from Rick Gambrell. In a Seattle Times essay reflecting on the campaign kickoff event, Tama Tokuda pondered the distance her family had traveled from her "'fenced in" youth in "completely segregated" Seattle, and later wrote about her politician son and his growing accomplishments with wonder: "Who is that slightly graying man, smiling and shaking hands all around? He is my son, in my own eyes still a child" ("My Son, the Candidate").
After defeating Caver in the Democratic primary, Tokuda won the first of four terms in the state legislature in fall 1994, despite a political wave in 1994 that saw the House flip dramatically to the Republican Party after more than a decade of Democratic majorities. Tokuda remained in the minority during his first two terms, before an electoral tie led to a power-sharing agreement between co-Speakers of the House Clyde Ballard (b. 1936) and Frank Chopp (b. 1953) from 1999-2001. Democrats gained a delicate one-seat majority in 2002, Tokuda’s final year in office. Under these conditions, a bipartisan approach was necessary for any Democratic lawmaker, which suited Tokuda’s political skills and coalitional approach.
"He was beloved by not just my caucus, the Democratic caucus," said his longtime friend, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, "he was beloved in the Republican caucus" ("In Memory of Kip Tokuda"). In a 2022 oral history interview, Santos (b. 1961), who began serving as Tokuda’s 37th District seatmate in 1999, explained that the tied legislature meant that "most pieces of legislation went through ninety-eight to zero" ("In Memory of Kip Tokuda"). Yet even in his first term, Tokuda managed to pass two bills, both by unanimous consent, related to his primary interest in children’s issues, countering racial disparities in the juvenile justice system, and providing funding to support the adoption of special-needs children.
Tokuda was a fixture on the Children and Family Services committee throughout his time in the legislature, serving as co-chair or chair from 1999-2002. He spent three terms on the powerful Appropriations committee, and also served on Corrections, Transportation, and Juvenile Justice and Family Law. His strategic and philosophical tendency to cede the spotlight meant that he often worked behind the scenes, sharing his expertise in social services in committee work and collaborations with fellow legislators. In his final term, he sponsored a bill supporting kinship caregivers, grandparents or other relatives who take in children – an issue taken up by his successor, Rep. Eric Pettigrew (b. 1960). Countering a national climate of retreat on social justice, Tokuda fought on behalf of communities of color, winning protections for immigrants in welfare programs, and helping lead an ultimately unsuccessful effort to preserve affirmative action, teaming with state Sen. Gene Price (1930-2007), a conservative Republican, on a bill opposing Initiative 200.
A key part of Tokuda’s legislative legacy involved preserving the historical memory of Japanese American incarceration. In 1997, he passed the first Washington State Day of Remembrance resolution marking the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the incarceration, but in the next term, he asked Sharon Tomiko Santos to be primary sponsor, laying a foundation for what would become a continuing recognition. Similarly, his success in creating the Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program Fund in 2000, which would be rededicated in his name after his death, came after he secured the sponsorship of Rep. Mike Wensman (b. 1951), a Republican from Mercer Island.
For Tokuda, who saw himself as a "civic activist" rather than a politician, elected office was never meant to be a career. "I saw politics as more an extension of what I was doing," he said in a 2011 interview. "I saw it as going down to Olympia because I had some very specific causes, and there was a beginning and an end" (Tokuda interview with Eric Liu). He pursued these interests equally outside of the legislature, serving on countless committees and boards, and establishing lasting institutions such as the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW), cofounded with Lori Matsukawa (b. 1956) and Ron Mamiya (b. 1949). After leaving the House, Tokuda served as Director of Seattle’s Family and Youth Services Division before retiring to spend more time with his wife and his daughters, Molly and Pei-Ming. Later, after the 2009 election of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn (b. 1959), he held a series of roles, working on McGinn's transition and serving as Interim Director of Human Services and on the new Community Police Commission.
In the legislature and in the community, Tokuda was known as a big-picture thinker, and colleagues and relatives regularly shared affectionate stories about his disregard for details. As Lui recalled in 2024, he got around to changing his name from Clifford to Kip only after a legislative staffer, Davis Yee, arranged all the paperwork, so that his legal name would match his signature. Though he could display an old-fashioned formality, those close to him also saw a "goofy" side. "He would set himself up to be the butt of jokes, and then he would laugh," Barbara Lui said. "He was really good at laughing at himself."
"Our Response Must be Constructive"
Active with the Japanese American Citizens League’s Seattle Chapter for many years, Tokuda served as its president in 1993. As his colleague Akemi Matsumoto recounted in a 2022 conversation, Tokuda "always had a chuckle and he always had a smile, but he also always knew what his goals were, how long they would take, and how we [in the Seattle JACL] would implement them" ("In Memory of Kip Tokuda").
"History, for better or worse, has a way of shaping us in profound ways," Tokuda wrote in his 1993 inaugural presidential newsletter address. "Our response must be constructive. Redress, the murder of Vincent Chin and the Rodney King beating reinforced for me two very basic lessons. The first is that hatred and prejudice can and do affect us in real and ugly ways. The second is that social change will not happen in a vacuum, that traditional boundaries must be crossed, that in order to bring about progressive change, we must work collectively with others who share our goals." Under his leadership, chapter members took positions on legislative issues, protested racist remarks from Washington state legislators, and worked to support Black communities. He continued a strong relationship with the chapter as he worked to pass legislation for the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund.
Tokuda was a vocal advocate of LGBTQ+ rights, which earned him an unqualified endorsement from Seattle Gay News in the 1994 election. In a 2012 video, he linked his family history and values with the Washington United For Marriage campaign, a campaign in support of Referendum 74 (a legislative measure in support of legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington). He co-wrote an op-ed supporting the campaign with fellow JACL activist Bill Tashima, whose own wedding subsequently he offered to officiate – a bittersweet memory for Tashima, who recalled that Tokuda died suddenly just weeks before the event.
Because Tokuda saw himself as part of a collective effort, he was also heavily invested in looking ahead to future generations. In 1998 he was a founding member of the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation (ACLF) – a program that trained and mentored about a dozen young Asian Pacific Americans each year for community-rooted leadership in nonprofits, politics, and civic engagement. Mentee and friend Jill Nishii said that Tokuda "very much wanted to create a space for young emerging leaders to practice their leadership and to become engaged with the community, with their own gifts, in a way that could be helpful to something broader than themselves" ("The Legend of Kip Tokuda"). The program lasted over 20 years before it was retired in 2018.
The themes of mentorship, collaboration, and community empowerment that ACLF manifested were a hallmark of Tokuda’s approach to leadership and civic engagement, which he traced back to his role models Bob Santos (1934-2016), Larry Gossett (b. 1945), Roberto Maestas (1938-2010), and Bernie Whitebear (1937-2000), the legendary organizers known as the Four Amigos. "They taught me that there is a direct connection between what we do as activists and the well-being of communities," he said in 2011 ("Seattle Voices ..."). In 2012, Tokuda received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays from the Japanese consulate in recognition of his efforts to strengthen relations between the United States and Japan. Within his groundbreaking generation of Asian American elected officials, and his commitments to mentoring and fostering later generations, Tokuda was an essential link connecting this tradition to the future.
Death and Legacy
On July 13, 2013, Tokuda died of a heart attack while fishing on Whidbey Island. His family, friends, and communities were shocked to learn of his untimely death at 66 years old. His memorial service filled Kane Hall at the University of Washington, some 800 persons strong. Governor Jay Inslee and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn offered reflections and remarks. King County Executive Dow Constantine, another Tokuda mentee, ordered flags at King County facilities to be lowered to half-staff on the day of the memorial service. And in the Seattle Chinatown/International District, often considered Tokuda’s second home, storefronts posted flyers for months in memory of him. In 2014, with Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos’s and Sen. Bob Hasegawa’s sponsorship, the state legislature added Tokuda’s name to the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund.
Tokuda wrote an unpublished letter to his daughters shortly before his death. It was quoted by his sister Wendy in her eulogy for him:
"I hope both of you dedicate your lives to standing up to those who for no fault of their own, are treated unfairly and unjustly. It is unacceptable that we treat anyone as less than we are and I have been disgusted that some, including from within our community, discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, disability, race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation" (Wendy Tokuda, "Eulogy").
