Sam Mihara

Sam Mihara is a second-generation Japanese American (Nisei) born and raised in San Francisco. When World War II broke out, the United States government using armed military guards forced Sam, age 9, and his family to move to the Heart Mountain, Wyoming prison camp. It was one of 10 such camps in the country that together housed over 120,000 West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry, most of them U.S.-born American citizens. Sam and his family lived in one room, 20 by 20 feet square in a barrack for three years. Our entire family living in one small room with no utilities, poor food at the start, embarrassing toilets, severe medical problems and cold winters as low as minus 28 deg. F. in blizzards.

After the war ended, the family returned home to San Francisco. Sam attended Lick Wilmerding High School, U.C. Berkeley undergraduate and UCLA graduate schools, where he earned engineering degrees. He became a rocket scientist and joined the Boeing Company where he became an executive on space programs. Following retirement, Sam changed careers – he became a national speaker on the topic of mass injustice in the U.S. He has visited many federal prisons including today’s detention facilities for undocumented immigrants. Sam helped in the education and preservation of the Heart Mountain historic prison site in Northwest Wyoming. Since 2014, he is a board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, the non-profit organization that oversees the National Historic Landmark site. And Sam is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League, SELANOCO Chapter.

Sam speaks to educators, schools, libraries, government attorneys, law schools, law firms and other interested organizations about his wartime experience and today’s prisons. Sam is a frequent guest lecturer at national history conferences, U.C. Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard and Columbia Law Schools, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Congress. In February 2018, In April of 2018, Sam was selected as keynote speaker for the National Council for History Education (NCHE) Conference which was held in San Antonio, Texas. During the conference, Sam was awarded the prestigious Paul Gagnon Prize as the history educator of the year – the first time to a Japanese American and the first west of the Mississippi. With approximately 100,000 history teachers in the U.S., this top award is a special honor. And Sam usually ends his presentations with a discussion of the lessons learned from this injustice and how the lessons apply to today’s problems such as immigration and racial issues. In March 2019, Sam gave speeches and written to Congressional members and staff on the lessons learned from the prison experience that apply to today’s issues including immigration and the need to support funding for education. In August, 2022, Sam was awarded the Japanese American Citizens League’s prestigious honor, The Biennium Award for Education.

To date, Sam has delivered over 450 speeches to over 90,000 students of all ages in the U.S. , Asia and Europe. Mihara is the recipient of the government's Jefferson Lecturer Award for 2024.