Retired Agent ‘Sam’ Yakura’s service is no secret at luncheon.
By P.C. Staff
Those in attendance at the Jan. 25 San Fernando Valley JACL installation luncheon were served a treat beyond the food from Rutt’s Hawaiian Catering and music performed by koto ensemble LA’s 33 Strings. They also got to hear stories about what it was like to be a Secret Service special agent serving six United States presidents from John F. Kennedy through Ronald Reagan.
In a role reversal, the members of the San Fernando JACL board and guests gathered to “protect” former Secret Service agent and guest speaker Kazuo “Sam” Yakura. Pictured (back row, from left) are Ariel Imamoto, Michiko Tokunaga, Kristen Fujitaki, Nancy Takayama, Geri Shiraki and Dominique Mashburn and (next row, from left) Mitzi Kushida, Patty Takayama, Marcia Mahony, May Wood, Linda Tanaka and Barbara Okita and (seated) Kazuo “Sam” Yakura. (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)
The event was made even more special since, unless he is somehow otherwise persuaded, it was the last public speaking engagement that Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Kazuo “Sam” Yakura, 89, said he would be giving on that topic.
Also on hand to perform the oath of office ceremony at the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center in Arleta, Calif., for the chapter’s 2025 board was National JACL VP of Membership Dominique Mashburn, as well as JACL Membership Manager Ariel Imamoto, who provided welcoming comments. The invocation was given by Rev. Erik Iki of West Valley United Methodist Church. Reprising her role as chapter president was May Wood, with the remainder of the board filled out by Linda Tanaka, Nancy Takayama, Marcia Mahony, Barbara Okita, Kristen Fujitaki, Nancy Gohata, Jean Paul deGuzman, Tomo Hattori, Lana Kobayashi, Mitzi Kushida, Michiko Tokunaga, Geri Shiraki and Patty Takayama.
As part of her remarks, Wood emphasized JACL’s role with regard to civil rights. “Whether you’re Japanese American, Asian American of any kind, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, any person of color, African American — we will fight for you,” she said.
Board member Tanaka followed with a heartfelt tribute to deceased chapter member and treasurer Dennis Okita.
The Los Angeles-born Yakura, the first Japanese American to serve as a special agent in the Secret Service, spent ages 6-9 incarcerated with his Issei parents at the Gila River War Relocation Authority Center. As part of his address, he educated the audience about the origins of the Secret Service, America’s original federal law enforcement agency that was created initially to fight currency counterfeiting. Now under the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service originally began as a part of the Treasury Department.
He also related to the audience what piqued his interest to pursue law enforcement, the Secret Service in particular. “When I graduated high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, what to study. I was just lost. My mother wanted me to go to college, so I said, ‘OK,’ and I went to UCLA, but I didn’t know what to study.
“I did that for a year and a half, and I said, ‘I quit,’ and I went into the Army, hoping to grow up and get a head on my shoulders. Two years later, I got out of the Army, and I went back to UCLA and transferred to Cal State Los Angeles, as they had a curriculum in law enforcement. The only glitch at that was you had to be at least 5-foot 9 to become a law enforcement agent or police for the city, county, state and the federal government. Well, I was only 5-foot 6.”
Yakura recalled how his entrée into the Secret Service came when a CSULA professor urged him to call the agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Los Angeles field office about a job. When he interviewed, he was informed that the director had the authority to waive the height requirement.
“‘If there is a special case,’ he said, ‘I can put in an application here, and I’ll send it to him with the request for waiver of my height.’ Well, after a little bit of time, I received a call from him and was told that the director had waived my height requirement and also approved my application.” With that hurdle overcome, the only things left were passing a background investigation and getting a top-secret clearance.
“He called me on February of 1963 and said, ‘You can have the job starting March 18, 1963, if you want it.’ I said, ‘Sure, why not?’”
Thus began Yakura’s journey as a 5-foot-6-inch Secret Service special agent. “A month later, President Kennedy came to Los Angeles and stayed at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and that night, my first protection duty was to stand guard at the Presidential Suite. Nice. Well, anyway, three months later, from June 16-Sept. 16, 1963, three months after coming to duty, I got temporary assignment for Kennedy compound, Hyannis Port, Mass.” It was a memorable time.
History buffs will note, of course, that it was just months later that President Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. “I was devastated,” Yakura recalled. “He was our president. He was our leader. He was our protectee.”
But duty called, and he was temporarily assigned to President Lyndon Johnson’s Texas ranch. “Throughout 1964, it was a very rough and stressful year for Secret Service,” he said. Despite that rough first year, Yakura spent 22 years in the Secret Service, and there were pleasant memories and highlights in that time, including spending three weeks in Hawaii protecting Happy Rockefeller, wife of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who was at the time running for the presidency, and their three daughters. He also recalled being assigned to the detail that protected Henry Kissinger during the Nixon administration and, happily, meeting his future wife, Helene. His duties also included protecting foreign heads of state, with one of the peaks being assigned to the detail that protected Japan’s emperor and empress during a visit to the United States.
Retirement from the Secret Service 39 years ago didn’t mean an end to work for Yakura. He later worked stints with the Defense Investigative Service (now called the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency) and Boeing-owned Autometric Inc.
Also part of the luncheon was a video recalling the chapter’s 2024 activities, door prizes and opportunity drawings.
