Last updated: May 13, 2026
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Ted Akimoto
Before the War
Victor Akimoto was the third of four sons and four daughters born to parents Masanori and Mary Akimoto. Masonori and Mary immigrated from Japan to the United States in 1907. The Akimoto family originally settled in Idaho. He was in the high school photography club and played on the football team. He skipped two grades and graduated at age sixteen. After graduation, he provided photo stories to a local newspaper and worked at a fruit stand, and a commercial photo studio. Then Pearl Harbor was bombed.
Forced Removal and Military Service
After Executive Order 9066, Ted and his family were sent to Santa Anita Assembly Center and forced to live in a horse stall. The family was able to obtain work clearance and relocated to Idaho for work with the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. However, after receiving threats of harassment and violence towards the family, they were forced to move to Salt Lake City, Utah and then ultimately Amache. Ted volunteered for military service shortly after the announcement of the formation of the all-Nisei unit in February 1943. He joined his brothers Victor and Johnny at Camp Shelby in Mississippi in March of 1943.
To his surprise, unlike his other two brothers, Ted was never sent overseas. The reason was not revealed until much later. Ted was assigned to Company D, a heavy weapons company, and trained the new recruits arriving daily at Camp Shelby. He earned the rank of communications sergeant and guarded German prisoners of war as they moved to and from farm work . He was occasionally cast as an actor in Army training films and became a photographer for the Army. In an attempt to join the fight overseas, Ted completed Officer Candidate School (OCS), first at Fort Benning in Georgia then Fort McClellan in Alabama.
After OCS, Ted was sent to a Japanese language school in Fort Snelling, Montana as a military intelligence officer, where he commanded 120 Nisei translators. Ted and his command were given orders to depart for Japan when the Japanese government surrendered. The unit still shipped out to Yokohama to provide aid in the region.
When the Army Signal Corps announced they needed a news photographer, Ted leapt at the chance. Once in Tokyo, he photographed figures such as General Douglas MacArthur, General Eisenhower, the Emperor Hirohito, Prime Minister Yoshida and Crown Prince Akhihito. Ted also photographed events like the War Crimes Trials. He captured some of the earliest ground zero photographs of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, revealing the devastating aftermath.
After the War
Ted eventually learned the reason he was never deployed overseas. To protect his younger brother, Ted’s older brother Victor had made a deal with the Army chaplain to take a voluntary demotion from sergeant to private. This allowed Victor to deploy with Johnny, who was the youngest and whom Victor had promised his parents he would protect. Victor also urged their commander to never deploy Ted into combat or permit any reduction in his rank, determined to protect Ted.
After recieving given an honorable medical discharge due to kidney issues Ted attended Arizona State University on the GI Bill. While in school, he co-owned a popular toy store. After graduation and marriage, Ted became a beloved art and photography teacher at Munich American High School, a Department of Defense School in Germany. He taught there for 30 years. When the Berlin Wall fell and military bases began closing, he retired with his wife in Medford, Massachusetts. Ted died in 2011 at the age of 89.