Kotoko Inoue Sax

Katoko Inoue Sax was born on April 8, 1934 in Tokyo, Japan. She died peacefully in her home on Feb. 23, 2013 after struggling with cancer for a year and a half. In the pre-war years she lived in Kobe and later in Morioka.  Because of bombings her family went to live in the countryside.  She became opposed to all wars from this early time.  She attended Tsuda College for two years and in 1957 she became a student helper at the World Conference Against A(tomic) and H(ydrogen) Bombs where she met delegates who encouraged her aspiration to study in America.  One was the British Quaker Reginald Reynolds.  Another was a representative of the Michigan Council of Churches, which would in 1958 bring her to the U. S. as the first Asian student under their Youth for Understanding exchange program.  She lived with her sponsors, the Delamarter family, and attended Central Michigan University, majoring in economics.   It was there that she met her husband, Ron, whom she married in 1962 in Chicago. She then spent the next 50 years as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, friend, activist and steward of the environment. The last 44 of those years were in Palo Alto in the neighborhood she loved.

Throughout her adult life, she sought to give a voice to those who had no voice, and to bring peace to places where there is none. She was an active member of the Funeral Education Foundation, the Peace Alliance which is dedicated to the establishment of a federal Department of Peace, and the South Bay Sanctuary Covenant which helped refugees from El Salvador establish new lives here. She served as treasurer or accountant for the Funeral Education Foundation, the South Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Volunteers in Asia, and other organizations. Through connections between SBSC and Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (Center for Exchange and Solidarity) she was able to travel to El Salvador in March 1999, March 2004 and March 2009 to monitor presidential elections. In Feb. 2011 she took her grandson to El Salvador to help build a school in a remote village.  Katoko helped in the kitchen while Nathan worked on the building.

Her passion for life extended beyond her family and friends, and her interests were as diverse as learning Chinese and Italian, soroban (Japanese abacus), tap-dancing and being active in a bilingual Toastmasters group. She was an excellent artist, and could draw, paint and play the piano expertly.  She and Ron travelled extensively and occasionally used Servas to exchange their home for homes in other parts of the world. In 2007 she wanted to celebrate 50 years in the US by taking all 10 members of her immediate family for a week-long rafting trip down the Colorado River. In her later years, nothing gave her more pleasure than participating in the lives of her children, son Kenji (wife Cindy Lamerson), Joel and Scott, and daughter Naomi (husband Neil Simmons), Nathan and Nicky.

She became a member of Palo Alto Friends Meeting on May 4, 1969. Over the years she gave much service to the Meeting by being on various committees including Peace and Social Action and Adult Education. After the Japanese tsunami in March 2011 Katoko had a concern for the victims and helped raise money to rebuild the Mito meeting house.  Each year she responded to the Meeting's request for meals for the Hotel de Zink program to house the homeless. She spoke often that "when we feel the pain and suffering of others in our heart, giving comes easily."

Her devotion to her family, her inner strength and appreciation of beauty in all its forms and her passion for life will be dearly missed by the many people who knew and loved her.