Kenneth Sadamu Kawakami

Kenneth Sadamu Kawakami, 89, passed away on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, at his longtime home in Cerritos, Calif. The firstborn son of Walter and Irise (Ijiri) Kawakami of Honolulu, Kenneth was born on Dec. 7, 1935, and lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor on his sixth birthday. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army, for which he trained at Hawaii’s Schofield Barracks; he also put his ace

lifeguarding skills to good use while in the military.

Kenneth later attended the University of Hawaii and the University of Colorado Boulder; he worked as a mechanical engineer in Los Angeles before switching careers to accounting. He married Joan Junko Yamamoto on July 19 , 1969 – the day Apollo 11 entered lunar orbit. He is survived by his wife; their two daughters, Julie and Robin; son-in-law, David;