Kinjiro Matsudaira

Kinjiro Matsudaira (松平 欽次郎, Matsudaira Kinjirō, September 13, 1885 – October 1963) was an American inventor and politician who served as the mayor of Edmonston, Maryland in 1927 and 1943.

Kinjiro Matsudaira
Personal details
Born(1885-09-13)September 13, 1885
Pennsylvania, United States
DiedOctober 1, 1963(1963-10-01) (aged 78)
Children3
Parent(s)Matsudaira Tadaatsu
Carrie Sampson

Biography

Matsudaira was born in Pennsylvania on September 13, 1885, as the son of a Japanese father, Tadaatsu,[1] and an American mother, Carrie Sampson. He was a descendant of the Fujii-Matsudaira clan.[2] After his father's death, he lived with his maternal grandparents in Virginia. On May 1, 1912, Matsudaira filed for U.S. Patent 1,111,912 concerning the functions of a thermometric fire-detector.[3] The patent was granted to him on September 29, 1914.[4]

In 1925, Matsudaira sent a letter to the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., asking whether he was related to Tsuneo Matsudaira, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States at the time.[5]

Matsudaira was elected as the mayor of Edmonston, Maryland, in the summer of 1927.[6] The election reportedly made him the first Japanese American mayor in the United States.[7][8][9][10] He was re-elected as mayor of Edmonston in 1943.[11][12]

References
  1. Imada, Eiichi (2005). 日系アメリカ人と戦争: 六〇年後の真実: コロラド日本人物語 [Japanese-American War: The truth after sixty years: A Colorado Japanese Story] (in Japanese). Parade. p. 327. ISBN 9784434066252.
  2. Lee, Jonathan H. X.; Adachi, Dean Ryuta (2017-11-30). Japanese Americans: The History and Culture of a People. ABC-CLIO. p. xxix. ISBN 9781440841903.
  3. Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office. United States Patent Office. 1914. p. 1237.
  4. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents. United States Government Printing Office. 1915. p. 374.
  5. Yasui, True (August 1988). "Mile-Hi Notes, Volume 4, Number 8". Auraria Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  6. Robinson, Greg (2021-05-05). "Kinjiro Matsudaira: Mayor of Edmonston, Maryland". Japanese American National Museum.
  7. "Newsfaces". NewspaperArchive. The Anniston Star. 1927-09-06. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  8. ""East is East and West is West," But Edmonston's Mayor Is a Little of Each". Newspapers.com. The Culver Citizen. 1928-03-07. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  9. Yamaguchi, Yoji (1996). A Student's Guide to Japanese American Genealogy. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 50. ISBN 9780897749794.
  10. "Edmonston: A bridge to the future". The Washington Examiner. 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  11. Breningstall, Jeremy (2000-01-28). "Taking history into the future". Gazette.net. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  12. "History". Town of Edmonston. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
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