Elizabeth K. Ohi

Kuma Elizabeth Ohi (later K. Elizabeth Owen 1911-1976) was the first Japanese American female lawyer in the United States and Illinois.[1][2][3]

She was born on February 9, 1911 to a Eurasian household in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Sidney T. Ohi, worked as a designer for the Pullman Company.[4] Ohi attended the University of Chicago and would earn her Bachelor of Laws and Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School.[5] In 1937 Ohi became the first Japanese American female admitted to practice law in the entirety of the United States.

Despite her mixed racial ancestry, Ohi was detained following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.[6] She was released due to the assistance of Arthur Goldberg, Esq., the attorney she was working for as a legal secretary, who would go onto to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.[7]  After a stint as an Ensign in the United States Navy, Ohi relocated to Washington D.C. where she would find employment as an attorney at the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Labor. It was also in Washington D.C. that Ohi changed her last name to "Owen" in an effort to conceal her Japanese background and pass.[8][9]

She died on August 14, 1976 in Washington D.C.

See also

• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois

References

1. Parker, Monica R. (2010). What it Takes: How Women of Color Can Thrive Within the Practice of Law. American Bar Association. p. 5. ISBN 9781590319925.
2. KANE, JOSEPH NATHAN (1975). FAMOUS FIRST FACTS AND RECORDS.
3. Kane, Joseph Nathan (1964). Famous first facts: a record of first happenings, discoveries and inventions in the United States. H. W. Wilson.
4. The Pullman News. Pullman Company. 1928.
5. Robinson, Greg (2016-09-01). The Great Unknown: Japanese American Sketches. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9781607324294.
6. "Transcript: 'I'm not a Jap, I'm a half-Jap'". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
7. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1980.
8. Robinson, Greg (2016-09-01). The Great Unknown: Japanese American Sketches. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9781607324294.
9. Women lawyers' journal. 1944.