Hisako Shimazu Hirose, 88, formerly of Beacon, died Jan. 29 in Ardsley, surrounded by her three daughters.
She was born July 19, 1936, in Tokyo, the eldest of the six children of Koji and Chieko Shimazu. She lived in Rhinebeck and Port Washington before moving to Beacon. In 1960 she married Saneteru (“Terry”) Hirose, who died in 2023.
Hisako was an intelligent, strong and worldly woman who broke the mold for Japanese women of her era, her family said. A decade after the end of World War II, as a high school student in Osaka, she won a contest to represent Japan at the 1955 Herald Tribune World Youth Forum. As part of this experience, she spent three months in the U.S., living with host families while attending high school in New York. She was interviewed on local and national television, debated issues with student representatives of other countries at the United Nations and visited the White House, where she met President Dwight Eisenhower.
This experience changed the trajectory of her life, exposing her to a world beyond Japan that she would continue to explore for the rest of her life. After high school, Hisako attended ICU — the International Christian University — a prestigious private university in Japan, which offered courses in English and Japanese and had a diverse student body and faculty, representing many countries. At ICU, she met her future husband, Terry. When his company sent him to be stationed in New York early in their marriage, Hisako demanded that it send her along — an unusual arrangement in those years.
Hisako and Terry loved life in the U.S. and decided to stay. After having three daughters, they moved to the suburbs of Long Island. As the girls got older, Hisako became a working mom and commuted for many years to Manhattan, working at Standard Brands on Madison Avenue and Citibank on Wall Street. She spent evenings and weekends earning an MBA at Adelphi University, again defying expectations for Japanese women at the time. Hisako continued to work into her 70s as a freelance translator for financial institutions and law firms.
Hisako loved books, films and music, not just in Japanese and English, but also in French, which she studied throughout her life. She left behind bookcases filled with novels in all three languages. She loved to travel, exploring the world with Terry and with friends. After moving to Beacon, she and Terry became friends with other like-minded Japanese immigrants in the Hudson Valley. As she got older, Hisako delighted in spending time with her grandchildren as they became teenagers and young adults.
Hisako is survived by daughters, Satsuki (“Suki”) Blumenstock (Rob), Yuki Hirose (Eric Brenner), and Haruko Hirose (Joe McCauley), and her grandchildren: Arran, Kylie, Lucy, Sophie, Julian, Nico, J.J. and Patrick. She is also survived by four siblings in Japan, as well as her nieces and nephews, including Samiko Hashimoto, who lives in New Jersey and was especially close to Hisako.
Along with her husband of 63 years, Hisako’s brother, Shunichi Shimazu, died earlier. Memorial donations may be made to Doctors Without Borders (doctorswithoutborders.org).
