NCAA Boxing Champion Takayoshi Miyagawa Proved Resilience Beats Injustice

As the nation celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the story of Takayoshi "Dick" Miyagawa stands as a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to withstand systemic prejudice. Miyagawa, a standout athlete at San Jose State University, achieved the highest heights of collegiate sports at the exact moment his own government branded him a threat.

In March 1942, just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Miyagawa competed in and won both the Pacific Coast Championship and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) boxing championship. He stepped into the ring with his family name—Miyagawa—proudly displayed on his jersey during a period of intense anti-Japanese sentiment.

From the Ring to the Racetrack

The celebration of his national title was short-lived. That same year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Days after being crowned a national champion, Miyagawa was stripped of his freedom. He was initially forced to live in a horse stall at a temporary detention camp at the Santa Anita racetrack before being moved to the Gila River War Relocation Center in the Arizona desert.

"He wins an NCAA title and then he gets taken away to camp," said Urla Hill, a guest curator at San Jose State University who rediscovered Miyagawa’s story in old copies of the Spartan Daily. "It’s unbelievable."

The Fight Inside the Fence

Despite the humiliation of imprisonment, Miyagawa refused to let the circumstances break his resolve. While detained at Gila River, he began teaching boxing to other Japanese Americans in the camp, using the sport as a tool for discipline and emotional survival.

His daughter, Judy, recalls his unwavering positivity and a Latin saying he kept above his desk, which translated to: "Don’t let the bastards get you down." She remembered an incident in Sacramento shortly after Pearl Harbor when a bystander yelled a racial slur at her father. His coach wanted to intervene, but Miyagawa simply placed a hand on the coach’s shoulder and said, "Coach, if I can take it, you can take it."

A Legacy Beyond the Camp

Miyagawa’s talent and character eventually caught the attention of those outside the barbed wire. His San Jose State coach, DeWitt Portal, wrote letters to collegiate programs across the country to secure a future for his champion. John Walsh, the boxing coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, welcomed Miyagawa to his team.

Miyagawa went on to earn both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wisconsin, where he is still remembered as one of their "boxing elites." Perhaps most remarkably, despite his incarceration, Miyagawa volunteered to serve in the U.S. military during World War II, joining over 30,000 Japanese Americans who fought for the United States while their families remained behind fences.

Takayoshi Miyagawa passed away in 2001 at the age of 81. Today, through the efforts of his daughter and historians at San Jose State, his story continues to inspire a new generation to rise above adversity with dignity and tenacity.

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