Mitsuo Aoki, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMitsuo Aoki
American theologian
Date of Birth: 04-Dec-1914
Place of Birth: Hawi, Hawaii, United States
Date of Death: 19-Aug-2010
Profession: theologian
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius 
About Mitsuo Aoki
- Mitsuo Aoki, nicknamed Mits (December 4, 1914 – August 19, 2010) was an American theologian.
- He was born on a sugar-cane plantation near Hawi on the Island of Hawaii, and lived there until graduating high school.
- He then relocated to Honolulu for University training, and converted to Christianity from Buddhism.
- He studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the Union Theological Seminary.
- At the beginning of World War II, Aoki was living in the mainland US, and was subsequently escorted by FBI agents to Hawaii, rather than placed into Japanese American internment camps as were mainland persons of Japanese Ancestry. Aoki founded the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, and regularly taught courses such as Religions of Mankind, Death and Dying and The Meaning of Existence for forty years thereafter.He frequently recounted an out of body experience he'd had following an automobile accident in 1957 as a driving force in his life.
- In 1968 he met and soon married Margaret Evelyn Reeves Wagner, a divorcee who recently relocated to Hawaii from California.
- They had three children together.In his later years, Aoki often gave seminars on death and dying, relaying his many experiences in counseling families of those losing a loved one, whom he considered his teachers.
- He is acknowledged as a world leader on the subject of death and dying.
- In 2004 Aoki was named as a Living Treasures of Hawai'i.Aoki died on August 19, 2010.Among those crediting him with their success is the 2011-2015 Governor of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, who in his election victory speech of November 3, 2010 made specific mention of Aoki's positive influence on his life's work, thanking him for his service to Hawaii and stating inter alia: "He blessed us with his presence."
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