Nationality Japan Occupation Social worker | Name Miki Sawada | |
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Born September 19, 1901 ( 1901-09-19 ) Died May 12, 1980, Palma, Majorca, Spain | ||
Miki Sawada (澤田 美喜, Sawada Miki, 19 September 1901 – 12 May 1980) was a Japanese social worker popularly known as the mother of 2000 American-Japanese mixed orphans.
She was born as a daughter of Baron Hisaya Iwasaki, who was known as the richest man in Japan (and thus the granddaughter of Iwasaki Yataro, the founder of the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate). She married Japanese diplomat Renzo Sawada, who represented Japan as United Nations ambassador.
After World War II, she founded the Elizabeth Saunders Home to help mixed-race children in Oiso, Kanagawa, Japan.
During her life outside Japan as the wife of a diplomat, she met and became friends with the people who helped her later found the Elizabeth Saunders Home.
She learned painting from Marie Laurencin when she lived in Paris, France. She met Josephine Baker in Paris and helped her stay at Miki's house in New York City. She also became friends with Pearl S. Buck and Grace Kelly in New York.