Tamio “Tommy” Kono was an inspirational hero to a nation that denied him freedom and to a state where he was neither born nor raised.
The man considered by many the world’s greatest weightlifter, ever, was born in Sacramento, Calif., on June 27, 1930. He died Sunday at the Saint Francis Nuuanu hospice facility after a long illness.
Kono did not live in Aiea and train at the Nuuanu YMCA until after he’d won his first of two Olympic gold medals, in Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. So sometimes people question why Hawaii lays claim to him as one of its favorite sons and finest athletes.
The answer is Kono fit in while standing out. He immediately took to Hawaii and its culture upon his arrival to work in the office of a friend, Dr. Richard Yu, when he wasn’t training.
“He was already famous, but he didn’t make high maka maka. That’s why people in Hawaii embraced him. He didn’t come over acting like a big shot,” said Gus Rethwisch, a power lifter, actor, event promoter and University of Hawaii baseball player who lived here for 12 years and knew Kono well. “When I met him in 1973 he was humble but still a tremendous presence.”
Kono had retired from weightlifting nine years prior, but remained active as a coach and doing anything to help anyone interested in power lifting or bodybuilding (sometimes people forget the man who was voted the top Olympic weightlifter of all-time in 1998 also won four Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles from 1954 to 1961).
He and his wife, Florence, were raising their family in Aiea. “He didn’t want to go back to California because he was more accepted here,” his daughter, Joann Sumida, said.
Kono said it himself in a 2009 Star-Bulletin story:
“At competitions I’d be introduced as the ‘Hawaiian, Tommy Kono,’ and I never corrected them,” Kono said. “I looked like I came from Wahiawa. I blended right in from the start.
“On the mainland I was an Olympic and world champ but never got the publicity like I got here. … Being adopted by Hawaii is really something, and interestingly, of my 26 world records, 21 were in foreign countries and five in Hawaii. Nothing in the continental U.S. It’s why I felt more that I was always representing Hawaii than the U.S.”
But Kono did represent America with pride. If there was residual bitterness about how he and other Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II, Kono never expressed it. Kono and his family were among those detained at Tule Lake camp in California.
“He never dwelled on the injustice of it but accepted it philosophically, saying, ‘Hey, that’s where I met Tad Fujioka. He introduced me to barbells,” said Honolulu resident and retired dentist Dr. Peter George, an Olympic weightlifting great in his own right, with a gold and two silvers.
“The conditions there were terrible,” Rethwisch said. “In 2000 when I saw the place it still had what looked like animal pens. I couldn’t believe they forced people to live there.”
Sumida said her father didn’t avoid talking about his years there (1942-45), but never went into detail.
“Just the part about they all lived in one room and kind of kept to themselves,” Sumida said. “But he did talk about being sickly with low energy and being home most of the time while the other kids were outside. Then at the camp some guys had weights and he started lifting. He never started out trying to be somebody — it was just for his health. Ironically, being thrown into the camp was a good thing for him.”
Kono often said weightlifting saved his life.
After the U.S. Army drafted him, he was identified as a potential Olympian and not sent to war in Korea. But, like many American world-class athletes in sports where communist countries excelled, Kono became a Cold Warrior.
“You can compare it to Jesse Owens and Nazism,” Rethwisch said. “Hitler tried to display his super race (at the 1936 Berlin Games). Jesse Owens said with his performance, ‘Well, maybe your race isn’t so super.’”
Kono did something comparable.
“Here’s a 5-foot-5 Japanese-American who was a sickly kid in the camp,” Rethwisch said. “The Russians were intimidating. But it took them nine years to find someone who could beat him.”
From 1952 to 1959 Kono won a world championship or Olympic gold medal every year.
George, who had been a teen prodigy from Akron, Ohio, was right there with him for most of it.
A year apart in age, they had plenty in common. The sons of immigrants (George’s parents came from Bulgaria) both served in the Army. They met in 1950 at the senior national championships in Philadelphia.
“In many of our conversations the talk would drift to how thankful we were that our fathers came to America,” said George, who moved to Hawaii soon after Kono, to train with his friend and teammate for the ’56 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where Kono got his second gold and George a silver.
Kono said George was considered “the wonderboy” of weightlifting and already breaking records while in high school. But soon Kono started taking them down … along with everyone else’s.
“Tommy knew he was the greatest. Not that he was arrogant,” George said. “Tommy was the most humble great champion I have ever known. He just set his sights on a little above what the top lifters were lifting. Although he was a natural middleweight he competed in every class he could temporarily starve or stuff his body into, from lightweight to middle heavyweight. … He would always go where the competition was toughest.”
He set world records in four classes.
Kono’s unbeaten run in the biggest events ended in 1960 with a silver at the Rome Games. A knee injury kept him out of the ’64 Olympics and he soon retired from competition. He coached Mexico in 1968 and West Germany in 1972. After the ’72 Munich Games, Kono and his family returned home to Hawaii. He coached the U.S. team in 1976.
He later worked for the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation. Kono also served as a vice president of the Honolulu Marathon and on the board of directors of the Honolulu Quarterback Club.
Tamio “Tommy” Kono is survived by his wife, Florence, son Jameison (Lilyanne Lear-Kono), daughter Joann Sumida (Gary), son Mark, and grandchildren Harley Sumida, Ty Sumida and Tommy L. Kono. Services are pending.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads
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