Hatsumi Whitehead passed away peacefully on February 15, 2026, at the age of 91.  She was born on December 7, 1934, in Kyoto, Japan, to Kenji and Yuki Takenaka.  Hatsumi attended Kyoto Prefectural College before winning a highly competitive International Scholarship from the Philanthropic and Educational Organization based in Rochester, New York, that allowed her to come to America in 1957 to attend Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio.  There she received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science International Studies in June 1959.  During her time in college, she met John Whitehead whom she subsequently married in Kyoto in December 1960.  They traveled extensively, due to John’s and later Hatsumi’s work in the Foreign Service, also living in the Soviet Union, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, Belgium, and Bulgaria.  In the United States, Hatsumi lived in Washington, D.C., Greenbelt, Maryland, Chantilly, Virginia, Camas, Washington, Ithaca, New York, and Syracuse, New York.  Hatsumi’s career included work as a simultaneous English-Japanese translator, translating for U.S. government officials in Japan such as President Jimmy Carter (as well as Mrs. and Amy Carter) and U.S. Ambassador and Mrs. Mike Mansfield.  She was also the President of the Ikebana International Tokyo Founding Chapter from 1978 to 1979.

Hatsumi is survived by her two sons, Charles Whitehead (Deborah) of Ithaca, New York, a Professor of Law at Cornell University, and William Whitehead (Janet) of League City, Texas, a Professor of Anesthesiology at University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, her grandchildren Alex, Brad, Jimmy, Jill, and John Whitehead, and her brother, Chujiro and sister, Hiroko.  She was preceded in death by her husband, John, her sister, Hiroko, and her brothers, Marehiro and Kozo. 

Services will be a private affair.