This collection relates only to Yamauchi’s bowling activities dating from 1958 to 1972. The contents include bowling attire, bowling balls and bags, photographs, newspaper clippings, score sheets, correspondence, awards, membership cards, and tournament programs.

Gary Yamauchi was born July 29, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Gardena, California, where his parents lived before and after being confined in an Arkansas internment camp. Yamauchi got into bowling as a teenager, and went to tournaments in California and nation-wide between 1958 and 1970. He gave up the pro bowling circuit in 1970 and tried his hand at real estate and working in a casino before taking over and expanding a vending machine business, now called Tri-Star Vending. He has been mayor of Alhambra, California and is currently a city councilmember there. Yamauchi was inducted into the Japanese-American Bowling Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008. He is married to his wife Linda, and has three children.

.75 linear feet (2 boxes, 1 framed item) and approximately 40 bowling shirts

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).

By appointment only. Please contact the Collections Management and Access Unit by email (collections@janm.org) or telephone (213-830-5619). Advanced notice is required.