Okazaki, Henry Seishiro

A well known judo instructor who also used massage as a rehabilitative technique, Henry Seishiro Okazaki was called upon by his friend, Honolulu police officer John A. Burns, to help his pregnant wife recently stricken with polio. Using massage treatments, Okazaki saw Beatrice Burns through to the delivery of a healthy baby boy in 1937. John Burns would go on to become Hawaii's first elected Democratic governor, and his son, named John Seishiro in honor of the masseur, would become an Appeals Court judge.