Peter Sakai is headed to a May 24 runoff with Texas Rep. Ina Minjarez. Credit: Jade Esteban Estrada

It’s a warm Wednesday afternoon as Judge Peter Sakai meets me at San Antonio’s storied Japanese Tea Garden to discuss his run for the Democratic nomination for Bexar County Judge.

“This is sacred ground for me,” he says of the peaceful setting.

Sakai is headed to a May 24 runoff with Texas Rep. Ina Minjarez, who brings a vastly different skill set and public service background. The winner will face GOP nominee Trish DeBerry, a former Precinct 3 county commissioner, in the general election. 

When County Judge Nelson Wolff announced his retirement last year, Sakai, 67, stepped down from his district court bench to make his dedication to the race clear to voters. Though this is my first interview with Sakai, his reputation as a district court judge and community advocate precedes him. 

“My mom played here as a little girl with the Jingu family,” Sakai says, looking toward the garden’s lily pond. 

He tells me about the city’s hiring of Japanese American artist Kimi Eizo Jingu to beautify a limestone quarry during the 1920s by transforming it into the garden before us. However, by 1942, amid a rise of anti-Japanese sentiment sparked by the outbreak of World War II, the city evicted the Jingu family.

“They renamed it the Chinese [Tea] Garden and tried to eliminate that history of what this Japanese American family did,” Sakai says. 

He sees a parallel with the discrimination against Muslim Americans in the decades since 9/11 and, in recent years, against transgender children. 

“One of my fundamental principles is to make sure we don’t marginalize and we don’t discriminate,” he says. “I know the sting of discrimination. That’s why I care so much about people who are marginalized, disrespected or discriminated against.”

Sakai is a second-generation American who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. 

“I had to learn Spanish, especially the bad words,” he says with a sly, youthful smile. “My Spanish is very Tex-Mex. As I grew up, my parents did not emphasize Japanese, because they grew up in a time when being American meant speaking English. I was a minority of minorities.”

I ask Sakai what that was like.

“Well, I was teased. I was taunted. I was bullied. I had to learn to be tough at times, and sometimes, maybe not in the most appropriate way, but I had to learn to demand respect.”

I inquire what he learned from the experience. 

“At the time, what it taught me was something I had to learn on my own: that I had value, that I was worthy of respect. I had to learn to develop a sense of self-confidence. As a little boy, I was taunted because I had slanted eyes and people would make the slanted-eye gestures.” 

He looks at me and says: “The Hispanic community, at times, was very tough on me.” 

Despite that, Sakai says he wholly embraces his South Texas roots.

“One of my basic tenets is that you always have to remember where you come from,” he adds. 

Few would have imagined the distinguished path he would ultimately follow.

During his 26 consecutive years as a district court judge, Sakai focused on the principles of restorative justice, creating programs such as a family drug court, early childhood court and a college-bound docket that put foster kids in a college pipeline.

However, Sakai says one of his greatest accomplishments on the bench was how he evolved. It’s an unprompted word Minjarez also used to describe her own growth during my recent interview with her.

“When I first started, I was one of those judges that could be in your face, real tough, and punitive,” he says.

It was his commitment to restorative justice, which focuses on the positive aspects of people, that influenced his present leadership style.  

“Going into my senior year of high school, my father took me on a family road trip to California in the old station wagon, and we stopped in the internment camp where he grew up, a God-forsaken place called Poston, Arizona in the middle of the Mojave Desert,” Sakai says. “He stopped and showed us this desert area. ‘This is where I grew up.’ I was struck with, what do you mean ‘grew up?’ This is just a desert. There’s nothing here. No, this was an old fort or Army base.”

Sakai says his father made sure that he knew that story above all others.

“He wanted me to understand the atrocity, the violation of constitutional rights. They had to prove themselves to be Americans when they were Americans by birthright!”

As a result of that experience, he says, “Constitutional rights are integrated into my DNA.”

Sakai has two adult children with his wife Rachel, whom he calls the “heart, soul and conscience” of his campaign. He also has two grandchildren.

“What my two grandchildren have taught me is that I did my very best to raise my children. I tried to give them a set of values, a sense of responsibility. I did my best to make sure my children did not get a sense of entitlement.

“But grandchildren on the other hand … [are] an entirely different circumstance,” he says with a grin. “I’m willing to spoil my grandchildren, get them whatever they want — and then basically give them back to their parents. So, that is the privilege and the power of being a grandparent, and I am going to take full advantage of that.” 

I ask him what advantage he’d bring to the office of Bexar County Judge because of his age.

“I don’t see age as a distinction. I respect that being younger and perhaps [being] more progressive might be an advantage, but I would ask the voters to look at experience through wisdom, depth of character, reputation, accomplishments and proven record,” he says. “Don’t vote for me because I’m older. Don’t vote for [Minjarez] because she’s younger. Vote on the record, vote on the character, vote on the integrity.”

As we make our way through a shady walkway to our photo location, Sakai says he decided to run because he feels we are living through toxic times. 

“We are living in times that I consider a danger to our Constitution, and I decided I still had some gas in the tank, so to speak. It wasn’t a time to retire but to recommit. I still want to lead, and that’s the reason this county judge race is so important to me.”

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This article appears in May 4-17, 2022.