Mamoru Takitani left his home town in Yamaguchi, Japan at age 20 in 1932 to permanently be with the Takitani family on Maui, Hawaii where his father was already operating eight thriving businesses. While he struggled to learn English, Mamoru’s ambition was to raise macadamia nut trees and establish a new industry in Hawaii. He failed in growing the trees to fruition at first, and headed to Honolulu in 1959, where he bought a candy store, giving it his all to produce the best chocolate macadamia nut product possible.
Achieving promising success after much effort, the company became known as Hawaiian Host. The company grew by leaps and bounds in the 1980s and 1990s, and Takitani’s chocolate macadamia nut products became famous and were sold around the world, accumulating considerable assets for Takitani and his wife, Aiko. So a scholarship foundation was created to benefit the next generation of island youngsters and the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation began awarding college scholarships to Hawaii’s high school seniors.
Mamoru Takitani left the world with everlasting ideas and a desire to better his best. A quiet man whose actions spoke volumes, he made the impossible, possible with tenacity and determination. He also left behind the legacy of the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation to encourage young minds pursuing hopes and dreams for their future.