Sadayoshi Omoto was born on October 5, 1922 on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of Washington before being interned at Manzanar Relocation Center due to Executive Order 9066. He was able to leave the camp to join the U.S. Army and trained in linguistics at the Military Intelligence Service Language School. After the war Omoto attended Oberlin College and received his B.A. He went on to receive an M.A. in Art from Michigan State University and Ph.D. in Fine Arts from The Ohio State University. His M.A. thesis was "Social Protest Artists in Western Art;" his Ph.D. dissertation was "Some Aspects of the So-Called 'Queen Anne.'" Omoto taught Art History at Bradley College in Illinois and Wayne State University. He started at MSU in September 1964 as an associate professor. He went on to become a full professor, then chair of the MSU Art department. In 2008 the University of Washington awarded him, together with the UW Nikkei students from 1941-42, an honorary B.A. During his lifetime he was involved in exhibits, architectural surveys for the state of Michigan and research on art. After he retired in 1994, Omoto became involved in the Leelanau Community Center in Leland, Michigan, the home of the old MSU Summer Art School. Omoto passed away on March 4, 2013.