Joe was the youngest of four children born to Motoharu and Sayoko (Tanaka) Hattori. His parents married in 1938 in Vancouver. Interestingly, Joe's grandparents were among the earliest Japanese immigrants to arrive in Canada. Sayoko's father, Ichijiro Tanaka (1886- 1982), came to Canada in 1903. He married Miki (Tsuji) Tanaka (1891- 1981) in 1911 in Victoria, B.C. They had eight children, Sayoko being the eldest. The Tanaka family ran a very successful tofu business in the Powell Street area of the Japanese community in Vancouver until the uprooting of 1942. Motoharu Hattori's parents, Chozo Hattori (1875-1920) and Sei (Suzuki) Hattori (1883-1963), were married at the Vancouver Buddhist Church in about 1905, probably two of the earliest Japanese Canadian marriages in Canada…
For more, read Profile of Joseph Takayuki Hattori from The Advocate, 68 (2010).