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The year 1867 marked the end of Japans feudal period, as the Emperor Meiji took advantage of growing dissent and factional fighting among regional shoguns and ascended the imperial throne, beginning the Meiji Restoration the following year. Rebellious samurai were ordered to lay down their arms, cut off their prized topknots, and turn to more peaceful pursuits, or face the Emperors punishment. Such was the case with the Suenaka clan, who gave up the sword in favor of the hoe and plow. Although the clans lineage was well-known, this simple vocation change was sufficient to placate the authorities, appearing as it did a renunciation (at least on the surface) of their martial tradition. Privately, however, the Suenaka clan continued to pass down the martial traditions of their ancestors from father to son, particularly jujutsu and kenjutsu.

In 1878, dissatisfied with farming and with other jobs scarce, Yoshigoro Suenaka, wife Uta (nee Maemoto) and his two elder brothers, Denkichi and Shokichi, emigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii, in search of a new beginning. Yoshigoro and his brothers worked in the sugar cane fields by day, and continued to practice their ancestral budo (warrior arts) when the day’s work was done, striving to keep their heritage alive in their new home. In November of 1913, Yoshigoro’s youngest son, Warren Kenji, was born, and it was into this proud, centuries-old samurai tradition that Roy Yukio Suenaka, the first of four sons, was born to Warren Kenji and Ruth Masako Suenaka (nee Iwahiro) on June 25, 1940.