Peter Sugiyama

Peter Lawrence Naoya Sugiyama (April 19, 1943–June 10, 2007) was a Palauan politician.

Sugiyama's father Hayato Sugiyama (杉山隼人^?) was a Japanese immigrant. He moved to Koror in 1914 at the invitation of his uncle, after the Japanese Empire seized control of the islands as part of its World War I invasion of German New Guinea (which control would later be formalised by the League of Nations as the South Pacific Mandate). He began his new life there as a teacher, but would go on to manage a fruit packing company and a cafe. He married Rosang Sayoko Serek, the daughter of a local chieftain.

Peter Sugiyama himself was born to Hayato and Rosang on April 19, 1943. After completing his early education at Koror Elementary School and Mindszenty Intermediate School, he went overseas to continue his education, first to Xavier High School on Weno (then also part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, now a municipality of Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia) and then the University of Guam, where he studied political science and history (BA 1967) and then sociology and public administration (BA 1968). In 1982, he was a witness to the shooting death of Bedor Bins, which occurred during an assassination attempt on his son Roman Bedor; the assassins also fired a shot at Sugiyama himself, but missed.

Sugiyama was married to fellow politician Akiko C. Bedor Sugiyama. She was the first woman elected to the Palau National Congress, and in 2005 also became one of the first, along with Vicki Kanai, to be elected as a state governor.

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