Ichiro George Azumano was born in Portland, Oregon in 1918 to Issei parents. He was the first-born son in his family and had one sister. His parents gave him his American name, George, years later. George was involved in the Japanese American sports leagues, including baseball and basketball. He attended Japanese school in the late 1920s and early 1930s. George studied business at the University of Oregon.

George was in the U.S. Army stationed at Angel Island in San Francisco when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. Soon after, however, he was discharged because of his Japanese heritage. When he returned to Portland, he and his family were soon evacuated to the concentration camp in Minidoka, Idaho. George temporarily left the campgrounds for various jobs working in the sugar beets fields near camp and an automobile battery manufacturing company in Dayton, Ohio. He was finally released from camp in October 1944 and worked for the U.S. Army Ordinances Department in Utah.

In 1946, George moved back to Portland with his family and found a job working for an insurance company in Japantown. He eventually opened his own insurance business in 1949 that later became Azumano Travel, a travel agency that primarily served Japanese Americans. Today, Azumano Travel is one of the most successful and well-respected businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest. (October 26, 2006)