Born in pre-statehood Hawaii, Takaki studied at the College of Wooster and completed his doctorate in American history at the University of California, Berkeley.

[3] His father, Harry Toshio Takaki, immigrated to Hawaii from Mifune, Kumamoto, Japan as a teenager and worked at a plantation in Puʻunene before studying under Ray Jerome Baker and opening his own photography studio.

[9] Takaki then began graduate studies in American history at the University of California, Berkeley and completed his master's degree in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1967.

A seminal event in his life developed when his wife's family refused to accept him because they could only see him as a "jap"—not as a native-born American citizen just like any one else.

[8] His initial teaching experience was in 1966 at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught the first Black History course offered at that institution.

[1][2] When recalling his first day teaching this course, he stated, "When I walked into the classroom I discovered it was held in a huge auditorium - 500 seats and every seat was taken, and students were sitting in the aisles, and there was a loud chitter-chatter, the students were excited...As I made my way to the front of the auditorium all of a sudden a silence descended in this room and their eyes were riveted on me and I could just feel them saying to themselves, 'Funny, he doesn't look black'.