Tamotsu Shibutani (15 October 1920 – 8 August 2004) was a Japanese American sociologist working on the tradition of symbolic interactionism.
He was sent with his family to the Tule Lake internment camp in 1942 during World War II, following the signing of Executive Order 9066.
[2][6] After the war, Shibutani obtained his doctorate at University of Chicago, completing his degree in 1948.
While at Chicago and Berkeley, he published two influential books: Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor (1966) and The Derelicts of Company K: A Sociological Study of Demoralization (1978).
He later became a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.