[1] Yoshio Fujita was born the oldest of five children in Mikuni in the Fukui Prefecture.

His father was a writer and editor at a local newspaper and proficient in the Japanese poetry style of Waka.

He then began to focus more on his astronomies studies and when asked about the decision, is quoted as saying "I had the impression of beautiful constellations.

When World War II began, Fujita and the physics and astronomy departments and their students moved to Suwa, Nagano until 1945.

There he worked with George Herbig to obtain spectroscopic data and spent time blinking plates for Kuiper looking for asteroids.