http://www.firstglimpsemag.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2004/e0206/31e06/31e06.asp&guid=
"The idea of a videocassette first was proposed by Koichi Tsunoda, a Sony engineer, in 1964, after seeing Philips' audio cassette," the CEA recounts. "But the question was whether consumers were interested in recording TV programs."
Just Google "koichi tsunoda sony"
Then there's her great grand father, Ryusaku Tsunoda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABsaku_Tsunoda
Ryūsaku Tsunoda (角田 柳作 Tsunoda Ryūsaku, 1877-1964) is known as the "father of Japanese studies" at Columbia University.[1] He was directly responsible for developing the Japanese language and literature collection at Columbia's library
Once again you can just google him.
Also, her ancestors from Japan were Samurai according to her grandmother.
Pretty cool stuff.
