Omoide No Shotokyo

Memories of several Japanese Americans, from the sidewalk (walking east to west):

• Katsuma Mukaeda: "Many organizations were born in Little Tokyo that helped build a base for today's community."

• Penny Akemi Sakoda: "My memory of hotel living are vividly etched in my mind. I hear the familiar sounds of the shamisen koto, and shigin being sung, and the constant clanking of the street car."

  

• Ellen Endo-Dizon: "Each day the Rafu Shimpo was delivered to our hotel. Each evening my father checked the obituaries."

• Fumiko Tani: "At Kyodo Grill we mixed up Japanese and American ingredients into "gacha" and "champon" - dishes that were our customers favorite."

• Brian Kito: "As children we played on this street, and all the shopkeepers knew us."

• Archie Miyatake: "Immigrants wanted to have a community where they could feel comfortable with their native tongue."

• Haru Hashimoto: "Every weekend people from the "inaka" came from as far away as Santa Maria and stayed overnight in the Little Tokyo hotels."

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