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VOL 37 NO 37 SEPTEMBER 8 – SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 FREE 36 YEARS YOUR VOICE
Toshikazu Okamoto has passed the torch Celebration of life on September 22
Photo courtesy of Shane Sato
By Jessica Kai Curry NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Toshikazu Okamoto
A builder, survivor, mentor, and friend. On May 19, 2018, Seattle lost a vital member of the community, someone who cared for the city’s residents, especially its Japanese American residents, for more than four decades. A devoted family man, father, and husband. Toshikazu Okamoto, known as “Tosh,” was living in Kent when the U.S. government sent him and his family to an internment camp. Soon after, in 1945, at the age of 18, Tosh was drafted into the United States Army. Tosh’s wife, Toshiko Okamoto (“Toshi”), marveled at a system that could imprison a person and then send him to war. “How could they have drafted the boys from the camps?” she wondered. “They put
them in the camps. Then they took them away from their families.” Yet Tosh didn’t seem to hold any hard feelings from this wartime experience, even when, upon his return from military service, he struggled to find work in an environment of continuing discrimination. Told by the union that there “weren’t any openings,” when in fact there were (just not for a Japanese American), Tosh eventually gained employment with the local fire department, becoming the first minority to work there. Tosh’s son, John Okamoto, explained how his father’s internment camp experience came across to Tosh’s family. “He never talked about his camp experience until the reparation hearings. I heard him testify. I heard things I had never see TOSH on 16
SEARCHING A movie starring John Cho »7
CHRISTINE JOHNSON “Iron Fist” star on Seattle » 8
By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY The owners of Kau Kau Barbeque Restaurant are fighting back against the City of Seattle. The restaurant was assessed a Notice of Violation by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) for alleged illegal dumping of materials in an alley adjacent to their restaurant this past July. Richard Chang, who owns the restaurant along with his wife, Lynn Eng-Chang, claims
that the violation was due to inaction by the city and their need to remediate a situation. They both expressed frustration with the city and the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Association (CIDBIA) when talking about their $2,000 fine for alleged dumping. Earlier this summer, Chang, along with customers, noticed a horrible smell emanating see KAU KAU on 16
Photo by Jason Cruz
Dumpster violation spurs ire of Kau Kau TAYLOR RAPP Rising UW football star » 9
Judge: Japanese American group can’t block WWII camp land sale Photo credit wikipedia
By Staff NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
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A California federal judge has denied a bid from a nonprofit group, representing descendants of Japanese Americans interned in camps during World War II, to temporarily bar the sale of a parcel of land. The Tule Lake Committee wants to stop the city of Tulelake, Calif. from selling 358 acres to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma for $17,500, even though the committee itself had offered to buy the land for $40,000. On Aug. 27, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller denied
without prejudice a motion for a temporary restraining order. “The committee has not identified a single Modoc Tribe plan that poses a threat to the [Tule Lake Segregation Center], explained why concrete plans are not needed for the court to evaluate harm, or done more than speculate that the tribe is immune from [the California Environmental Quality Act] and all other regulations that govern its conduct,” Mueller said. In its complaint, the Tule Lake Committee said, “By transferring away the historic site for no consideration or grossly inadequate consideration, by acting in secret in see TULE LAKE on 13
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