High school students taking part in 2022 in the inaugural Go For Broke Journalism Institute (from left): Esmeralda Medina, Angel Reyes, Annabel Chung, Sidney Berjamin, Dominika Tenorio, Marissa Guadarrama and Aniq Akter.
The Nisei Week Foundation is pleased to recognize the Go For Broke National Education Center and Suehiro restaurant with the Frances K. Hashimoto Community Service Award.
This award recognizes organizations for their outstanding contributions to the Southern California Japanese American community. The annual awards dinner will be held on Monday, Aug. 12, starting at 6 p.m. at the Double Tree by Hilton, 120 S. Los Angeles St. in Little Tokyo. Individual tickets are $135 and a table of 10 is $1,350.
Also recognized at the Awards Dinner will be Grand Marshal David Ono; Parade Marshal Amy Hill; President’s Award honoree George Sugimoto; Inspiration Award recipients James Choi of Café Dulce and Roy Kuroyanagi of Japangeles. For tickets or information, call the Nisei Week Foundation at (213) 687-7193 or buy tickets at niseiweek.org.
About Go For Broke National Education Center
The mission of GFBNEC is to educate and inspire character and equality through the virtue and valor of World War II American veterans of Japanese ancestry. The Nisei soldiers are integral to the history of all Americans, regardless of ethnicity. Despite their loyalty being questioned, 33,000 young Nisei men and women fought to protect the freedoms and liberties of all Americans and future generations.
“Go For Broke” was the motto of the 100th/442ndRegimental Combat Team, Hawaiian slang for “shooting the works” or risking everything for the big win, as they did while fighting at the war front and facing prejudice at home.
Through programming, GFBNEC shares the Go For Broke spirit and legacy of the Nisei soldiers with audiences from across the nation. The National Torchbearer Program works with regional partners to engage with young adults (ages 21-30) from all backgrounds across the U.S. The annual program includes a National Convening in Los Angeles that fosters civic dialogue and service learning activities centered on the relevance of the Nisei soldiers’ legacy to issues of social justice, civil liberties and democracy.
The Go For Broke Journalism Institute was established in partnership with the Asian American Journalists Association, Los Angeles Chapter, to connect high school students with the history of the Japanese American World War II soldiers’ experience. The sessions are led by professional journalists who mentor the students to create a final journalistic piece highlighting their connections to the Nisei soldiers’ story and their personal stories.
The “Defining Courage” exhibition is a hands-on and participatory learning center that explores the concept of courage through the lives of the young Nisei of World War II and asks visitors to act with similar courage in their lives. The “Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American WWII Experience” traveling exhibition highlights lesser-known, regional stories of bravery and humanity.
GFBNEC’s Hanashi Oral History Collection contains over 1,200 first-person audio-visual interviews of Nisei WWII veterans and their contemporaries. It offers unique artifacts and documentation and unparalleled insight into this important chapter in U.S. history.
This year, GFBNEC celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Go For Broke Monument. For the group of Nisei veterans who started the movement, the monument represents the culmination of a collective effort to secure a place in U.S. history so that their contributions to our democracy would not be forgotten.
About Suehiro
Two sisters from Japan had a dream of serving authentic Japanese comfort food to the people of America.That dream became a reality in fall 1972 when the sisters, Junko and Yuriko, opened Suehiro Café.?
Unfortunately, without any business or restaurant experience, they soon found themselves completely overwhelmed by the experience. For a short while, they even survived on the goodness of some food vendors that provided them with overripe fruits to eat so that they could save the money to pay their employees.
The path they chose was not what they had expected and much harder than they had imagined. But they never gave up, and little by little, things started to get easier.
Strangers became customers and customers became “regulars,” friends brought other friends, parents brought in their children and soon the restaurant became a common go-to place for people in Little Tokyo.?
2024 marked its 52ndyear, making Suehiro Cafe one of the oldest restaurants in Little Tokyo. It has served couples on their dates; the couples married and had children; those children became adults and are now bringing in their own children.
Junko’s son Kenji has been running the family business since Junko’s retirement in 2001.He wants to continue what his mother and aunt started and to remember and appreciate all of their sacrifices that have made Suehiro Café into what it is today.
Thus, the Nisei Week Foundation is recognizing this legacy business, its contribution to Little Tokyo history, and its services to the Japanese American community with the Frances K. Hashimoto Community Service Award.
The 82ndNisei Week Japanese Festival is a nine-day event first held in 1934 and is recognized today as one of the nation’s longest-running cultural festivals. This event will take place in Little Tokyo from Aug. 10 to 18. For the festival schedule, visit NiseiWeek.org, call the Nisei Week Foundation office at (213) 687-7193 or email [email protected].