Executive Director, Little Tokyo Community Center

On behalf of the Little Tokyo Community Council, I am delighted to extend warm greetings and heartfelt gratitude as we celebrate our 25th anniversary of serving the historic and vibrant community of Little Tokyo.

This significant milestone represents a quarter-century of unwavering commitment, dedication, and collaboration among our team, volunteers, partners, and the community we proudly serve. LTCC has evolved greatly over the years, striving to meet the changing and growing needs of our historic community, while remaining rooted in our mission to protect, promote, and preserve Little Tokyo. It feels fitting that the 25th anniversary of LTCC occurs during the same year we celebrate 140 years of Little Tokyo. In a city like Los Angeles, where neighborhoods are constantly torn down and re-made, we know that reaching 140 years is from generations of tireless efforts and dedication from across the community and from our churches, temples, small businesses, cultural and community organizations, residents, and all the broader community members who call Little Tokyo ‘home.’ In many ways, LTCC represents the ways the Little Tokyo community continues to advance and innovate whilst building off the generations of work to preserve Little Tokyo. The visionary work of LTCC’s co-founders, Bill Watanabe and Irene Hirano Inouye, along with the other community leaders who joined the effort, led to the creation of a space for community members to come together on behalf of Little Tokyo has manifested today with Little Tokyo now recognized as a highly organized and advanced community. As a millennial and a yonsei, I am deeply grateful and appreciative of the work of Bill, Irene, and everyone who has dedicated so much to this special neighborhood, thus providing the institutions and tools needed to carry on this important work.

I personally have been involved with LTCC in various ways for about 15 years - in fact, one of the first things I did with LTCC was help organize the 10th anniversary celebration, and it has now been a decade since I transitioned from a board member to staff. Seven years later in this role as the Managing Director, I am proud of the many ways LTCC has worked to meet the needs of the community, and grow our partnerships and relationships with community members.

These partnerships and relationships are a core part of LTCC’s success and achievements - as a coalition-based organization, our achievements would not have been possible without the steadfast support of individuals, organizations, businesses, other community members, and funders, sponsors, and other partners who share our vision for an inclusive, equitable, and thriving community. Whether through volunteerism, generous donations, advocacy efforts, or collaborative partnerships, you have played an integral role in our success, and for that, we are deeply grateful.

Looking ahead, we know there is much work to be done, as the urgent challenges facing Little Tokyo continue to grow. Yet, we remain committed to our mission of protecting, promoting, and preserving Little Tokyo, and continuing the generations of work that seek to ground our historic community in its roots, while looking to remain dynamic and embrace innovation to maintain Little Tokyo as a thriving neighborhood for all stakeholders.

As we embark on our next 25 years, we know the work will be challenging - so we invite you to join us in our continued efforts to continue making Little Tokyo a place we can all call home. Your support and partnerships are critical to this, and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to work together.

Once again, thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to celebrating this milestone and continuing the fight for Little Tokyo together.

Best,

Kristin Fukushima
Managing Director, Little Tokyo Community Center

Board Chair
Executive Director, Visual Communications

On behalf of the Staff and Board of Directors of the LITTLE TOKYO COMMUNITY COUNCIL, we invite you to celebrate 25 YEARS of LTCC. It has been an honor to help steward organization as community member, board member, and presently as your Board Chair. Though we have faced many challenges, especially in the last few years, we are grateful for your shared values in moving Little Tokyo forward.

Little Tokyo is powered by its residents, businesses, workers, and cultural and religious organizations. Community is complicated. And through the first 25 years, LTCC and the communities behind it, has helped navigate these complexities, from surviving to thriving.

Our deepest gratitude for your collective labor in creating a Little Tokyo that is home for many people. Thank you for your belief in the power of community and collaboration. We look forward to another 25 years with you.

With Gratitude,

Francis Cullado
LTCC Board Chair
Executive Director, Visual Communications

Co-Founding Executive Director, Little Tokyo Community Council
Co-Founding & Founding Executive Director, Little Tokyo Service Center

“I wish to extend my congratulations to the Little Tokyo Community Council for their 25th year of operations! LTCC has accomplished much for the community over those 25 years! It is amazing to see how far LTCC has come over that time period!

I remember back in 1999, while I was the Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, it became apparent that Little Tokyo needed a planning capability where the community could decide for itself what it wants and needs for the neighborhood to thrive. Up to that point, we were always reacting to big developers making proposals on new developments which were essentially only targeting profit-making and not necessarily what the community needs. In order to form a community-planning organization, I called Irene Hirano who was then the Executive Director of JANM, to have lunch and talk about this. She quickly agreed to help start a new organization in the fashion of a "community-roundtable" composed of all of its stakeholders including residents, businesses, nonprofits and churches, political allies, and others. Irene rolled up her sleeves and, along with June Berk of JANM, invited key representatives to pitch to them the idea of a new group to do community planning and to advocate for those plans; everyone agreed to unify around this new organization (even though Little Tokyo was already thought to be "over-organized"). Soon, key issues such as the location of a new police headquarters (and jail) and the building of the Metro Connector subway needed to be addressed, in addition to articulating and promoting a comprehensive Little Tokyo community plan. Because of LTCC, the community came together and raised a united voice to make its will known in a wide range of community issues which continues to this day. Little Tokyo has a plan for its future and LTCC is the force to help implement those plans.

Again, congratulations to LTCC - an example of people coming together and working together for a better future for coming generations.”

Co-Founding Executive Director, Little Tokyo Community Council
Former President & Chief Executive Officer of Japanese American National Museum

IN REMEMBRANCE

We honor and remember Irene Hirano Inouye and all her contributions to LTCC and the community. The following is one of her final letters written on behalf of LTCC for our 20th anniversary in 2020.

Dear Friends of Little Tokyo:
As two people who have spent many years working and caring about our historic community of Little Tokyo, we wanted to ask for your support for the Little Tokyo Community Council (LTCC) as it marks its 20th Anniversary.

Because of its nature, LTCC has often maintained a lower profile in its role as an advocate, organizer and clearinghouse of information. Yet it has consistently worked in the best interests of Little Tokyo and the greater Japanese American community. Today, with so many economic and civic forces seeking to alter the face of Little Tokyo, LTCC is serving as an effective first line of defense.

In 1999, the two of us along with other community leaders came together to form LTCC. At the time when the local economy was in a slump, the Little Tokyo Service Center, the Japanese American National Museum and other nonprofit groups were actively striving to enhance business, public safety, culture and the arts.

Historically, Japanese Americans have always recognized the importance of working together and building for the future. Both of us felt that our community would benefit from greater communication and coordination among the residents, businesses, religious institutions and nonprofit organizations.

We believed a new coalition representing the leadership from our local community could fulfill this task. LTCC began convening monthly public meetings at JANM, allowing for open discussions and the exchange of information.

Today, when the long-term future of Little Tokyo is being impacted by a series of local government projects and private developments, the importance of LTCC’s work has never been greater.

We encourage you to read the enclosed material and to support the Little Tokyo Community Council in its efforts to protect the historic center of the largest Japanese American community in the nation.

Together, we can preserve the legacy of the Issei and the Nisei and ensure that Little Tokyo will remain vibrant and strong.

Thank you.

IRENE HIRANO
Former President & CEO
Japanese American National Museum

BILL WATANABE
Former Executive Director
Little Tokyo Service Center