The Nisei Week Foundation is excited to announce the 2024 Nisei Week Pioneer Spirit honorees who will be recognized during the 82nd Nisei Week Japanese Festival (Aug. 10-18) in Little Tokyo.
The seven Pioneer Spirit Award recipients, all of whom are women, are dedicated leaders and outstanding members of the greater Los Angeles Japanese American community. They will be honored at the 2024 Pioneer Spirit Luncheon to be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, 120 S. Los Angeles St. in Little Tokyo, on Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 11 a.m. Tickets are $95 per person or $950 per table of 10 and can be obtained by calling the Nisei Week Foundation office at (213) 687-7193 or by going to niseiweek.org.
The 2024 Nisei Week Pioneer Spirit Honorees are:
June Aochi Berk – Nominated by San Fernando Valley Japanese American Citizens League
Born in 1932, in Hollywood, June Aochi Berk first became immersed in Japanese culture at age four when she danced in the first Nisei Week Parade in 1936. She performed Japanese dance and kabuki with Fujima Kansuma in Los Angeles and Santa Anita as well as Rohwer, Ark., and Denver.
When Berk was 10 years old, her family experienced the injustice of incarceration in the Santa Anita Assembly Center and Rohwer. Her brother, Tom, volunteered with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II. While in Denver, the family operated the Mikawaya Confectionary Store. Then in 1953, Berk returned to Los Angeles and served as the 1954 Nisei Week Queen.
While in Denver, she worked as secretary to Mountain Plains JACL Director Min Yasui, who was one of the Japanese American litigants who took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. From 1996 through 2001, Berk worked as the executive assistant to Japanese American National Museum (JANM) founding president Irene Hirano.
Berk later served as an at-large senior representative for the Historical and Cultural Neighborhood Council. She has also volunteered at Keiro and Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Center, and serves as a board member of Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition and the director of its Legacy Project along with chief researcher Dr. Russell Endo.
As a volunteer at JANM since 2001, Berk feels that sharing her WWII experiences with educators, students and organizations is important so that this injustice does not happen again to any group of people. She became active with the San Fernando Valley JACL in 2017.
At age 91, she continues to work for the preservation of historically important sites such as Tuna Canyon Detention Station in Tujunga and the Griffith Park Internment Camp.
Berk is a mother of five to Ron, Susan, Jill, Lee and Kyle Yamashiro, and has nine grandchildren. She currently resides in Studio City with her husband Marty Berk and their dog Annie.
Patricia Kinaga – Nominated by Japanese American Bar Association
Patricia Anne Kinaga has significantly contributed to the Japanese, Japanese American and broader Asian American Pacific Islander communities. Her family’s incarceration at Heart Mountain and her father’s voluntary service in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team shaped her civil rights path for social change.
Upon receiving her bachelor’s degree from UCLA, a master’s degree from UC Berkeley and a law degree from Georgetown University, Kinaga served as a prosecutor specializing in domestic violence and child abuse cases. She then became an employment attorney in private practice, advocating for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) as one of the first Asian American women partners at international law firms.
Her volunteer activities include past president/current advisor to the Japanese American Bar Association, for whom she produced documentary shorts on luminaries including Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and Secretary Norman Y. Mineta; co-founder/chair of Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California; co-founder of Asian Pacific Women’s Center (domestic violence shelter); advisory council member for Asian Americans Advancing Justice; volunteer for Go For Broke National Education Center (documentary shorts producer) and Japanese American National Museum (early campaign efforts to build its current home).
As a Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs-selected member of the Japanese American Leadership Delegation, Kinaga created and co-chaired the Thousand Hearts Concert to benefit Japan’s tsunami relief efforts. She and her family have hosted Japanese students as part of the U.S.-Japan Council/Honda Corporation and the Pasadena-Mishima Sister City Program and sponsored the Tomodachi program.
Her more than 40-year effort to preserve the incarceration history and 442nd RCT history includes presentations throughout the country, including to members of the federal judiciary, and on the U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the incarceration. She has also volunteered to help Issei applying for redress and produced an award-winning documentary on the 442 RCT, which had its national premiere at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and has been distributed to schools and colleges in the U.S.
Gwen Muranaka– Nominated by Little Tokyo Nutrition Services
Gwen Muranaka was born in Torrance and raised in San Pedro. She attended UCLA and after graduation moved to Japan to study Japanese at Waseda University.
Muranaka started her journalism career as an assistant editor at Pacific Citizen, where she focused on redress, civil rights and other issues impacting the Japanese American community. She then moved back to Tokyo to be an editor at The Japan Times, the largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper in Japan. In this position, she created “Noodles,” a weekly cartoon of a young Sansei woman living and exploring her heritage in Japan. It is now an integral part of the English section of The Rafu Shimpo.
In 2000, Muranaka returned to Los Angeles and started working at The Rafu Shimpo, where she is currently the senior editor. Throughout the past 24 years at The Rafu, she has been a recognized leader in both the Japanese American community and in her profession.
Her impact on the Japanese American community has been extensive and profound. As a journalist, she has ensured that all stories of the Japanese American community, both large and small, are published, and shared with the community and the world. Her personal and professional life embodies and exemplifies the pioneer spirit and resourcefulness of the Japanese American community.
In 2023, Muranaka was recognized with the Distinguished Journalist Award by the Society of Professional Journalists Greater Los Angeles Chapter. She also published her “Drawing by Heart” book, a collection of her cartoons and portrayal of cross-cultural commentary that captures the unique experiences of the Japanese American community.
Muranaka is an active board member of the Little Tokyo Community Council, Nichi Bei Fujinkai, and Zentoku Foundation. She strongly believes in participating in and supporting the Japanese American community.
Grace Shiba – Nominated by Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Southern California
Community service has been an important part of Grace Shiba’s life since her childhood. Her parents, Paul and Mary Shiba, set a great example by serving as volunteers in the community.
Shiba received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. One of the highlights of her college life was participating in the Year in Japan Program and a once-in-a-lifetime experience was studying at Waseda University in Tokyo.
After graduating, she joined Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and held various leadership positions. Shiba became involved with the Japanese American community, joining the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Southern California (JCCSC) in 1996. She is currently the executive vice president of the JCCSC. For the past 26 years, she has been the mistress of ceremonies at the Oshogatsu event in Little Tokyo.
Shiba also serves as vice president of the Japanese American Treaty Centennial Scholarship Committee, vice president of the JCC Foundation and a volunteers with Nanka Kenjinkai Kyogikai and Nanka Shizuoka Kenjinkai. She received the Woman of the Year award in 2010.
She is currently executive director of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association. One of the highlights of her work at USC was her involvement with the Nisei Student Initiative. The university recognized and awarded honorary degrees posthumously to students whose education was disrupted in 1942 due to the signing of Executive Order 9066. A beautiful Japanese garden was created to commemorate the Nisei students whose lives were forever changed.
The 2023 International Ambassador Award was presented to Shiba by the Aurora Foundation at their 25th anniversary event. Her presence and involvement with the planning, developing and emceeing of some of the community’s significant events have become iconic over the past few decades.
Margaret Shimada – Nominated by Little Tokyo Service Center
After nearly 30 years of work with the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), Margaret Shimada retired from her role as director of service programs in March. Her first stint at LTSC began in 1995 when she led in organizing the popular Tofu Festivals that attracted 20,000 people to Little Tokyo. Under her decades of leadership, the social work staff grew to over 30 mental health therapists, case managers, service coordinators and support staff, most of whom are bilingual-bicultural in Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Spanish.
When COVID-19 disrupted the lives of elderly residents in Little Tokyo and put family-owned restaurants at risk, Shimada played a key role in creating Little Tokyo Eats in April 2020. With a grant from Keiro, Little Tokyo restaurants were paid $10 per meal to provide bento to Little Tokyo seniors for $3 a meal, providing more than 200,000 meals in total.
More recently, Shimada spearheaded the creation and development of LTSC’s new Homeless Services outreach, direct services and housing navigation, to those unhoused on the streets in Little Tokyo and beyond.
Another significant accomplishment is her help with forming Changing Tides, a groundbreaking initiative led by young people in the community to destigmatize mental health issues. Today as an LTSC program, Changing Tides provides suicide prevention training and subsidized therapy for those in need, and creates safe forums for open discussion about mental health.
Shimada’s contributions extend beyond LTSC. She also worked for, consulted with or served on the boards of Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Keiro, Koreatown Youth and Community Services, Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Center for Pacific Asian Families, Pediatric Therapy Network, Asian Pacific Aids Intervention Team, Asian American Symphony Guild, Nichi Bei Fujinkai, Peninsula Committee of the L.A. Philharmonic, and UCLA Stein Eye Institute.
Barbara Shirota – Nominated by East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center
In 1961, Barbara Shirota joined the West Covina Buddhist Temple when it first opened at the East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center (ESGVJCC). She joined the temple Board of Directors in the late 1980s, holding the recording secretary position for over 10 years, and remains on the board.
In 1979, both Shirota and her late husband George Yanase became board members of the ESGVJCC, for which she continues to serve as a board member, making her the center’s longest-standing board member. She is also an inaugural member of the Kibou Legacy Circle, an annual giving group of donors for the ESGVJCC.
From 1979-1983, Shirota held the position of corresponding secretary and was responsible for addressing and mailing the ESGVJCC’s monthly newsletter using an addressograph machine. In 1984, she became the first woman president of the ESGVJCC and served three terms.
In 1990, Shirota started several programs at the ESGVJCC including the San Gabriel Valley Nikkei Singles. She was an active member of the Women’s Auxiliary, passing down cultural traditions to the next generation. She also organized and coordinated the ballroom dances held at the ESGVJCC and hosted the annual Scholarship Tea, celebrating the accomplishments of high school seniors.
Shirota sponsors scholarships at Southwestern Law School in memory of George. She single-handedly contributes to the San Gabriel Valley JACL scholarship for high school students to fund an annual $1,000 scholarship.
She also established the ESGVJCC scholarship for graduate students in memory of her late husband Jon Shirota and continues to contribute to her graduate school alma mater, the University of La Verne, to support incoming students and their access to education.
Diane Watanabe – Nominated by Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council
Diane Kawata Watanabe’s early years heavily influenced her journey toward becoming an advocate for community organizations.
On the move during her childhood in the 1950s, Watanabe experienced first-hand the effects of discrimination. From being refused service in segregated Arkansas to being turned away from “open houses” by realtors in Los Angeles, these experiences set the foundation for her belief in the need for fairness and equality for all people.
During her college years at UCLA, Watanabe developed a keen interest in U.S. history. Her senior research project focused on the evolution of the Japanese American community in Los Angeles. Learning about the resilience of those immigrant pioneers, combined with her own experiences, inspired her to pursue change through the law.
She enrolled in the University of San Diego School of Law, where she was one out of a handful of women and minorities in her class. She helped found the Asian Law Student Association and assisted the law school in recruiting and admitting Asian American students. Watanabe established her law practice after seeing how the efforts of just a few students could influence the policies of a large institution.
Throughout her over 45-year legal career, Watanabe has remained steadfast in her commitment to providing pro bono support to community organizations. Drawing upon her expertise, she incorporated, obtained and maintained tax-exempt status for numerous Japanese American nonprofit organizations that have provided youth services, veteran support and charitable outreach throughout Southern California.
Watanabe has also been proud to have been a part of many organizations including serving as a former president of the Orange Coast Optimist Club. For over 20 years, she has been the president of the Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council.
She is grateful for the support of her husband, children and grandchildren.
The 82nd Nisei 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 info@niseiweek.org.