1922 – 2025
Alice Yoshinaga passed away peacefully in her home in Boulder, Colo. on Oct 20, 2025, after celebrating her 103rd birthday. She was born in 1922 in Irvington, Fremont, Calif., and was raised on a truck farm there. On her 20th birthday, she rode the train from Tanforan Race Track to the internment camp at Topaz, Utah. Her family relocated from Topaz to Milwaukee, Wis. In Milwaukee, Alice met and married Ben Yoshinaga, a college roommate of her brother Tom. The newlyweds moved to Los Angeles, Calif. after the war to be closer to the Yoshinaga family. Ben, Alice, and their three children were active at the Maryknoll School and parish in Los Angeles.
The Yoshinagas moved to St. Charles, Ill., and Temple, Texas because of Ben’s work. Her children remember her as a skilled seamstress and knitter. In Texas, in her fifties, Alice took up tennis, and was part of a Super Seniors Championship Team. In her time in Texas, she was a caregiver to her father-in-law, her brother Tom, and husband Ben, who fought cancer for 9 years. After Ben’s death in 2009, Alice moved to Boulder to live with her daughter, Chris. She remained active in tennis and played until she was 101 years old.
Alice is survived by her children, Niki (Milt Cohen), Christie (Wayne Itano), and Jim Yoshinaga; her grandchildren, Nicole (Barnaby Phillips) and Michelle (Kevin Bastian); and great-grandchildren, Emmeline and Mariella Phillips, and Ben and Naomi Bastian-Itano. Inurnment will be at a later date at Resurrection Cemetery in California. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to The Noble Path Foundation in San Clemente, Calif. (founded by an extended family member to educate teens about healthy living, job seeking and emotional/social skills, art, crafts and music) or TRU Hospice Center in Longmont, Colo. The family is grateful to Kaiser, TRU Hospice, and CareLinx for assistance with her care.