By JON KAJI
The City of Torrance should rename Columbia Park as Ted T. Tanouye Memorial Park, after its native son, 442nd Regimental Combat Team member, and the city’s only recipient of the United States’ highest decoration for bravery, the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously by President Bill Clinton in 2000.
But Torrance City Councilmembers Sharon Kalani, Bridget Lewis, Jeremy Gerson and Asam Sheikh are playing political games instead of properly honoring Tanouye, the city’s only Medal of Honor recipient. For weeks the renaming Columbia Park has ping-ponged between an Ad Hoc Committee, overwhelming supportive public testimony and a petition of 200, three referrals to the Recreation and Parks Commission, and three City Council hearings.
The issue of renaming Columbia Park woefully culminated on Jan. 13, 2026, with the same four councilmembers AGAIN referring to the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, an arrant “Option #2” recommendation to use a triangular grass area in front of Torrance High School to create a “Ted Tanouye Drive” and a “Go For Broke Way.” Comments supporting this undisguised vote were accompanied by a disturbing Japanophile-like comments to include a crane motif along with sakura trees.
Voting to send a shamelessly misguided “triangular grass area” option to honor Ted Tanouye substantiates a benign neglect towards our community. Even a former Torrance mayor testified, opposing renaming of the park by shifting blame “as a political act” to me as a councilmember, obfuscating the trivialization of our community and, given these political times, not completely surprising.
Tossing around Ted Tanouye’s name and the 442nd RCT only lacked for spray cans and cover of night. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the City of Torrance.”
And here’s the irony.
The State of California appropriated $5 million towards the creation of the World War II Camp Wall dedicating 2.5 acres to a monument at Columbia Park with the names of some 125,000 Japanese American individuals who were incarcerated during the WWII, including Tanouye’s parents and siblings interned at the Jerome War Relocation Center in Arkansas. The new Japanese American monument and the renaming of Columbia Park serves its purpose in educating the public on the dangers of violating the civil rights of Americans.
The APIA community in the City of Torrance is more than 40% of the population with the Japanese community being the largest. It’s time for our community, our veterans and our APIA and veteran allies to speak out and act.
Send letters and emails to the Torrance Park and Recreation Commission (ParksAndRecreationCommission@TorranceCA.gov) to rename Columbia Park as Ted T. Tanouye Memorial Park, and reject the council recommendation of the triangular grass “Option #2.” Email copies to the City Council (CityCouncil@torranceca.gov).
Erasing these sacrifices and diminishing their signifi cance will face a motivated electorate as well as this Torrance councilman prepared to qualify a ballot measure to rename Columbia Park after Tanouye.
Will you join me in this fight?
Jon Kaji is the Torrance City Council’s 1st District representative and can be reached via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jonkaji or email jonkaji@gmail.com. Opinions expressed in Vox Populi are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.