Tokita Tales
This series shares personal, touching stories of Shokichi “Shox” Tokita’s family, which includes their incarceration in Minidoka concentration camp, his family struggles after the War, and his mother who ran a hotel business to support her family after his father’s death.
*Stories in this series were originally published in The North American Post.
Stories from this series
Haruko (Mom), A Football Fan
Dec. 30, 2022 • Shokichi “Shox” Tokita
Haruko (Mom), a football fan? Yes, a football fan. How so? Well, three of her youngest sons, Yuzo, Masao, and Goro all played Little League Football in their younger days, and Haruko went to virtually all their games. They all played for the NVC Fighting Irish under the sponsorship of the Nisei Veteran’s Committee (NVC). Yuzo played in 1951 with many of his later friends. They were very successful in that they won all of their games under the coaching of Fred …
A Lifetime Christmas Gift
Dec. 23, 2022 • Shokichi “Shox” Tokita
As I mentioned before, my mother was widowed at age 41 with eight children, ages two to 14. We lived in Chinatown, or the International District as it is now called, in a run-down old hotel named the New Lucky Hotel, on the southwest corner of Maynard and Weller (present location of Luke’s Pharmacy). Mom was fortunate that she was left with this hotel because it provided the income to support her family after Papa passed away in October 1948. …
The Tokita World War II Diary
Dec. 9, 2022 • Shokichi “Shox” Tokita
One of the most interesting aspects of the book, Signs of Home, which elaborates on my father Kamekichi Tokita’s art history and accomplishments, is that it draws heavily from his diary written during World War II. The diary is quite detailed in his thoughts, fears, feelings of disparity, how it affects him physically, and most of all, his disbelief. It is one of very few writings by an Issei that has been translated into English and into book form. Yet, …
The Seattle Uwajimaya Parking Lot
May 3, 2022 • Shokichi “Shox” Tokita
So, what about the Uwajimaya parking lot? It seems to me that it’s an ordinary store parking lot. It has a paved parking area with normal parking places marked like thousands of other parking lots. What’s so special about that? Yes, I agree. It is just an ordinary store parking lot. Just looking at it doesn’t exude much interest does it? The only thing is that that particular parking lot has a long and interesting history for Japanese Americans! The …
A Former Paperboy’s Memories of The North American Post
Nov. 10, 2021 • Shokichi “Shox” Tokita
Delivering the North American Post (NAP, or “Hokubei Hochi”) newspaper around the Chinatown area was an unexpected boon for me and my family during the 1949 to approximately 1957 period. My father passed away in October 1948 leaving my mother, Haruko Tokita, age 41, with eight children, ages two to 14. I was the 14-year-old and needed to help Mom in as many ways as I could; so having a paying newspaper route was very helpful although the pay was …
