Little Tokyo Connected!

[posted on www.downtownnews.com 10/13/08]

Little Tokyo WWII Project Gets $4 Million

News Brief

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The Go for Broke National Education Center, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate the public on the World War II experience of Japanese American veterans, has received $4 million from the federal government to help build a new facility in Little Tokyo. Currently headquartered in Torrance, the organization signed a long-term lease with the city of Los Angeles in 2006 for property adjacent to the Go for Broke memorial in Little Tokyo, where they hope to break ground on a new educational venue in 2010. U.S. Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard and Adam Schiff and Sen. Daniel Akaka requested the funding as part of the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act, which was signed into law on Sept. 30. The facility would feature an exhibit built around videotaped oral histories from men and women of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service and other units that operated overseas during World War II, said Christine Sato-Yamazaki, president and CEO of the National Education Center. The organization has now raised more than $5 million of the $15 million it needs to build the center, Sato-Yamazaki said. "Go for Broke National Education Center is thrilled to receive this funding," Sato-Yamazaki said. "It takes us closer to our vision to build an education center where we can offer teacher training and educational programming that will keep the legacy of the Japanese American World War II veterans alive."