Remembering Sawtelle by Jill Shiraki

Harry’s Shell Service Station was located onSawtelle Blvd in the 1930’s. In the back,Ikkanda Automotive Repair opened up shopand continued in business for 60 years.
(Courtesy of T.Ikkanda)

Living in a particular neighborhood, we are often unaware of its history – the layers of its
past, its beginnings and transitions during different segments in time. Yet, in venturing throughthe pre-World War II survey of former Japantowns, rediscovering its remaining historicstructures, browsing through family photo collections, and listening to the recounting ofcommunity life by the Nisei, we can begin to piece together and sometimes even capture aglimpse back in time.
Raised in the WLA area, I spent my first six years a half block away from Stoner Park.
On hot sunny days, restless from watching my brother’s baseball game, I would run to the cornerof the park for shade, balance on the rocks, jump off of them, then climb onto the bowing
branches of the trees. I always thought it was the perfect-size garden for scampering, but what I
didn’t realize then is that the garden was designed, carefully sculpted, and dedicated by Issei
gardeners. Built in 1932 to foster goodwill, the Sawtelle community’s Japanese garden, nearlylost due to neglect during the war years, was restored by the Bay Cities Gardeners Association
with direction by Koichi Kawana and support of local nurseries in the 1950s.
Gardening had become a mainstay for the Japanese immigrants in the WLA and Santa
Monica area during the 1920s and 1930s, with its close proximity to affluent clients inWestwood, Bel Air, and Brentwood. By 1941, Sawtelle boasted 26 nurseries/florist shops, 8boarding houses, 8 gas stations/garages, 4 churches, 3 grocery stores, 5 shops, 4 barbers, 2sewing schools, 1 beauty salon, and 1 Japanese language school and community hall.

Kobayakawa Boarding House occupying
an entire block of Sawtelle Blvd wascomprised of several boarding houses, aparking lot, a mess hall, and apartment
units, and housed up to 60 boarders at
its height. (Courtesy of T.Ishioka)

Tosh Ishioka relayed stories of his father Riichi Ishioka, a modest and unassuming Issei
pioneer and businessman, who purchased a city block on Sawtelle Blvd in the late 1920s andbuilt Kobayakawa Boarding House into a successful enterprise, housing 60 boarders at its heightand remaining in operation through early 1970s. Mr. Ishioka would provide apprentice training
and establish gardening routes for his boarders. His wife Wakano operated the boarding house,coordinating and preparing meals and obento lunch for the gardeners, and providing laundry andmaid services.
As the first Japanese to return to the Sawtelle area after the war, Riichi Ishioka and aboarder returning from Denver were greeted by a rock thrown through the front window of theboarding house. The Nisei boarder, having lost two sons in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
placed two gold stars to cover the broken window (a symbol to recognize and honor the loss of
their sons who served for the U.S. military), and immediately dispelled any further vandalism.
The Kobayakawa Boarding House was cleaned, vacated, and opened for business for the first
returning internees from Manzanar. Gardening routes were reestablished and a dispatch service
was added to assign Japanese day laborers to assist experienced gardeners on demanding job
assignments. Sold in 1979 to developers, a multi-story office building now occupies the historicsite of the former boarding house.
A spray of deep colored pansies brings back fondness to Rose Honda of the many
afternoons she and her sister spent helping her mother’s small business. While her husband
worked as a gardener, Mrs. Honda grew and sold pansy plants on a small lot leased from Dr.

Nitta in 1939. Dr. Nitta delivered many of the local Nisei and his wife Katsuko would assist andcare for the babies while the new mothers would convalesce. Once a year, the Nittas would havea picnic in their Japanese garden for all the new babies born that year.
While Kumaichi Kageyama worked as a gardener to bring in steady income, his wife
Kuniye tended to the bedding plants, sold in five and ten-gallon pots. By 1941, the Kageyama’s
had leased two lots for F. K. Nursery, the modest beginnings of their family business. Digging
tunnels on the F. K. Nursery lot with his brothers, Hiro Kageyama recounts an Issei neighborangrily yelling at the young boys, caving in their efforts, and impressing upon them the danger of
their escapade. In spite of the misadventure, the close-knit Sawtelle neighborhood ensured thatchildren were watched over and proved to be a safety net during the early internment years forthe boys who were separated from their parents.
After the war, the Kageyama’s were able to slowly rebuild F. K. Nursery and eventually
buy a family home on an adjoining lot. In the late 1950s, after returning from military service,
Hiro and his brother Aki labored and toiled to expand the family business. Today, five of theKageyama children have helped transition F. K. Nursery into a budding wholesale business.
Upon revisiting Sawtelle Gakuin for our survey, as I peered into the classrooms, I could
nearly smell the sumie ink soaked into the telephone book pages we used for our writing
practice. Upon entering the auditorium, I shuddered at the thought of painstakingly reciting aspeech in Japanese with my awkward Sansei diction. The auditorium or community hall, built in
1940, was watched over by the American Red Cross during the war, and served as a hostel for
returning Japanese Americans after World War II. The Japanese Institute of Sawtelle,
established in 1925, continues to offer Japanese language classes on weekdays and weekends,
provide dojo space for three martial arts groups, coordinate a senior lunch program, facilitate
health and wellness classes, and teach cultural arts classes.
During recess from Japanese school, we would sometimes rush to Yamaguchi’s and enter
through the side door to buy a treat from the back icebox. We’d marvel at my brother’s friend
who would pop open a bottle of Coke on the side of the soda case and chug it down all at once.
Yamaguchi’s, a department store ran by brothers Henry and Jack Yamaguchi, not only provided
all things Nikkei for nearly 60 years, but offered a familiar face and community connection.
Since our survey work began, we witnessed several long-time Nikkei businesses closing up shop,and selling their property with pressure from developers – Yamaguchi’s, T & T Service Station,
Sally’s Hair Salon.
Despite the loss of historic Sawtelle, perhaps a new identity as “Little Osaka”, adjunct todowntown Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, with a Japanese restaurant row and J-pop storefronts,
offers a new dimension. According to author and chronicler Jack Fujimoto of Sawtelle West Los
Angeles’s Japantown, “The transformation of West Los Angeles’s Japantown continues toshow its traditional Japanese roots on a smaller scale, with newcomers upholding the cooperative
spirit of the Issei immigrant pioneers.” Yet, the imprint of Sawtelle’s Japantown history may
quickly dissipate unless we capture it.

The Japanese Institute of Sawtelle Oral History Program is currently videotaping interviews andcollecting information on Sawtelle’s Japantown. For more information, please send an email toinfo@sawtellejis.org