{"id":339975,"date":"2026-05-31T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:36:14","slug":"go-for-broke-monument-27th-anniversary-tribute-set-for-june-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339975\/","title":{"rendered":"Go For Broke Monument 27th Anniversary Tribute Set for June 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photos courtesy of Go For Broke National Education Center except where noted
WWII American veterans of Japanese ancestry pose in front of the Go For Broke Monument in 2017<\/p>\n

Go For Broke National Education Center is celebrating the 27th anniversary of the landmark Go For Broke Monument with a virtual tribute program on Sunday, June 7.<\/p>\n

The program will be shown on GFBNEC\u2019s YouTube channel at 2 p.m. and features 103-year-old Japanese American World War II veteran Tokuji \u201cToke\u201d Yoshihashi, descendants of the organization\u2019s founding veterans, and current and past leadership.<\/p>\n

In June 1999, the Go For Broke Monument was presented to the City of Los Angeles. Each year, GFBNEC commemorates the iconic anniversary on the first weekend of June. The monument is located in Little Tokyo, near GFBNEC\u2019s permanent \u201cDefining Courage\u201d exhibition housed in the former Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple.<\/p>\n

\"\"View of the Go For Broke Monument from above<\/p>\n

The striking granite monument honors more than 16,000 Japanese American men and women who served overseas in the European and Pacific theaters during World War II. In total, more than 33,000 Japanese American men and women served in the segregated military units of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, 232nd Combat Engineer Company, Military Intelligence Service, 1399th Engineering Construction Battalion, Women\u2019s Auxiliary Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and Cadet Nurse Corps.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2026, the monument will be surrounded by the new mixed-use, five-story, 330,000-square-foot Go For Broke Plaza. The project will include 248 affordable housing units, urban green spaces, and through-block pedestrian linkages, which will not only revitalize the formerly vibrant Jackson Street Paseo but also return a portion of Little Tokyo taken away by eminent domain in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

The plaza ground floor will house community-serving commercial spaces for legacy small businesses such as Suehiro Cafe and the highly anticipated permanent home for Go For Broke National Education Center with 10,000 square feet of space for expanded programming.<\/p>\n

\"\"Finding a soldier\u2019s name on the Go For Broke Monument<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fellow veterans would be very happy,\u201d said Yoshihashi upon his recent visit to the nearly complete plaza. \u201cThey would really be surprised, as I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoshihashi, who served with the 100th Infantry Battaltion, was one of several Japanese American World War II veterans who used to volunteer as docents to welcome visitors to the monument.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Tracy Kumono
Go For Broke Monument, April 2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sure come a long way,\u201d stated Patricia Kinaga, whose father, Thomas Kinaga (442nd RCT), was one of GFBNEC\u2019s founding veterans. \u201cIt is going to be a space that is life-affirming \u2014 especially with all that we are going through as a country right now \u2014 to see this testament about where we have come from and how much more we have to do to make sure that our civil rights continue to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to monument anniversary sponsorships, veteran floral tributes and \u201cHonor a Veteran\u201d digital tributes provide ways to honor the veterans. To make a sponsorship or tribute gift, or for more information, visit goforbroke.org\/monument-anniversary\/ <\/a>or email development@goforbroke.org.<\/p>\n

GFBNEC relies primarily on individual and family contributions to present its educational initiatives, including the Go For Broke Journalism Institute and the National Torchbearers Program. Visit goforbroke.org\/support\/ <\/a>to make a general donation, become a member, donate a vehicle, make a planned gift, or learn other ways to ensure that the Go For Broke spirit and legacy of the Japanese American soldiers of World War II remain an important and relevant story to all Americans.<\/p>\n

\n\tArticles for you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photos courtesy of Go For Broke National Education Center except where notedWWII American veterans of Japanese ancestry pose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,121749],"class_list":["post-339975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-memorial-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}