231:. Aratani established an international trading company in 1946, working with former Guadalupe Produce Company employees and using the name of one of his father's prewar businesses, All Star Trading. The company changed its name to American Commercial, Inc., and tried importing various products before finding a profitable market in Japanese-made chinaware. The Mikasa brand was founded in December 1957 and quickly became popular in the United States, eventually going public in 1994. Aratani continued to expand, creating a medical equipment exporting business in 1951 and establishing Kenwood Electronics in 1961, again employing friends from Guadalupe or the Military Intelligence Service.
142:. In December 1935, his mother, who was also staying in Japan at the time, became ill and died. His father remarried Yoshiko's niece, Masuko, and returned to the United States to manage his businesses. Aratani remained in Tokyo and continued his studies at Keio's law school, but he came back to Guadalupe when his father contracted
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Much of
Aratani's philanthropy focused on the Japanese American community. He helped found the Keiro Nursing Home in 1961, putting his home up for collateral on the initial loan. Under his guidance and through his contributions, Aratani helped with the restoration of numerous historical buildings in
204:. With little access to alternatives from within camp, Aratani and the Guadalupe board sold the company to the trustees, barely covering the taxes due to the government. Aratani's biography, "An American Son: The Story of George Aratani," details the losses his family endured during the 1940s.
200:, Arizona. Shortly after arriving in camp, the office of the Superintendent of Banks, which had taken over the frozen assets of Japanese banks operating in the U.S. before the war, began to pursue Aratani in order to collect on a loan issued to his father by
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Born in a farming community outside
Gardena, he was the only child of Japanese immigrants Setsuo and Yoshiko Aratani (although his mother had two children from a previous marriage). The family later moved to the
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243:'s George and Sakaye Aratani Central Hall, and the Union Center for the Arts' Aratani Courtyard (all located within Little Tokyo) are named after Aratani and his wife. In 2004, at
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executives, hoping to avoid losing the business. The move only postponed what would soon prove to be inevitable; after learning he and his stepmother would be
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Aratani spent his later years in the couple's
Hollywood Hills home (built by Sakaye's brother-in-law in 1958). He died February 19, 2013, at age 95.
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and briefly considered a career as a professional athlete, but had to change his plans after a football injury soured his prospects.
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and was key to the creation of its
Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. The JACCC's Aratani Japan America Theatre, the
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that followed it, Aratani transferred the company's assets from its
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in 1940. Unable to finish his degree at Keio, he enrolled at
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114:Early life
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125:Guadalupe
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304:"業界人のお話"
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