Toshiko M. Minami's Obituary
Toshiko Mae Minami, age 86 of Walnut Creek, California, passed away on Sunday August 20, 2017 after bravely battling a long illness. She is survived by four children, Cynthia(Nana) Minami Lam, Eric Ricky Minami, Linda Maya Peterson, and Amanda Maki Minami, and ten grandchildren, as well as three siblings, Kazuomi Morimoto, Junko Larsen, and Testuko Wong.Toshiko was born to Soichi and Kumayo Morimoto on September 10, 1930 in Watsonville, California, where she grew up with her six siblings until World War II. In 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, and the government imprisoned the Morimoto family, including teenaged Toshiko and her siblings, in concentration camps – first in Poston, Arizona, then in Tule Lake, California. After the war, the US government repatriated the Morimoto family to Hiroshima, Japan, where Toshiko resumed her middle school and completed her secondary education at Hiroshima Jyogakuin High School. She attended Nippon University and graduated with a B.S. degree in pharmacy. She was fully bilingual in both English and Japanese as a result of her dual country education. Toshiko moved back to California from Tokyo in 1973 with her children and she lived for over 25 years in Orange, California, until she moved to Walnut Creek to be closer to her children and grandchildren.Family, education, independence,and enjoyment of good food were the central values passed on by Toshiko to her family, and continues to live on in the youngest generation.. Once her children were grown, Toshiko enjoyed many hobbies. Arts and crafts were Toshiko’s passion and delight – she was never more in her element than while working on many elaborate paintings, quilts, beading, and embroidery projects, which she shared with her family and friends. Toshiko loved to travel and eagerly shared her travel stories. Toshiko also loved food, growing it, making it, and sharing it. She was well-known for her signature apple pies. Toshiko was a loving mother and grandmother.She will be missed by many whose lives she has touched in both Japan and the United States.
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