Jun 23rd 2019 O.A.

JAL Tokyo/LA 60th

Wednesday, May 29th was the 60th anniversary ceremony for JAL in LAX Tom Bradley International terminal.

JAL started their Tokyo to LA flights in 1959. This year marks exactly their 60th anniversary, and a ceremony was held in front of the boarding gate.
President, Yoshiharu Ueki from JAL and LA branch manager, Kiichi Nakajima, Samson Mengistu COO of LA One World Airport attended the event.

The flight from Narita Airport that took off in May 28th, 1959 took approximately 25 hours to arrive to LA the next day via Hawaii.

Back then, only 3 flights were offered a week. Now, JAL partnered up with American Airlines which made 2 flights to Narita, 1 flights to Haneda and KIX possible, a total of 4 flights available everyday

President Ueki is a former pilot and flew one of Tokyo to LA flights himself.
He emphasizes on the importance of this route.
Keeping “Safe and secure” as the number one priority, he stated “LA has the largest need of routes to Tokyo throughout the entire US, and it will also play a crucial part when the 2020 Tokyo Olympics takes place.”

Snack food services were provided to customers leaving to Narita airport at the gate and memorabilias were distributed.
President Ueki and his staff greeted each and every customer with a smile saying “Enjoy your trip.”

Living with Cancer

Tuesday, June 11th was journalist, Kazuyoshi Kitaoka’s lecture held at the Yamaha Music Center in Anaheim.

The event entitled “Living with Cancer” was held by the OC Japanese American Association, Orange Rinri Hojinkai and the Japanese Friendship Network in OC.

Kitaoka came to the US in 1979 after working as a newspaper correspondent and a congressmen secretary.
In LA, he produced news in Japanese and worked as a journalist in both US and Japan.

After he went back home to Japan in 2006, he worked as a specially-appointed professor at Nihon University College of International Relations. A year after his retirement in 2017, he was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer.

Kitaoka spoke about his days in treatment as well as news and social related matters in US/Japan. He talked about his approach to world peace as a journalist.

This lecture was held by Keiro that provides welfare service for elders, and their “Iyashi Care” program was also explained.
This program supports both young and old Japanese Americans who are dealing with health difficulties and symptoms. Dr. Yuichi Yanami gave the details to this program.