Welcome To Little Tokyo

I'm happy to see Weller Court  and Astronaut Street filled with businesses again. The only things that Little Tokyo might want to refurbish is the map right in front of Weller Court and putting up a new plastic or harder to steal plaque for the statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya.

It's strange the statue isn't in front of the Little Tokyo Library or the bookstore. The Little Tokyo Library might also want to move closer to the main area of Little Tokyo, but that seems like the hardest thing to do.

I really hope maybe with Nisei Week or other events they could raise awarness or money for a new map and plaque. The map really shoudn't be that hard, maybe I'll ask around and see what's up with them.

From the Quirky Japan Blog the origin of the statue

"Kinjiro was born in 1787 into a poor farming family in present-day Kanagawa prefecture in central Japan. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by an uncle who had a large collection of books in his house. Kinjiro wanted to spend his time reading books, but his father forced him to work, so he began taking books with him as he worked delivering firewood, and at night.
Kinjiro eventually became very wealthy and influential, and was hired by the local lord to rebuild the family’s treasury. His finacial policies became famous, and spread throughout the country, making him very famous. He became a symbol of thrift and diligence, and in the pre-war years, thousands of Kinjiro statues were created, and placed in elementary schools all over Japan. Unfortunately, most of them were melted down during the war, and when it ended, his name had become wrongly associated with the right-wing military movement that had caused the war, so there are very few of these statues left today."