By KATHEE YAMAMOTO
RAFU CONTRIBUTOR

Bill Watanabe and Yasuko Sakamoto were honored with the 2024 UCLA Social Welfare Joseph A. Nunn Alumni Award at the Terasaki Budokan in Little Tokyo on June 8.
Both awardees graduated from UCLA with Master of Social Work degrees: Watanabe in 1972, Sakamoto in 1983.

Together with Evelyn Yoshimura, in 1979 they founded the Little Tokyo Service Center, whose goal was “to provide linguistically and culturally sensitive social services to the Little Tokyo community and the broader Japanese American community in Southern California.”

Over the years, the LTSC has grown and expanded its reach to offer a range of programs that offer social welfare and community development services to assist low-income individuals and others in need, contribute to community revitalization and cultural preservation in Little Tokyo and the larger Japanese and Asian Pacific Islander communities.

Watanabe continued as LTSC’s executive director for 32 years before retiring in 2012. Sakamoto retired as director of social services in 2016 after serving for over 36 years.
The UCLA Luskin Department of Social Welfare, which hosted the celebration, noted, “Their legacy includes the ongoing work of 120+ MSW interns, who were guided by their exceptional mentorship and embodiment of social work values and ethics.”

Watanabe and Sakamoto were jointly nominated for the award by former UCLA MSW interns at LTSC, including current UCLA faculty members. Many, who call themselves “Billterns,” were part of the celebratory program, paying tribute to the training, the enriching experience and the high standards that informed and inspired their own careers.

They noted, “Under Watanabe’s 32 years at the helm, LTSC became a leader in community-based housing and economic development, working in partnership with various communities of color. LTSC programs include childcare, youth and family counseling, parenting classes, business development, and services for the elderly and non-English-speaking clients. They developed thousands of affordable housing units and saved and restored historic buildings in Little Tokyo, such as the Union Center for the Arts, resulting in Watanabe receiving the 2007 Preservation Hero Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”

Sakamoto’s many accomplishments include the fact that “with LTSC, she designed and developed five programs: Nikkei Family Counseling Program, Nikkei Tomodachi Program, Kosumosu Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence, Alzheimer’s Support Group and Nikkei Helpline. In addition to her dedication at LTSC, Yasuko has published numerous articles on the Japanese American experience, mental health and other social issues and she initiated a series of tofu cookbooks as a way to introduce healthy eating to a wide audience with funds raised going to emergency services and domestic violence counseling at LTSC. Yasuko has also been a speaker in Japan and in the U.S., presenting on topics related to caregiving, working with immigrants and domestic violence.”

The ceremony’s location at the Terasaki Budokan was meaningful, as LTSC spearheaded a 30-year effort to create the community recreation center, which has been open since 2020, with a ribbon-cutting in 2022.

Dr. Joseph A. Nunn, UCLA Luskin Dept of Social Welfare professor emeritus, for whom the award is named, presented the distinction to this year’s awardees. His own six decades in the field of social work education have been honored regionally and nationally.
In accepting, Watanabe said, “The name of Joe Nunn is a very highly honored name in the School of Social Welfare at UCLA. And to receive this recognition is a very big deal for Yasuko and myself.”

Sakamoto acknowledged the “collective effort” of staff, volunteers, the community and student social workers at LTSC.

She expressed special appreciation for Yoshimura, the third LTSC founding member, who was there that day. Yoshimura’s own 40-year tenure at LTSC and her decades of work towards making the Terasaki Budokan a reality were honored last November with the dedication of the Evelyn Yoshimura Friendship Garden at the facility.

The selection of Watanabe and Sakamoto was announced as “two trailblazers whose life’s work centered on making the Asian American and Pacific Islander community thrive, in Los Angeles and beyond….for their decades of leadership in strengthening ethnic neighborhoods and training generations of social workers who would carry on a legacy of service.”

In speaking of her experience as a “Billtern,” Dr. Susan Lares-Nakaoka, director of field education in UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare, recalled, “I was an intern working with Bill 25 years ago – the things I learned from him stick with me today. He was visionary, he was generous in sharing leadership and decision-making power and he showed me the importance of always doing the right thing. I think about his wisdom and his gentle but powerful leadership all the time.”

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