ANAHEIM —?Out of the 53 living queens, 30 assembled for the first Miss Orange County Japanese American Queens Reunion at the Orange County Buddhist Church Social Hall on Sept. 9.
The first Miss Orange County VFW Queen, Mary Murai Nakayama (1958), was in attendance with VFW Queens Doris Reiko Fujino Pultz (1960), Dianne Kubota Hamano (1961), Carol Nishizu Matsuoka (1962), Gwen Okumura Martino (1969), and Gail Konishi Shibayama (1970) along with Post Commander James Nakamura of the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670.
From the Suburban Optimist Club of Buena Park, present were the first queen, Patti Hirahara (1974), along with Susan High (1975), Joanne Ono Castillo (1976), Judean Karimoto Sakimoto (1980), and Frances Shima Matsumoto (1981), as well as Kent Suzuki, treasurer of the Suburban Optimist Club.
From the Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council, present were the first queen, Sandra Fukushima Ninomiya (1989), along with Denise Higuchi Bjorn (1990), Shannon Suzuki Kelliher (1991), Stephanie Iwamasa Ichinose (1994), Janelle Hamabata (1997), Nicole A. Inouye (1998), Michelle Ito Hatsushi (2005), Christine Kimoto Tanaka (2007), Melissa Nishimura Maekawa (2011), Emily Folick Koko (2012), Laura Higashi (2013), Dominique Mashburn (2014), Megan Ono (2016), Kaitlin Hara (2017), Alice Amano (2018), Kristine Yada (2022), and the current Miss Orange County, Kaitlyn Emiko Chu, plus Christine Tanaka also representing the Orange County Queen Council.
A special guest for the event was 1953 Nisei Week Queen Judy Sugita de Queiroz, who was a resident of Orange County when she was selected.
The queens gathered for an official group photo by Alan Miyatake of Toyo Miyatake Studio. Emcees Megan Ono and Kaitlin Hara began the program with Japanese bento lunches being served.
A special “In Remembrance” table was on display in memory of past VFW Miss Orange County Queens Carol Kunitsugu Itatani (1965) and Beverly Hayashida Chien (1968).
Scrapbooks from 1961 Queen Dianne Kubota Hamano and 1974 Queen Patti Hirahara were on display as well.
The room was decorated in pink, gold, and white with gold glitter crown centerpieces, fresh flowers, and seating place cards with rose gold crown bases. A printed program was prepared in addition to a handout featuring the 55 Miss Orange County queens through the years.
Each queen was given a pin consisting of a gold crown with rhinestones to wear at future Orange County events to signify them as Miss Orange County JA Queens in addition to receiving a personalized pink and gold pen as a souvenir of this first queens’ reunion as a gift from the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670.
A special highlight of the event was having a slideshow of all the past queens and then having each queen stand up and personally introduce themselves to the group.
The event was sponsored by the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670, Suburban Optimist Club of Buena Park, and Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council with special thanks to Patti Hirahara and Christine Tanaka for coordinating the event, Jesse James of OCNCC for his support, Dianne Hamano and Patti Yoshihara for the floral arrangements, and OCBC queen mothers Namy Folick, Nancy Hara, Amy Iwamasa, Penny Nishimura, Diana Ono, Joyce Sakamoto, and Joyce Yada for coordinating the room set-up and tear-down in addition to preparing desserts and beverages for the event.
65 Years of History
The first Miss Orange County was selected in 1958 and over a span of 65 years, three Orange County organizations have sponsored 55 Miss Orange County Japanese American Queen candidates to the Nisei Week Japanese Festival.
In 1958, the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670 decided to sponsor a Miss Orange County Nisei Queen for Nisei Week in Little Tokyo. The post had been chartered on Nov. 2, 1957 and they had not celebrated their first-year anniversary, but they felt Orange County should be represented in the Los Angeles festival. They sponsored a total of 13 queens, ending in 1970.
There was a big difference for these first queens. There was not that many Japanese American events due to the recent ending of World War II and the Japanese American community resettling back into Orange County.
The first queens were Mary Murai (1958), Irene Morioka (1959), Doris Fujino (1960), Dianne Kubota (1961), Carol Nishizu (1962), Terri Kakuda (1963), Gwen Fujino (1964), Carol Kunitsugu (1965), Marilyn Shizue Wada (1966), Patricia Kusuda (1967), Beverly Hayashida (1968), Gwen Okumura (1969), and Gail Konishi (1970).
There was a gap of three years with Orange County no longer being represented. Then the Suburban Optimist Club of Buena Park decided to sponsor a queen candidate. Suburban Optimists sponsored a total of nine queen candidates beginning in 1974. They also decided to end their sponsorship with their last queen in 1982.
The Suburban Optimist Club queens were Patti Hirahara (1974), Susan High (1975), Joanne Ono (1976), Karen Takeguma (1977), Jaime Kajiki (1978), Karen Karasawa (1979), Judean Karimoto (1980), Frances Shima (1981), and Barbara Vollmer (1982).
There was a six-year gap from 1983 to 1988. From 1989, the Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council, through its member affiliates, has sponsored a total of 33 candidates through 2023, with 2020 and 2021 being open due to the COVID pandemic. Their active participation has allowed young women the opportunity to raise awareness on several Japanese American community platforms and represent Orange County in many Japanese American events in Southern California.
The OCNCC queens are Sandra Fukushima (1989), Denise Higuchi (1990), Shannon Suzuki (1991), Staci Hashimoto (1992), Kimberly Stapchuk (1993), Stephanie Iwamasa (1994), Maki Ichiroku (1995), Maggie Fukumoto (1996), Janelle Hamabata (1997), Nicole A. Inouye (1998), C. Traci Murase (1999), Erin Nomura (2000), Norie Nakase (2001), Kimberly Hayashi (2002), Kristi Higa (2003), Heather Nagano (2004), Michelle Ito (2005), Lisa Shimakuro (2006), Christine Kimoto (2007), Marissa Ishii (2008), Whitney Itano (2009), Christy Sakamoto (2010), Melissa Nishimura (2011), Emily Folick (2012), Laura Higashi (2013), Dominique Mashburn (2014), Sara Hutter (2015), Megan Ono (2016), Kaitlin Hara (2017), Alice Amano (2018), Kara Ito (2019), Kristine Yada (2022), and Kaitlyn Emiko Chu (2023).
The first Nisei Week Japanese Festival, in 1934, was organized as a marketing strategy to celebrate the achievements of the Japanese American community and bring in outside shoppers to the struggling businesses in Little Tokyo. For about 20 years, the queen selection process involved the community voting with tickets earned through money spent at Little Tokyo businesses. While it did help to bring new revenue to Little Tokyo, the selection process was changed to a community organization-sponsored system in 1955.
Judy Sugita of Orange County was selected Nisei Week Queen in 1953 under the old judging system.
Of the 55 Miss Orange County Queens, 53 are still living, including 11 Nisei Week Queens, seven first runners-up, and six Miss Tomodachi winners.
Organizing the Reunion
Patti Hirahara, the first Miss Suburban Optimist Queen in 1974, wanted to have all the queens remembered for inclusion in the Orange County Japanese American Legacy Time Capsule that will be buried at the Orange County Japanese Garden and Teahouse at the Orange County Civic Center. Her search found there was no official information about these past queens, so she contacted Dianne Kubota Hamano, who was the first Miss Orange County to become Nisei Week Queen in 1961.
Having met Hamano when they both modeled in the So-Phis Fashion Show in 1961, when Hirahara was 6 years old, Hamano asked: Why doesn’t Orange County have a queens reunion?
With no contact information for many of the early queens, Hirahara asked Hamano, Christine Kimoto Tanaka, Sandra Fukushima Ninomiya, Dulcie Ogi Kawata, Sandra Toshiyuki, and Diana Ono for leads on how to find the missing queens.
With Hirahara being proficient in using Ancestry.com and other online resources to find many of the past queens, the group started to inquire to see how many queens would be interested in participating in this first reunion.
“This was a special reunion since this is the first time all the Miss Orange County Japanese American queens ever got together for a gathering like this,” said Hirahara. “Many of the younger queens did not know the background history that Mary Murai Nakayama was the first Miss Orange County Queen to run in 1958 representing the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. Then the Suburban Optimists decided to take over sponsorship in 1974 when I was selected their first queen, and then in 1989, Sandra Fukushima Ninomiya represented the Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council in 1989, who is the current sponsor to this day.
“In hearing each queen talk about their queen experience, we all learned something on how things were different for each generation but it also made us understand how fortunate we were to be selected and represent Orange County. In having only the queens in attendance, we could talk and enjoy each other’s company, which made the event more special and meaningful to each of us.
“We had now become a family and hope we can continue to meet again and share more stories in the future.”
Photos by J.K. YAMAMOTO/Rafu Shimpo (except where noted)