UCLA Honors Businessman and Philanthropist George Aratani With Its Highest Honor, The UCLA Medal

Letisia Márquez, lmarquez@support.ucla.edu
For Immediate Use
(310) 206-3986
June 11, 2004

UCLA Honors Businessman and Philanthropist George Aratani With Its Highest Honor, The UCLA Medal

George Aratani, a successful businessman and philanthropist who survived the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, will receive The UCLA Medal on Thursday, June 17, during the Graduate Division Doctoral Hooding Ceremony in Royce Hall at 7 p.m.

The UCLA Medal is the university's highest accolade for exceptional achievement. The medal pays tribute to national and international leaders in government, education, science, industry, the arts and culture, as well as key figures in UCLA's development as one of the world's finest research universities.

"Mr. Aratani is, without question, a truly accomplished individual who founded and provided leadership for two internationally known and acclaimed corporations, Mikasa and Kenwood," said Don Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. "He is also without peer the most generous and committed contributor to Japanese American and Asian American institutions and programs in Southern California and in our nation's capital."

"It is a great honor to be the recipient of this award from such a renowned university," Aratani said.

As a young man, Aratani attended Keio University in Tokyo. His parents encouraged their only son to attend a Japanese university so he could improve his Japanese and learn about Japanese culture.

Aratani studied in Japan for four years and returned home one summer because his father was ill. His father noticed his Japanese had improved and he encouraged Aratani to apply to Stanford University, which is a university Aratani had always wanted to attend.

Aratani was accepted at Stanford and attended for three weeks in 1940 until he got an urgent call from Los Angeles. His father was ill. Aratani left the university to be with his father, who died 10 days later.

Aratani returned to Guadalupe, Calif., to run the family farm as well as other businesses his father had started. The attack on Pearl Harbor happened a year a later and the United States entered World War II, forcing Aratani and 120,000 other Japanese Americans into internment camps.

That episode in Japanese American history had a devastating impact on the Japanese American community and many individuals, especially those of his parent's immigrant generation, most of whom never recovered financially or psychologically from the tragedy, according to Aratani.

"Mr. Aratani believes it is the duty of those like him, who have been fortunate to succeed in society to give back as much as possible through their donations or voluntary activities in order to ensure the continued growth and vitality of the Japanese American community," Nakanishi said.

Several years after World War II ended, Aratani decided to visit Japan to look for business ventures.

Combining his business smarts with his knowledge of Japanese language and culture, he founded Mikasa, a highly successful dinnerware company. Aratani was interested in importing tuna to the United States, but he found out Japanese freezing facilities were inadequate. His banker friend suggested he try to market a nonperishable item. Aratani visited Nagoya - Japan's ceramics center - and came up with the idea of starting Mikasa.

He later founded Kenwood, a leading electronics company.

Aratani attributes his success to his father, a hardworking man who created numerous businesses.

"My father started a farm. He shipped produce and created a dehydrating plant, a fertilizing company, an import company and a wholesale outlet in Los Angeles," Aratani said. "I looked at everything my father had done and decided to create businesses myself."

Aside from his business achievements, Aratani also is a volunteer and major philanthropist for Japanese American organizations.

At UCLA, George Aratani and his wife, Sakaye, made a donation to the university to create The George and Sakaye Aratani Chair on the Japanese American Internment, Redress and Community. The chair, which is the first of its kind in American higher education and was announced in February 2004, will focus on the World War II internment of Japanese Americans and their campaign to gain redress. Sakaye Aratani is also a survivor of an internment camp.

The Aratanis have supported the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for many years, and have previously established endowments for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and undergraduate community internships. They also have established endowments with UCLA's Center for Japanese Studies. "I want to give students the opportunity to pursue a proper education and scholars the opportunity to study the tragedies Japanese Americans lived through during World War II," George Aratani said.

The UCLA Medal replaced the awarding of honorary degrees in the UC system in the 1970s.