Yaeko Ito

When she was a child, Yaeko, moved to Hiroshima, Japan with her parents, brother and sister where they had a family farm. She loved being in the outdoors and climbing trees. At age 14, Yaeko experienced the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast while at school. Fortunately, Yaeko’s health wasn’t affected because the school was shielded from the blast by some hillsides. Yaeko and her family helped the ash-covered survivors anyway they could, mostly by giving them food and water.

When Yaeko was almost 22 years old, she married Tsutomu Ito in December 1952. Tsutomu and Yaeko boarded a ship to Seattle in March 1953, where they lived for the remainder of their years. In her later years, Yaeko enjoyed going to the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple and participating at Kokoro Kai, the adult day program at the Nikkei Manor.

Tsutomu preceded her in death in 2005. Yaeko is survived by her children, Cynthia Hinds (Tom), Gail Epps (Tom), Nancy Ito-DelRe (Martin) and James Ito (Melanie) and 5 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. Yaeko’s ashes are inurned at Butterworth Funeral Home in Seattle.

A funeral was held on December 7th. In lieu of flowers and gifts, please send donations to Kokoro Kai c/o The Nikkei Manor 700 6th Ave S. Seattle, WA 98104.