Itsuko Arita

Itsuko Arita was born on February 15, 1937 to Stanley Kazuo and Fudeko Okura Yoshimura in Alameda, California. She was the fifth daughter of 13 children. Youko (Joseph) Yamasaki, Reiko (Harry) Shibata, Minoru (June), Satoru, Toshiaki (Jayne), Kanoko Connie (Aki) Kojima, Yoshiko (Johnson) Otera, Michio (Norma), Itsuko (Art) Arita, Kuniko, Masashi (Barbara), Yuichi Roy (Karen), and Miyuki Mabel (Tom) Googins.

On February 19, 1941, an Executive Order 9066 was signed, and the family was moved to Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona. They lived in a barrack during the duration of World War II. When the family could leave camp, Governor Ralph Carr invited citizens of Japanese ancestry to move to Colorado. Since her father had worked as the Supervisor of the camp mess hall, he found work as a cook at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. Soon after he sent for the rest of the family who had remained in camp. On June 1st, 1946, the family opened the S.K.Y. Coffee Shop and Bakery on Larimer Street followed by a Japanese landscaping business. Itsu worked at the family restaurant and it was there that she met Art Arita.

Art and Itsu were married on August 11, 1956 and lived in Denver their entire marriage. They have four children, Moni (Albert) Miyashita, Michael (Karon) Arita, Patti (Ken) Nix and Arlene (Bill) Boyer. They also have nine grandchildren, Jon, Bryon, Kelly, Melissa, Allison, Hannah, Paul, Jillian and Hayden, and six great-grandchildren, Hudson, Campbell, Porter, Avery Kate, Everett and Kai.

Itsu was a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, first and foremost. Her time was spent with family and friends. She traveled across the country and to Japan to see her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren on a regular basis and to attend all their special events and family reunions. She enjoyed traveling with her four sisters on regular planned trips. And she never forgot anyone’s birthday and always thoughtfully put cards in the mail for family and friends.

She also loved to paint and became a prolific artist after her kids grew up. Art retired early and supported her passion by setting up a professional frame shop in their basement where he matted and framed over 3,000 of her paintings. He purchased a van for her paintings and they drove to art shows and galleries in multiple states to exhibit and sell her paintings for many years. Even recently, she reached out to her grandchildren and painted their personal requests. Painting and being an artist were her love and she painted until the very end of her life.

Itsu was a warm, loving and generous person who was known for her wonderful sense of humor. She could approach any person and engage in conversation. She lived life to the fullest. Even as she received the diagnosis of ALS, a fatal disease with no cures or treatments, she faced each day with courage, grace and dignity. She never complained, she trusted her family and her doctors, and she had a strong mind until the very end. She was not afraid of death as she knew she was going to heaven and loved her life and the 84 years that God gave her with her family, friends, and all of life’s blessings.