Spreading “Keiro”  

More than 1,000 miles north of Keiro Senior HealthCare in Los Angeles is another Keiro, operated by a 35-year-old nonprofit, Nikkei Concerns, in Seattle. 

Although Seattle Keiro is completely independent of Keiro’s Umbrella of Care in Southern California, its beginning is linked to Edwin Hiroto and his then fund-raising assistant Joyce Miyabe. Miyabe’s father Tosh Okamoto and other Seattle-based Japanese American leaders were seeking to start a nursing home of their own in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s. So when Hiroto was fortuitously vacationing in Seattle, the leaders called on him to take a look at a facility that they were contemplating purchasing. 

It was a rundown building, which smelled of urine and needed heavy-duty cleaning and weeding, in addition to a fresh coat of paint. While some committee members were hesitant about buying such a facility for $305,000, Hiroto gave his whole-hearted endorsement, pointing out that the construction of a new facility would cost much more –perhaps several million dollars. He even sent Miyabe up to Seattle to aid in setting up a $500,000 capital campaign.

By January 1976, the committee decided to purchase the property. The flagship nursing home was named Seattle Keiro, with the full blessing and support of Southern California’s Keiro.

Seattle Keiro now encompasses Seattle Keiro Rehabilitation & Care Center, Nikkei Manor Assisted Living Community, Kokoro Kai Senior Activity Program, and Nikkei Horizons Continuing Education Program. When Seattle Keiro expanded and passed on their original building to the Chinese American community, they also passed on advice they had learned from Edwin Hiroto. In this way “Keiro” has spread beyond the Los Angeles Japanese American community.

source: Years of Caring: The Story of Nikkei Concerns, 2010; recollections from Tosh Okamoto, May 2011.

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