Little Tokyo Decries Consulate’s Departure : Diplomacy: Decision to relocate offices is called an insult to Japanese-Americans.

The Japanese government’s decision to move its consulate from Little Tokyo to Bunker Hill is an insult to Los Angeles’ Japanese-American community, according to a group that waged a long battle to keep the consulate in its traditional location.

“Little Tokyo is such an important place in Japanese-American history, but the Japanese government doesn’t care,” said Noriko Kaldma, a member of the Committee to Preserve Little Tokyo, which spearheaded the movement to keep the consulate at San Pedro and 1st streets.

“We were so comfortable to have the consulate in the community,” Kaldma said.

The relocation is yet another blow to Little Tokyo, which has suffered economically from recessions here and in Japan, said Dr. Hiroshi Mitsuoka, a Little Tokyo physician who organized the committee. He is afraid that other businesses will move out of the area when the consulate goes.

But the Japanese consul general, Koichi Haraguchi, dismissed such concerns as exaggerated fears.

“We’re committed to the prosperity of the Japanese-American community,” he said. “Just because we’re moving, doesn’t mean we are abandoning Little Tokyo.”

Haraguchi said the consulate needs more space. “Some of those people (who opposed the move) will see that they will receive better service,” he said. “I can only prove that after we move the office.”

When the move is completed in September the consulate will occupy 23,000 square feet on the 17th floor of Two California Plaza at 300 S. Grand Ave., more than 1 1/2 times the space it occupies in the Kajima Building, Haraguchi said.

But many people see the consulate’s departure as another example of the decline of Little Tokyo, which has existed for about a century. Once a thriving business and residential community, Little Tokyo is now home to only a few older residents.

“Little Tokyo used to be the cultural, social and economic center of the Japanese-American community in Southern California,” said Chris Komai, a member of a Japanese-American family that founded Rafu Shimpo, the oldest Japanese newspaper in the United States, in 1903.

“In the old days, if you wanted Japanese food, you’d come to Little Tokyo,” he said. “Now, any neighborhood mall has a sushi bar. And major supermarkets carry tofu and soyu (soy sauce).”

Komai, a spokesman for the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, said he shares the disappointment of those who tried to keep the consulate in the Japanese community, although he is not a member of the committee.

“As a Japanese-American, it’s sad to see this happen,” he said. “It’s getting to the point we have to make a concerted effort to keep Little Tokyo together as a place for Japanese America to come to.”

Despite lingering ill feelings, opponents said they will try to make the best of the consulate’s departure.

“Shi-ka-da-ga-nai (It can’t be helped),” said Mitsuoka, invoking the Japanese expression used to describe a situation where no recourse is possible. “We lost.”

In 1991, Mitsuoka said, he organized the committee after then-Consul Gen. Kiyohiko Arafune decided to move the consulate without consulting the local community.

To try to persuade the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, the committee held a petition drive between November, 1991, and last spring. Kaldma said she went to Tokyo to submit the petitions to the Foreign Ministry, after Arafune refused to accept them.

Stories about the fight in Los Angeles appeared in Japanese newspapers, including the Yomiuri Shimbun, the biggest paper in Japan. That got the Foreign Ministry’s attention and resulted in the reassignment of Consul Gen. Arafune to Nicaragua, Kaldma said.

Opponents of the move contend that the consulate, which is the official link between Japan and Southern California, draws people who otherwise might not come to Little Tokyo.