Frances Hashimoto

Frances Kazuko Hashimoto (August 26, 1943 – November 4, 2012) was an American businesswoman and community activist. Hashimoto was a key figure and proponent of Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood. The head of Mikawaya since 1970, Hashimoto, the inventor of mochi ice cream, also introduced the dessert to American consumers.

Hashimoto's parents, Koroku and Haru Hashimoto, owned the family-owned Mikawaya wagashi, a traditional Japanese confectionery which opened in 1910 in Los Angeles. They were forced to shutter their business with the outbreak of World War II. Koroku and Haru were interned with thousands of other Japanese Americans during World War II. They were sent to the Poston War Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona. Frances Hashimoto was born in the Poston War Relocation Center on August 26, 1943. The family returned to Los Angeles after the war and their release from internment. Hashimoto's parents reopened Mikawaya at 244 E. First Street in the city's Little Tokyo on December 23, 1945.

Hashimoto was raised in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. She attended Hollenbeck Junior High School, where her classmates included Ellen Endo, the former editor of Rafu Shimpo, and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights. Hashimoto received a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1966 and became an elementary school teacher.

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