By Gary Kohatsu
A wise soul once said, “Never say ‘Good-bye.’ Instead say, ‘we’ll meet again down the road.’”
My sister Maureen and I stood on an imaginary path recently, watching our dear Mother stroll toward that eternal light… before drifting away.
Hisako Ozawa, known affectionately as “Betty,” enjoyed 101 years in this world. Born on Oct. 15, 1924 in El Monte, Calif… she passed away in the presence of loved ones on July 13, 2026. She managed to evade a formidable foe called cancer for three-and-a-half years. But the cancer caught up with her on July 10, 2026. She experienced three rough days of illness. Then succumbed to the dreaded disease at the beautiful Caring House hospice in Torrance. She most surely fought the good fight.
My Mom grew up one of nine children in El Monte. The family worked the land as farmers and my mom grew up poor but never hungry. She sometimes used her charm and personality to finagle her way to a neighbor’s house for lunch, as her siblings toiled in the fields. One such neighbor couldn’t pronounce or remember her name, so she christened my Mom with the name “Betty.”
As the world was rocked by the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939, my Mom never spoke of economic chaos. Her thoughts were on the glorious Hollywood movies of little Shirley Temple, whose films such as “Heidi” and “Captain January” were a beacon of hope and future prosperity. Even during World War II (early-to-mid 1940s), as Americans of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and incarcerated in prison camps under Executive Order 9066, my Mom said she dreamed of the day she would work for the rich.
In 1944, she and many of her siblings were released from camps before the end of WW II through the War Relocation Authority resettlement program. She and two of her sisters (Susie and Dorothy) found jobs in Chicago, and in the nearby suburb of Evanston, Ill. My Mom said she walked into an employment center on Day One and was told, “You’re just what we’re looking for.”
She was hired by the Myrtle Norton Walgreen (matriarch of the Walgreen Drug store dynasty) and during the mid-1940s, my Mom lived her dream life. She served as a housekeeper under the tutelage of head housekeeper Jenny Holt. At the end of WW II, JAs were allowed to return to the West Coast. Mom’s dad begged her to come home and she relented.
My Mom took on many housekeeper positions in the late 1940s, including working for actor Ray Milland and his family. Mom married Yoki “Larry” Kohatsu, a tomato farmer, in the early 1950s. I was her firstborn in 1954 and my sister Maureen came along three years later.
When our family went through bankruptcy in the mid-1950s, my parents moved the family to Venice, Calif. My Dad took on gardening jobs and Mom, never afraid of hard work despite her lavish dreams, was hired for domestic job, such as laundry work and ironing. We lived in a Venice duplex at $40 a month, until Mom saved enough dimes to enable us to purchase a home.
By the mid-1960s, we had a nice two-story home in Carson, Calif., and in 1966, Mom went to work as a sales associate for Bullock’s Del Amo. From ‘66 to her retirement in 1986, she was among the store’s top sellers, which led to numerous honors. When my father was killed in a gas station robbery in 1969, Mom held the family together with the help of friends and family. She married Jim Ozawa in the early ‘70s and the family moved to Harbor City. By 1978, she welcomed her first grandchild, Randy Willis, and 12 years later, a granddaughter, Marie Jane Cathcart. Her most blessed experiences in the last days of life was to meet her 3 1⁄2-month-old great grandson, Bobby III “Trey” Kane of Philadelphia.
During her retirement years, she was able to help raise her grandchildren, follow her beloved celebrities such as Michael Crawford of the Phantom fame, socialize with friends for monthly get-togethers, and spend hours trading stories on the phone with family and friends.
Hisako Betty Ozawa was cremated and will be laid to rest beside her late husband Jim at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. She was preceded in death by her parents Kishichi and Yoneko Tamaki, brother Kiho “Joe” Tamaki and Tom Tamaki, and sisters Hatsue (Umosa), Dorothy (Naruko), Susie (Ozawa), and Rose (Hozaki), as well as husbands Yoki Kohatsu (first marriage), Jimmy Ozawa (second marriage) and many relatives. She is servived by her children Gary Kohatsu and Maureen (Scott) Davis, grand- children Randy Willis and Marie Jane (Bobby) Kane, sisters Tomiko Arakaki and Toyoko Maekawa, her sister in faith Angela Cathcart, and numerous loved ones.
