California Obituaries, Los Angeles County

Submitted by Peggy Hooper 

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The Downey Eagle
February 12, 1999 Volume 6 Number 51

James Yoshio Murata funeral held last Saturday
DOWNEY-Funeral services were held Saturday, Feb. 6, at Rose Hills Sky-Rose Chapel in Whittier for 
James Yoshio Murata, a longtime Downey resident who died Jan. 29 in Chapman Medical Center in 
Orange County. 
He was 50, born in El Monte. 
He was the son of the deceased Kenji and Hatsuye Murata. 
The Murata family was forced off their land shortly after the outbreak of World War II, and avoided 
internment by voluntarily relocating to Utah in 1942. 
They resumed strawberry farming in Downey near the San Gabriel River after the war, but were forced 
off a portion of their land to make way for a freeway in the mid-1950s. After a three-year legal battle 
they agreed to swap their 55 acres for 17 acres to make way for the 605 Freeway. 
In 1991 they again faced the threat of eminent domain to make way for city redevelopment plans for 
an auto mall. The City decided to drop its plan to file eminent domain proceedings and worked out an 
agreement after the family obtained an attorney and threatened suit. 
Survivors include his brothers, Henry (Yoko) and Thomas (Kazuko) Murata; a sister, Kiyoko (Gary) 
Chew; and many uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and other relatives. 
Arrangements were by the Fukui Mortuary.