Toshi Otsu

Toshi Otsu died peacefully on June 28, 2023. She was born the first child of Kihei and Nobu Kobayashi in Los Angeles 4/19/1921.

She graduated George Washington High School then attended the Paramount College of Beauty, graduating with honors July 10, 1941.

Because of FDR’s Executive Order 9066, the Kobayashi family was sent to an assembly center and then to the Gila River Concentration Camp. Toshi continued her cosmetology work there and married Choku Otsu in 1943.

Because of the Loyalty Oath questionnaire in 1944, they answered “no-no”, and were sent to the Tule Lake Concentration camp. When WWII ended in September of 1945, they were going to be sent to Japan with other “no-nos.”

Toshi refused to allow her two children and her three younger brothers to go to Japan. She spoke to her parents and said none of the family would be welcomed and they would not be able to live there. Her parents and husband’s parents agreed to this decision, and they all stayed in the US. They were released March 6, 1946, and went to Fresno, California.

In 1950 Toshi opened Otsu’s Beauty shop in Gardena, California. She then entered cosmetology contests, winning her first major contest in

1954. In 1958 she won the International Beautyrama Inc Hairstyling contest.
Toshi continued to compete in hairstyling contests for a period of 20 years winning all contests in California at least once. In November 1977, the city council and mayor of Gardena honored her business, success, and contribution to the community.

During her long career, she owned 4 beauty shops, a cosmetology school in Los Angeles and taught at Japanese Cosmetology schools, retiring at age 97.

Toshi was preceded in death by one brother (1999). She is survived by her other two brothers, her two children, 5 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.