With great sadness, we announce the passing of Yoko at home in Rancho Palos Verdes on January 21, 2012, after a long illness. She was born on December 3, 1922, in Tokyo, Japan.

A licensed social worker, she was greatly respected by her peers who noted her elegance and quiet dignity. Her co-workers described her work done with careful professionalism. Her quiet disposition belied her intelligence and strength. Having an aversion for panegyrics, she led a low key exemplary and thoughtful life, always with consideration for others with kindness and compassion.

The third born of eight children of Dr. Masaru and Shizuko Osawa of Tokyo, her early years were spent in Korea where her father was professor of medicine in Seoul. She then attended Tsuda College in Tokyo, a school excelling in its English program. Granted a Fulbright Scholarship, she attended Simmons School of Social Work in Boston where she earned her MSW. Thereafter followed a long odyssey of marriage to Hideo in 1952 in Brookline, Massachusetts, a move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Marin County in California, a return to Ann Arbor, and finally to Palos Verdes, California where she resided for the past 40 years.

Her profession in social work began in Boston at the New England Home of Little Wanderers which was interrupted while she was raising her children. She returned to work at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, and thereafter in California at Long Beach General Hospital, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and finally at the Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center in Los Angeles. She maintained a relationship with the Little Tokyo Service Center. Her colleagues had only praise for her approach and dedication to her assignments and work in general. She touched the personal and professional lives of many, and she was admired and loved by all.

In her personal life, Yoko was an extraordinarily talented hobbyist. She began as a lapidarist in Marin County while her children were still very young. Later, she delved into several hobbies upon moving back to California. It is difficult to say which was her most favorite of her hobbies which included bonsai, batik, quilting, sewing, raising fuchsias, and flower arrangement. It can be said that she excelled in all with her thorough and meticulous attention to details. All of her work elicited high praise. She was a member of the South Coast Fuchsia Society. She is survived by her husband Dr. Hideo Itabashi, her son Mark, daughter Helen, five sisters, Ayako Nakamura, Kyoko Osawa, Yoshiko Osawa, and Nobuko Osawa, all of Tokyo, Ryuko Elizabeth Sasaki of Northbrook, Illinois, and grandchildren Christina and Michelle Itabashi, daughters of Mark. She was predeceased by her sister Noriko Kakiuchi and brother, Dr. Akira Osawa. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews here and in Japan.

Funeral services were private, and Yoko was laid to rest at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes. In lieu of koden, donations may be made to Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center or Little Tokyo Service Center, both in Los Angeles.