Go For Broke Monument Places 2nd in National Trust’s Online Poll

The staff of the Go For Broke National Education Center in front of the Go For Broke Monument in Little Tokyo.

The Go For Broke Monument in Little Tokyo took first place in the history category and second place overall in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “40 Under 40 Places” online survey.

The monument received 2,534 votes, second only to Paisley Park, Prince’s home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minn., which received 4,399 votes. In third place was Musicians’ Village in New Orleans (1,881 votes), established by musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis for musicians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.

The top three were named as “Fan Favorites” along with Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Ark. (1,836 votes) and the Sept. 11 National Monuments in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia (1,541 votes).

The other Nikkei-related place on the list, the Portland Japanese Garden Expansion in Oregon, received 552 votes.

Dedicated in 1999, the Go For Broke Monument honors more than 33,000 Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, and other units during World War II, many of them while their families were held behind barbed wire.

The Go For Broke National Education Center said in a statement, “Thank you to everyone who cast their vote in support of the monument! …. You’re helping to bring the story and legacy of our veterans to the forefront of our national memory.”

The National Trust listed 40 of the most important, most interesting, and quirkiest American places 40 years old or less, compiled by the staff of Preservation magazine. The by-no-means comprehensive list included sites both well-known and obscure, high-end and low-budget, and urban and rural.

Places typically aren’t considered historic until they’ve been around for at least 50 years, so why highlight younger sites now? Because by looking at them through a preservation lens and identifying places worthy of saving before they become truly historic, we can be proactive about their futures.

From Jan. 7 to 18, people voted for their favorite places on the list. Each place was built in 1978 or later, and each makes an important contribution in one of six categories: Arts, Science and Tech, Culture, History, Landscapes, and Housing. Top vote-getters will be featured in the Spring 2019 issue of Preservation.