Shang Ging Jeong, 87; Familiar Face at Far East Café
Saturday, May 9, 2009

Shang Ging Jeong, shown at work at the Far East Cafe in Little Tokyo, welcomed Japanese Americans returning from camps, feeding them when they had little or no money.

Shang Ging Jeong, co-owner and manager of the Far East Cafe, passed away on April 29 at a local convalescent home. He was 87.

While on his first leave from combat training in General Patton’s Third Army, it was Jeong who visited his father working as a laundryman in Indiana and told him to go to Los Angeles and open a business. Jeong was the son of one of the original ten shareholders who bought an existing restaurant in Little Tokyo and started Far East Cafe.

After discharge, Jeong used the War Bride’s act to bring his wife, Mei Ngok, to America. He became a co-owner and the manager of Far East Cafe after several shareholders were bought out. The restaurant then belonged to himself, his brother and three close cousins, the Jeong, Mar, Chong and Chang families.

It is well known throughout the Japanese American community that Far East Cafe helped feed returnees from internment camps with little or no money. Jeong and Far East Cafe gave the people of Little Tokyo the respect and trust that they had not had for years.

He personally helped many immigrants over the years get their start in Los Angeles. For decades at wedding banquets and other occasions, many gave their thanks and respects to Jeong. Jeong was born in Canton, China on June 1, 1921. He immigrated to the United States in 1941. In 1942, he was drafted into General Patton’s Third Army. Because of his quick math skills and his mastery of weaponry, he was made a mortar gunner, lobbing mortar shells on the enemy during the liberation of France. Dur­ing the fighting in France, Third Army suffered significant casualties to the harsh winter cold of 1944. Trench foot and frostbitten limbs felled many of the summer-clothed soldiers. Jeong’s legs were frozen from frostbite. He was hospitalized for months in England and later flown to Colorado Springs for more treatment.

The pain in his damaged legs remained the rest of his life. For his service, he received the Combat Infantry Badge and the Good Conduct Ribbon.

Jeong is survived by his wife of 70 years, Mei Ngok Jeong; children and their spouses, Dewey and Betty Jung, Judy and Jeu Foon, Sharon and Robert Woo, Bennett and Nancy Jeong; brother and sister-in-law, Shang Ling and Oy Jen Jeung; 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 9, from 1 p.m. at Rose Hills Memorial Park, Sky Rose Chapel, 3900S. Workman Mill Road (Gate 1), Whittier.