LITTLE TOKYO HISTORIC DISTRICT

Description

Essentials about the Little Tokyo Historic District in brief

Little Tokyo is the Japanese heart of Los Angeles. Once founded as a neighborhood of Japanese immigrants in LA, Little Tokyo is now the largest and most populous Japanese community in the US. The neighborhood is popular among Angelenos of Japanese immigrant background and tourists alike, mainly because of its numerous Japanese stores, sushi bars, restaurants and Japanese gardens. Major attractions in the neighborhood include the Japanese American National Museum (with an exhibit on the history and culture of Japanese immigrants), the Museum of Contemporary Art (with a collection of paintings and sculptures by well-known artists), the David Henry Hwang Theater, and other traditional Japanese theaters.

The history of the Little Tokyo Historic District

The Little Tokyo Historic District traces its origins to the wave of Japanese immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to 1880, the Chinese represented the largest Asian immigrant group in the United States. This changed with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which prohibited Chinese workers from immigrating to the United States. As a result, the number of Japanese immigrants increased sharply. These settled mainly on the West Coast due to the shortage of labor and the georgraphic “proximity” to their homeland.

Beginning in 1885, the first Japanese immigrants also arrived in Los Angeles, where they worked primarily in agricultural businesses. Quickly, their settlement area became known as “Little Tokyo.” After the devastating earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, many Japanese immigrants moved to Los Angeles. Within a short time, the number of Japanese citizens increased to about 10,000. Since Japanese women were now also allowed to move to the U.S. to join their husbands, Little Tokyo developed into a vibrant center of the Japanese community with its own businesses, schools and newspapers. Little Tokyo’s houses of worship also emerged during this period, such as the Koyasan Buddhist Temple in 1912, the Japanese Union Church in 1923, and the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in 1925.

By 1941, the year of the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, some 35,000 Japanese immigrants lived in Little Tokyo. The onset of the war between the United States and Japan placed a severe strain on the relationship between Americans and the Japanese community in the United States, whose loyalty to the United States was questioned. As a result, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to vacate their homes and apartments and were forcibly relocated to internment camps. Life in Little Tokyo effectively came to a halt as a result.

Due to the labor shortage in Los Angeles during World War II, many African Americans moved to the city and filled the vacancy in Little Tokyo. The former Japanese community thus transformed into an African American community within a short period of time. After the war, many Japanese Americans moved back to Little Tokyo and the face of the neighborhood became increasingly Japanese again.

The commercial core of Little Tokyo on First Street was revitalized in the postwar period, although the Japanese community was now much smaller than it had been before the war. Many Japanese citizens chose to live in other Los Angeles neighborhoods upon their return.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, the Little Tokyo area diminished through various urban development efforts. Beginning in the 1970s, however, the neighborhood began to rebound. Against the backdrop of rapidly growing trade relations between the U.S. and Japan, many Japanese companies settled in Little Tokyo.

In the 1980s, artists discovered the district’s warehouses as suitable locations for their studios and laid the foundation for a very lively art scene in and around Little Tokyo. In 1992, the Japanese American National Museum finally opened in the historic Hompa Hongwangi Buddhist Temple and further revitalized the neighborhood (for tourists).

The Little Tokyo Historic District today

Today, Little Tokyo is once again the vibrant center of Japanese culture in Los Angeles. Part of the district between Union Church and the Japanese American National Museum has been designated a National Historic Landmark because of its historical significance.

Especially for lovers of Japanese cuisine, the Little Tokyo Historic District is a true paradise. No other Los Angeles neighborhood has such a high concentration of sushi bars and other Japanese restaurants. Many of the restaurants specialize in a particular Japanese cuisine, such as donburi, shabu-shabu, sushi or yakitori.

Those looking for Japanese food and other products also have a good chance of finding what they are looking for in the Little Tokyo Historic District. From bookstores to electronics stores to candy stores, you will find a variety of offshoots of Japanese chain stores or stores that offer exclusively Japanese goods in Little Tokyo.