Little Tokyo first started in 1884, when a former Japanese sailor, Hamanosuke Sugita, opened the Kame restaurant on East First Street. By the end of the 19th century, male Japanese immigrants were beginning to concentrate in boarding houses in the area around East First Street and restaurants and other businesses opened to serve them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Japanese immigration to the Los Angeles area increased significantly. They worked on the railroads and began farming in Southern California. Others opened businesses particularly for restaurants, rooming houses, and jobs assistance. The area around East First Street began to be called “Little Tokyo”.

The Gentlemen’s Agreement required the Japanese government not to allow any more laborers to immigrate to the United States. Exceptions were provided for professionals, technicians and women.

Many Japanese laborers would continue to come to America, primarily by way of Mexico. Then many Japanese women immigrated as matchmaking picture brides. The marriages brought commitment, children, and stability to the Japanese immigrant community. The Japanese farmers were highly successful in growing truck crops and their distribution. They were producing and wholesaling the majority of fresh vegetables consumed in Los Angeles.

The Japanese farmers’ success in California fueled anti-Japanese sentiment that resulted in the California Alien Land Law of 1913. It decreed that aliens ineligible for citizenship were prohibited from owning or leasing land for more than three years. But Japanese immigrants found ways around the law by tenant farming, forming corporations with white citizens, and purchasing land through their U.S.-born children.

Anti-Japanese sentiment made Japanese immigrants work and join together. They created Japanese businesses, banks, churches, medical clinics, schools, and various organizations benefiting the community. St. Francis Xavier Chapel (Maryknoll), Zenshuji Soto Mission Buddhist Temple, and Union Church of Los Angeles constructed their buildings in the early 1920s. Little Tokyo became the Japanese business, cultural, religious, and social center for the Los Angeles and Southern California Japanese American community.

Continued high success of Japanese farmers and strong anti-Japanese sentiment demanded a national response that resulted in the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 that stopped all Japanese immigration into America.

Item descriptionDespite the Japanese Exclusion Act, Little Tokyo became a growing and thriving community during the Roaring Twenties and even during the Great Depression years of the

1930s. Anti-Japanese sentiment helped the development of Little Tokyo. Housing discrimination and Japanese businesses and facilities encouraged many to live in or in

close proximity to Little Tokyo. Successful farm owners and workers and many others enjoyed visiting Little Tokyo for food, supplies, banking, socialization, and recreation.

Religion was also key, with the added construction of Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple and Koyasan Buddhist Temple. The Nisei Week Festival started in 1934, and was highly successful in attracting visitors every summer. By 1941, Little Tokyo was thriving as the focus and center for over 30,000 Japanese Americans in theLos Angeles area.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living along the west coast were sent to ten American concentration camps and several detention centers. Little Tokyo became a ghost town, but soon African Americans attracted by wartime jobs and faced by housing restrictions, turned Little Tokyo into an active, over-crowded African American community called “Bronzeville,” with noted jazz musicians.

Wartime jobs diminished, so African Americans were moving for other jobs. Japanese Americans returned from the camps and were favored by the white building owners over their African American tenants. The community transitioned back to a much smaller Little Tokyo, primarily on the four quadrant blocks centered at the intersection of First Street and San Pedro Street.

The city purchased and demolished the entire, highly developed northwest block, consisting of a quarter of Little Tokyo, to build the Parker Center police complex. The block included a hotel, department store, shops, and the Rafu Shimpo newspaper, plus many residents. Many of the Little Tokyo-related uses were lost, as not many chose to relocate within Little Tokyo. The city also took the northerly half of the northeast block and converted it into a parking structure and parking lots.

The California Alien Land Law, challenged by Issei activist Sei Fujii, was overturned by the California Supreme Court. It allowed Isseis to finally own and long-term lease land and buildings in California. Also, the McCarran-Walter Act set strict limits to Asian immigrants, but allowed Issei to finally become naturalized American citizens.

In 1959, the Little Tokyo Business Association was established as a nonprofit, with the mission to promote Little Tokyo as a vibrant community that supports its businesses and culture.

The city started buying properties with buildings on the north side of First Street for future Civic Center expansion. The concerned community organized and formed the Little Tokyo Redevelopment Association. They hired consultants to prepare a Little Tokyo master plan that was accepted, in principle, by the city. However, the north side of First Street property buildings remained on the official Civic Center Master Plan for future expansion. The city had already purchased the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple building and the congregation constructed their new temple on First Street to the east of Little Tokyo.

The Kajima Corporation, based in Japan, constructed a 15-story office building that was the tallest Japanese-built skyscraper in the continental United States. The ten-story 321 office building was constructed on Second Street for medical tenants. Merit Savings & Loan was established and constructed a four-story office building on First Street. That was the extent of new buildings constructed in Little Tokyo, as Japanese Americans had limited funds to invest.

The Little Tokyo Redevelopment Project Plan was approved by the city. It legally authorized the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to assist in the building of Little Tokyo. CRA’s main power was funding to purchase, clear, assemble, and sell properties at reduced prices to private developers, property owners, and nonprofit organizations for construction of projects benefiting the community. CRA compensated businesses and residents displaced by redevelopment actions and also subsidized many building renovations and earthquake safety upgrades.

The first project negotiated for construction was the 448-room 22-story New Otani Hotel and Weller Court shopping arcade. Property acquisition and demolition caused strenuous protests by community activists regarding using redevelopment for big Japan interests. Also, for demolishing the Sun Building that contained community and cultural organizations, senior residents, and small businesses. The hotel and arcade projects were completed. However, in response to community activists, Little Tokyo leaders urged and the CRA bought, cleared, assembled, and sold land. This resulted in the construction of the Little Tokyo Towers senior housing, Japanese Village Plaza for small businesses, and the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC). Also facilitated were construction of the new Union Church of Los Angeles and Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple on Third Street.

The Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) was founded in 1979. It provides many social welfare programs and develops affordable housing and other important projects in Little Tokyo and other parts of the City.

In the decade many important projects were constructed, including office buildings: Union Bank, Mitsui Manufacturers Bank, and Little Tokyo Professional Office; shopping centers: Honda Plaza and Yaohan Plaza; Miyako Hotel and Tokyo Villa apartments. The JACCC’s 800-seat Aratani Theatre and James Irvine Japanese Garden were also constructed. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA opened in a previous police storage building.

During this time, Japanese Americans fought for redress and reparations for their incarceration in concentration camps during World War II. It resulted in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, that provided a national apology and individual payments to surviving detainees.

A key development was the north side of First Street block being granted national historic landmark designation by the U.S. Department of Interior, as the “Little Tokyo Historic District.” It saves and protects from demolition all of the existing historic buildings on the block. Also significant was the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), first opening in the renovated former Nishi Hongwanji Temple building, and several years later, the JANM Pavilion building was constructed.