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Little Tokyo is an ethnic Japanese enclave in downtown Los Angeles. Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, sometimes called Japantown or J-Town is the cultural center for the Japanese in southern California.
At its peak, Little Tokyo had approximately 30,000 Japanese living in the area. While a shadow of what it once was in terms of population (only about 1,000 Japanese actually live there), Little Tokyo is still the undisputed cultural focal point for Los Angeles's Japanese population (the largest in the world outside of Japan). It is mainly a work and entertainment district, because the Japanese today mainly live in Torrance and Gardena (cities just to the south of Los Angeles City).
Consisting of about four city blocks, it is bounded in the west by Broadway Street, in the east by Alameda Street, in the south by 3rd Street, and in the north by Temple Street. More broadly, Little Tokyo is bordered by the Los Angeles River to the east, downtown Los Angeles to the west, the L.A.. City Hall and Parker Center to the north, and the newly named Artist District (made up of converted live-work lofts) to the south.
Attractions
The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center is located there, as well as Japanese-American National Museum, the only museum of its kind. The extension of the Museum of Contemporary Art, formerly called the Temporary Contemporary and now known as the Geffen Contemporary (named after David Geffen), is also in Little Tokyo. The East West Players, the nation's first Asian American theater, specializes in live theater written and performed by Asian American artists. There is also the Japan America Theater, which features plays and musical performances.
The Nisei Week festival is held every August, and includes a large parade, a beauty contest, athletic events, exhibits of Japanese art and culture, a taiko drum festival and other events. The LA Tofu Festival is also held in Little Tokyo every summer.
Little Tokyo has a number of public sculptures and artwork, including a monument to Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, a Japanese-American from Hawaii who was a Mission Specialist on the Challenger when it blew up in 1986. There are also two nice Japanese gardens, one in the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center, and the other is a rooftop garden in the New Otani Hotel.
There are also several Buddhist temples in the area and a few Japanese Christian churches. One of the roots of Pentecostalism started in Little Tokyo. Where the Japanese American Community Cultural Center Plaza is now located was once the home of the First Pentecostal Church, a multiracial congregation called the Azusa Street Mission. This is where the Azusa Street Revival started in 1906. Earlier, it was also the site of the First AME Church.
There are numerous Japanese restaurants, catering to both Japanese and non-Japanese clientele. Many of them specialize in one type of Japanese cuisine, such as Donburi, Japanese noodles (both soba and udon) or Japanese curry). There are also a number of Korean barbecue restaurants where the meat is often grilled on a small grill built into the center of your table.
Little Tokyo has several shops that specialize in Japanese-language videos, and some others that specialize in Japanese electronics and video games (a great way to get video games that were never translated into English).
The Weller Court shopping mall, besides having several restaurants, also has a large bookstore, Kinokuniya, which is part of a well-known Japanese bookstore chain. they have a large selection of Japanese-language books, magazines, J-Pop music CDs, manga and anime. They also have a nice selection of English-language books on Japanese subjects, and translated manga and anime.
Weller Court also includes a number of shops specializing in expensive name brand products such as Coach handbags that target tourists visiting from Japan.
The Little Tokyo Shopping Plaza is located in roughly the center of Little Tokyo. There are several restaurants in the plaza, plus a number of shops geared towards tourists.
History
The area became a magnet for immigrating Japanese until the Exclusion Act of 1924 halted any further immigration. The internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War emptied Little Tokyo. For a brief time the area became known as Bronzeville as African Americans opened up nightclubs and restaurants. After the interment ended the Bronzeville residents moved to other areas.
In the late 1970s a redevelopment movement started as Japanese corporations expanded overseas operations and many of them set up their US headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Several new shopping plazas and hotels opened, along with branches of some major Japanese banks. There are still some of the original buildings and restaurants, especially along 1st Street.
The original Roman Catholic cathedral of Los Angeles, St. Vibiana's Cathedral, is just to the west of Little Tokyo.
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