Little Tokyo: the Japanese District of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Little Tokyo is nestled within 5 city blocks in Downtown Los Angeles. It was founded in 1884 and has endured a long and sometimes difficult legacy of Japanese American residency and culture in L.C.

Its community experienced great hardship during WWII when many Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. Today it is a thriving and fascinating area of Los Angeles to visit with exceptional cuisine, alluring art, and rich culture.

Take a stroll through The Japanese Village Plaza which is a central gathering place for tourists and has a wide variety of restaurants, Japanese-inspired clothing stores, anime shops, and Asian groceries.

Directly across the street from Japanese Village Plaza is the Japanese American National Museum. Learn more about the Japanese American experience in Los Angeles and the United States as you walk through its permanent and temporary collections.

I saw an exhibit there called Miné Okubo’s Masterpiece: The Art of Citizen 13660. She was a Japanese American artist who was interned in 1942. Her family and others were forced to leave their homes and businesses and were housed in a dingy San Bruno horse stall. They were later transferred to the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).