• Beginning in 1886, a man named Charles Kame decided to open one of the first Japanese restaurants at 340 East First Street 
• This was just the beginning of Japanese immigrants coming to Los Angeles
  
• Dozens of shops aligned the streets of First and Central, hoping to give its newly found Japanese residents a new chance and a new life in Los Angeles
• Among the ventures for Japanese immigrants living in Southern California were fishing, agriculture, wholesale produce and retailing
  
• Only until 1905 did Little Tokyo gain its name
  

• The act was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country
  
• However, those already living in Little Tokyo were not greatly affected
  
• Businesses continued to prosper and second generation of Japanese descendants began to be more involved in the business world of Los Angeles
• It was not until the attack on Pearl Harbor that Japanese citizens living in Los Angeles felt unwanted and discriminated 

• The attack on Pearl Harbor turned the world of Little Tokyo upside down
  
• Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 10, 1942
• The order lit the flames for derogatory comments from prejudice city officials and the press to the Japanese immigrants as well as the second generation children about their loyalty to the United States
• This also gave power to the United States Army to uproot almost 110,000 Japanese and place them into concentration camps around the United States
• Think back to the movie "Little Tokyo, USA" when the flower shop owner Satsuma puts up his sign "We are loyal Americans" when the hysteria broke loose

If you are interested in seeing what happened to Little Tokyo while the Japanese were not occupying it, please follow this link. Hop over to Bronzeville

• After the war ended, soldiers returning from battle went to Little Tokyo for a short while and then returned to the suburbs
• Little by little, Little Tokyo was shrinking before our very own eyes
• This became more apparent when the construction of the Parker Center destroyed housing for about 1,000 people and about 1/4 of the districts commercial building
  
• However, Many citizens living in Little Tokyo sponsored proposals to stop the reconstruction