Little Tokyo’s founding is originally credited to a sailor named Hamanosuke Shigeta, who, in 1884, founded one of the town’s first businesses, an American-Style Café on Los Angeles Street. …show more content…
After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, racism was everywhere, making life extremely unsafe for the Japanese Americans. The United States government then uprooted and forced all Japanese into internment camps in various barren, isolated locations throughout the country. As thousands were forced to leave behind their homes, Little Tokyo was abandoned and emptied. Soon, however, African Americans took their place, looking for homes and jobs, renaming Little Tokyo as Bronzeville. Some bilingual Nisei were able to avoid being sent into the camps, but were recruited in secret for the purpose of military operations. Many of these individuals were credited with “saving countless allied lives and shortening the war by two years,” according to General Charles Willoughby. Other Nisei served in combat in Europe, contributing to the decrease in prejudice against the Japanese after the