Little Tokyo is a living Japanese American cultural district, shaped by local businesses, community institutions, wartime incarceration, and redevelopment. Its historic core is a reminder that neighborhood identity is sustained by people and organizations as much as by landmark buildings.
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On First Street, a former Buddhist temple now anchors the Japanese American National Museum campus. The 1925 building was the first Buddhist temple constructed in Los Angeles, and its continued use in a cultural setting offers a clear way to understand Little Tokyo: the neighborhood changes, but institutions carry memory forward.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- Japanese immigrants settled the district in the late nineteenth century.
- The former Nishi Hongwanji temple building dates to 1925.
- The Historic Building was designated part of a National Historic Landmark district in 1995.
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