General historical overview of Asian & Pacific Islander
Immigration and Churches in Los Angeles:
Chinese,  Japanese, Filipino, Korean,
Vietnamese, Asian Indian and
other Asian Communities

Compiled by Clifton L. Holland

Historical Overview of Asians in Los Angeles

Less than a century after the founding of Los Angeles, Chinatown was a thriving community adjacent to the downtown railroad depot. Thousands of Chinese came to northern California in the 1850s, initially to join the Gold Rush and then taking construction jobs with the railroads. They began moving south as the transcontinental railroad linked Los Angeles with the rest of the nation.

Later, Chinese workers who helped to build the aqueduct to the Owens River and worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley spent their winters in a segregated ethnic enclave in Los Angeles.  In 1871, eleven years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a violent anti-Chinese demonstration swept through Los Angeles' Chinatown killing Chinese residents and plundering their dry good stores, laundries and restaurants.

The labor vacuum created by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was filled by Japanese workers and, by 1910, the settlement now known as "Little Tokyo" had risen next to Chinatown.  By the eve of World War I, many Japanese farm laborers had saved sufficient funds to purchase or lease vegetable and fruit farming lands in such outlying areas as Gardena, Beverly Hills and San Gabriel.

During the years between the two world wars, Los Angeles' Asian American community also included small clusters of Korean Americans and Filipinos, the latter filling the void which followed the exclusion of the Japanese in 1924.

Following the surprise attack by Japanese Military Forces on the U.S. Military Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941, the United States government authorized the evacuation and incarceration in concentration camps of all Japanese living in California irrespective of citizenship.  The Japanese in Southern California were to report to temporary barracks located at the Santa Anita race track in Arcadia, just east of Pasadena.  Nearly 20,000 of the state's 93,000 Japanese Americans were confined in these quarters before being taken farther inland to internment camps in the Central Valley of California.

Since World War II, immigration from Asia and the Pacific has increased dramatically.   The influx of immigrants from the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia has led to the development of identifiable enclaves such as Koreatown in the central city, a Cambodian community in Long Beach, Samoans in Compton, Hawaiian Gardens and Wilmington, a Thai neighborhood in Hollywood, Vietnamese in the adjactent communities of Westminster (Los Angeles County) and Garden Grove ("Little Saigon") in Orange County, Chinese in Monterey Park and nearby parts of the San Gabriel Valley, and Japanese in Gardena and other parts of Los Angeles County.

Asian-Americans are now (2000 Census and post-census results) the third largest racial-ethnic group in Los Angeles County, with Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites being first and second, respectively.

SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Los_Angeles,_California#Native_Americans_in_the_Los_Angeles_area

The Chinese Community

There are now several flourishing satellite Chinese communities in the Greater Los Angeles Area that are not officially classified as "Chinatowns", but are well known, such as Monterey Park, where over 60 percent of the population is Asian American, and San Gabriel (where the Asian population is approaching 50 percent).

Old Chinatown in Los Angeles

Between 1852 (when the first Chinese immigrants were reported to be in Los Angeles) and 1890 a distinct community of over 3,000 Chinese people flourished. This original Chinatown was located between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street, stretching eastward across Alameda Street.

In 1871, 19 Chinese men and boys were murdered by a mob of 500 locals in one of the most serious incidents of racial violence that has ever occurred in America's West.  This incident became known as "Chinese Massacre of 1871".

Reaching its heyday from 1890 to 1910, Chinatown grew to approximately 15 streets and alleys containing 200 buildings.  It was large enough to boast a Chinese Opera theatre, three temples, its own newspaper, and a telephone exchange.  But laws prohibiting most Chinese from citizenship and property ownership, and Exclusion Acts curtailing immigration, inhibited future growth for the district.

From the early 1910s Chinatown began to decline. Symptoms of a corrupt Los Angeles discolored the public's view of Chinatown; gambling houses, opium dens, and a fierce tong warfare severely reduced business in the area.  As tenants and lessees rather than outright owners, the residents of Old Chinatown were threatened with impending redevelopment and as a result the owners neglected upkeep on their buildings.  Eventually, the entire area was sold and resold, as entrepreneurs and town developers fought over usage of the area. After 30 years of continual decay, a Supreme Court ruling approved condemnation of the entire area to allow for the construction of the new major rail terminal, Union Station.

Seven years passed before an acceptable relocation proposal was put into place, situating Chinatown in its present day location.  During that long hiatus, the entire area of Old Chinatown was demolished, leaving many businesses without a location, and forcing some of them to close permanently.  Nonetheless, it is not commonly known that a remnant of Old Chinatown persisted into the early 1950s, situated between Union Station and the Old Plaza.  A narrow, one-block street known as Ferguson Alley ran between the Plaza and Alameda, and was the location of a Buddhist temple and several businesses.

In the late 1950s the covenants on the use and ownership of property were removed, allowing Chinese Americans to live in other neighborhoods and gain access to new types of employment.

The New Chinatown

In the 1930s, under the efforts of Chinese American community leader Peter Soo Hoo, the design and operational concepts for a New Chinatown evolved through the collective community process, resulting in a blend of both Chinese and American architecture.   The Los Angeles Chinatown saw major development, especially as a tourist attraction, throughout the 1930s with the development of the "Central Plaza]", a Hollywoodized version of Shanghai, containing names such as Bamboo Lane, Gin Ling Way and Chung King Road (named after the city of Chongqing in mainland China).  Chinatown was designed by Hollywood film set designers and a "Chinese" movie prop was subsequently donated by the legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille to give Chinatown an exotic atmosphere.  Today, this section of Chinatown is less frequented by ethnic Chinese residents and dayshoppers, though it is where several benevolent associations are located. Chinatown expanded beyond the area and is now bounded by Olvera Street and Dodger Stadium.

While Chinatown generally does not have the activity of Chinatown, San Francisco—still regarded as the largest and most historic Chinatown in North America because of the huge Chinese population in that city—it still attracts visitors throughout the Los Angeles area and throughout the world.  However, there are many businesses in Chinatown that generally cater mainly to the local community rather than the tourism economy.

Many of the older buildings built in the 1930s and 1940s in the northeast corner of New Chinatown (near the Pasadena Freeway) were previously abandoned.  As part of gentrification movement, they are now primarily used as art galleries by artists. It has also been turned into a center of nightlife.

There is relatively little social interaction between these artists and business owners and the Chinatown Chinese-speaking residents. Many elderly residents usually lounge in the court of Central Plaza.  The historic Hop Sing Tong Society is located in Central Plaza, as are several other Chinatown lodges and guilds.

New Chinatown is served by the Gold Line of the city's Metro Rail; parts of Old Chinatown were uncovered during excavation for another portion of the L.A. subway (the Red Line connection to Union Station). The Metro Rail station in Chinatown has been designed with modernized traditional Chinese architecture.

Chinatown's residential areas are on the hills northwest of Alpine Park, with a public elementary school, library, Chinese school, hospital, churches, and other businesses.  In the mornings at Alpine Recreation Center, many Chinese-speaking old-timers practice the relaxing martial arts tai chi, a scene common in many Chinatowns.

Modern Location of Los Angeles' Chinatown

The main streets running through the new Chinatown are Broadway, Spring Street and Hill Street. Chinatown is located directly north of downtown Los Angeles, between Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles Civic Center. The Broadway side of Chinatown is usually packed with a myriad of tourists, with a lot of Chinese restaurants and merchants.

Chinatown is somewhat segregated between Chinese ethnic groups in some respects.   College Street, running in a northwest-southeast direction, provides a rough boundary between the older (post-1930s and 1940s) and newer businesses (post-1980s).   Many businesses belonging to the original American-born Chinese families (Taishanese and Cantonese Chinese) are in the northwest area.  Also due to the stylized exotic atmosphere, this section of Chinatown is very popular for on-site movie filming, such as "Rush Hour" with Jackie Chan.  In the southwest, according to an estimate in the Los Angeles Times, nearly 90% of businesses are owned by first-generation Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees of Chinese origin.

New ethnic Chinese immigrants

As in most other Chinatowns in the United States, Taishanese (or Toisan)–a subdialect of Cantonese–was the dominant Chinese dialect of the Los Angeles Chinatown until the 1970s. In post-Vietnam War 1970s, some members of the Los Angeles lodge of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association headed to the Vietnamese refugee settlements in Camp Pendelton to talk and entice several refugees - especially ethnic Chinese from Vietnam - into settling into the once-diminishing Chinatown by sponsoring them. Thus, during the 1980s, Cantonese and especially Teochew (Pinyin: Chaozhou, Vietnamese: Trieu Chau) Chinese became more widely spoken as Chinatown experienced a rise in Vietnamese and Cambodians and Thais.  While Cantonese is still predominant and remains the lingua franca of Chinatown, the use of Taishanese has diminished in Los Angeles and its usage is more common among elderly Chinese within the area.

With the boom of de facto suburban Chinese communities in the eastern part of the Los Angeles area, there have been very few immigrants from the Republic of China - especially those with high socioeconomic status - to the downtown Chinatown. Mandarin is only used in some contexts in Chinatown and is not widely spoken there.

The arrival of new immigrants from Southeast Asia and Mainland China to Los Angeles Chinatown gave rise to new associations such as the Southern California Teo Chew Association (serving the Teochew speakers), the Cambodia Ethnic Chinese Association (catering to Chinese Cambodian residents), and the Southern California Fukienese Association and the Foo Chow Natives Benevolent Association (both serving immigrants from the Fujian province of Mainland China).

Many Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants in the downtown Chinatown run small curiosity shops and bazaars in the shopping plazas such as Saigon Plaza and Dynasty Center—both built in the 1980s—south of Broadway.  Today these immigrants and their families own nearly 90 percent of Chinatown's businesses.  Most old-time and dying Chinese American (those of Taishanese and Cantonese descent) businesses are located in the old Chinatown Plaza.

SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Los_Angeles

* * *

Exerpts from Edward Drewry Jervey, The History of Methodism in Southern California and Arizona.  Nashville, TN:  Parthenon Press for the Historical Society of the Southern California-Arizona Conference, 1960, pages 85-86.   (California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North) 

The Chinese had first been brought to America in large numbers to help build the transcontinental railroad.  Through the efforts of the Rev. Otis Gibson of the California Conference [of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North], Christian service came to these people.  [Otis] was instrumental in establishing a school for them.  In 1870, he saw the dedication of a Chinese [Methodist] Church in San Francisco.   Tremendous racial prejudice prevented any significant advance for some years beyond this small beginning.

In 1887 evangelism among the Chinese began in Southern California when the members of the Los Angeles First [Methodist] Church organized a Chinese mission, which for the most part served as a Sunday School.  The progress was slow but rewarding.  Six years later, seventy-five Chinses were enrolled with an average attendance of forty-five.  A fine distinction came to the First [Methodist] Church at this time.  It licensed the first Chinese local preacher in the United States, Chan Kin Lung, who later became the pastor of the local Chinese Methodist Church.   As the Chinese population continue to grow, the Southern California Conference attempted several times to get aid from the General Board, which, however, was more disposed to help other groups.  Pasadena and San Diego Methodists sponsored Chinese missions as had [Methodists in] Los Angeles, and others were opened later in Mexicali and Phoenix.  

In 1904, the Pacific Chinese Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church [North] was organized to try to give the units more stability.  Thorough and effective work was continually blocked by racial prejudice.  Moreover, the Old World ties of the overwhelming majority of Chinese made evangelism most difficult.

* * *

Excerpt from Our heritage and our hope:  the history of First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, California, 1874-1974, by Herbert L. Sutton.

By 1894 there were a score of Chinese who were members of First Baptist [Church of Los Angeles], brought into the fold through the Chinese Mission which the Church sponsored, beginning in the Dorsey era.  The Mission was located at 608 North Main Street and was under the leadership of Emma Fitch, who had been employed as City Missionary to fill the vacancy when A. W. Rider left to become Pastor at Memorial.

Many Chinese laborers had come to Southern California after the building of the railways.  By 1880 there were 20,000 Chinese in Southern California — a sizeable part of the population.  They ran laundries, worked as domestics, and produced and distributed nearly all of the vegetables for Los Angeles. T hey also developed the fishing industry and were the first laborers in the citrus groves.

Their treatment by the citizenry was deplorable.  Historian Carey McWilliams reports, "Youngsters were given free license to stone the Chinese, upset their vegetable carts and laundry wagons, and to pull their Queues for good measure."  Beginning at the time of the Panic of 1873, the Chinese were blamed for unemployment, depressed wages and bad business conditions.  The political agitators who headed the Working-men's Party in California were responsible for this ever-increasing antipathy and they tried various ways to discourage both Chinese activity and immigration.  One of their pamphlets read,

"The Chinaman must leave the State of California.  The white freeman with his wife and children cannot live in the same atmosphere as the Coolie slave.   One or the other must leave the State and it must be the Chinaman."

It is much to the credit of the Church at that time that their spirit of Christian brotherhood kept them from heeding the rabble-rousers, even though such an attitude was very unpopular.  First Baptist also sponsored a resolution adopted by the Southern California Baptist State Convention:

"Resolved, that as a Convention of Baptists we enter our decided and emphatic protest against the recent act of the House of Representatives in passing the Geary Chinese Restriction Bill, by which nearly all Chinamen are forever prohibited from landing upon our shores, or gaining a livelihood in the United States."

The resolution went on to denounce the Bill as "unamerican, unchristian and outrageous."  As a matter of political expediency however, Congress passed the Bill and it became law.

SOURCE:  http://genealogytrails.com/cal/la/firstbaptistchurchhistory.html

* * *

In 1997, the IDEA DATABASE for the Los Angeles 5-County Region contained the following 211 Chinese churches, sorted by city:

Note:  The religious Traditions and Classification Codes (CLASCODES) used in this table are explained in A Classification System of Religious Groups in the Americas by Major Traditions and Family Types (created by Clifton L. Holland of IDEA-PROLADES Ministries, latest version 2007). 

The Japanese Community

The first Japanese American community organization of record in the United States was the Gospel Society or Fukuin Kai, established in October 1877 in San Francisco.  The Gospel Society offered English classes, operated a boarding house, and provided a place for Japanese to meet. With the influence of White Christians, the religious orientation of the society developed.  Out of this organization eventually came the Japanese Christian churches, some of which were established in the 1890s.

The issei established three types of organizations in the communities they settled:   churches, political/social organizations called by various names, and Japanese-language schools.  Churches, whether Christian, Buddhist, or Shinto, were the focus of activity for most Japanese communities, and often were the earliest organizations to be established. Subsequently, churches expanded beyond religious services as women's organizations (fujinkai) became active, and youth groups were established with the advent of children. The churches provided both religious sustenance and a social life. It is estimated that before World War II, 85 percent of Japanese were Buddhist. Possibly the sole Japanese American community with only a Christian church was Livingston (Yamato Colony).  During the World War II internment, churches served as storage centers for personal property left behind by Japanese Americans, and as hostels for returning evacuees.  The churches themselves organized into umbrella groups such as the Buddhist Churches of America, the Japanese Evangelical Mission Society, the Holiness Conference, and the Northern and Southern California Christian Church Federation.  Most of the original congregations still exist today.

SOURCE:  http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views4c.htm

* * *

Most Japanese immigrants entered the United States through San Francisco.  Other ports-of-entry were Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. As a result, the first large settlement of Japanese in California was in San Francisco. U.S. Census figures trace the movement and settlement of Japanese over the years.

In 1890, 590 Japanese were in San Francisco, with 184 in Alameda County and 51 in Sacramento County. A scattering of residents appeared throughout California, with the smallest number in the Southern California area.  Little is known about these early Japanese immigrants. Speculation is that they worked for the railroad, were laborers, or performed miscellaneous tasks, such as chopping wood or domestic service. By 1890, the move into agricultural work had begun in the Vacaville area, Solano County.   By then a Japanese had been buried in the Visalia Public Cemetery in Tulare County, and labor contractors were beginning to gather new immigrants to work in a number of industries such as the railroads, oil fields, and agriculture.

By 1900, the same Northern California counties still had the largest numbers of Japanese, but the population had increased tremendously with movement into other parts of the state. San Francisco had 1,781 Japanese, Sacramento County 1,209, and Alameda County 1,149. In addition, Monterey County had 710, Fresno County 598, San Joaquin County 313, Santa Clara County 284, Contra Costa County 276, and Santa Cruz County 235.   Agricultural work drew immigrants to what were then rural areas.  In many communities, nihonmachi (Japanese sections of town) were developed, with establishment of small businesses catering to the needs of immigrants.

By 1900, Southern California had a Japanese population of approximately 500, with the largest concentration in Los Angeles County.  But already the immigrants had begun efforts to establish themselves. Ulysses Shinsei Kaneko, for example, became one of the first Japanese naturalized in California, in San Bernardino County in 1896.  Businesses in towns and cities had been in operation for almost a decade.   Buddhist churches and Japanese Christian churches had been established earlier.   Japanese had purchased property, and a few nisei children had been born.

City trades included domestic service and businesses catering to other Japanese — boarding houses, restaurants, barbershops, bathhouses, gambling houses, and pool halls.   Labor contractors drew immigrants away from the cities to work for the railroads, canneries, and farms. Japanese laborers were an important element in California agriculture by the turn of the century.

Other immigrants initiated their own enterprises and industries.  Some of these included industries the Chinese had pioneered earlier. Fishing and abalone industries developed at White Point and Santa Monica Canyon in Los Angeles County, and at Point Lobos in Monterey County.  Kinji Ushijima, also known as George Shima, continued the reclamation work begun by Chinese in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.  Shima eventually reclaimed more than 100,000 acres of land with the help of many laborers.   The land now grows potatoes, asparagus, onions, and other produce.

Between 1900 and 1910, Japanese began to buy property and establish farms, vineyards, and orchards.  All-Japanese communities developed in agricultural areas in central California, including Florin in Sacramento County (which the Japanese called Taishoku), Bowles in Fresno County, and the Yamato Colony at Livingston in Merced County.

By 1910, a distinct change had occurred in the California Japanese population, which then numbered 41,356.  A move to the southern part of the state began, and the number of women in the community steadily increased.  By the late 1920s, females constituted one-third of the Japanese population.  Los Angeles County became the most populous Japanese settlement, with 8,461, and has remained so to this day. A major stimulus for the move south was the rapid expansion of the Los Angeles area during the Southern California boom period. Many Japanese also migrated to Los Angeles in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

San Francisco remained the second most populous, however, with 4,518 Japanese.   Next came Sacramento County with 3,874, Alameda County with 3,266, Santa Clara County with 2,299, and Fresno County with 2,233.  Other counties having more than 1,000 Japanese included Contra Costa, Monterey, and San Joaquin.  The large increases in the population were a reflection of unrestricted immigration of male laborers until 1908, entrance of Japanese women into the United States, and the resultant in crease in the birth of children.  Numerous nihonmachi had been established in California, ranging from Selma's one block of businesses catering to Japanese in Fresno County, to whole sections of town in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose.

The Japanese population of Los Angeles County more than doubled by 1920, increasing to 19,911, more than three times as many as the next most populous county, Sacramento, with 5,800.  California's total Japanese population numbered 71,952. Fresno County had 5,732, San Francisco 5,358, and Alameda 5,221. San Joaquin County increased its population of Japanese to 4,354. Other counties with Japanese populations of more than 1,000 included Monterey, Orange, Placer, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Tulare. This population increase was due almost to tally to the immigration of women and the birth of children. By this time, the economic basis of the Japanese community had been firmly established in agriculture and its offshoots — wholesaling, retailing, distributing. The Japanese organized their produce and flower industries vertically, resulting in a system in which all operations were owned and operated by Japanese, from raising the plants to retail sales.  This resulted in organizations such as the Southern California Flower Market in Los Angeles, the California Flower Market in San Francisco, Lucky Produce in Sacramento, and the City Market in Los Angeles.  Cooperatives like Naturipe in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, were organized to improve the growing, packing, and marketing of crops produced by Japanese farmers.

Small businesses were numerous at this time.  Many of the "city trades" were directly tied to rural occupations, particularly agricultural labor. Businesses such as boarding houses, hotels, restaurants, barber shops, and gambling houses were dependent on the constant traffic of single male laborers who traveled a circuit in California from one crop to the next, from the Imperial Valley to the Sacramento Valley. The Miyajima Hotel, a boarding house in Lodi, San Joaquin County, was one such business catering to agricultural laborers. Other city businesses were also oriented toward farming interests. For example, a number of Japanese entrepreneurs operating general merchandise stores had regular routes to the surrounding countryside, taking orders and making deliveries for food and other sup plies. Kamikawa Brothers in Fresno and Tsuda's in Auburn provided this service.

During the decade of 1910-20, Japanese farmers became important producers and growers of crops:  truck farming along the coast, in the Central Valley, and in Southern California; grapes and tree fruit in the Central Valley and Southern California; strawberries in a number of different locations; and rice in Northern California. Japanese were very much involved in experimenting with different strains of rice at the Biggs Rice Experiment Station in Butte County where Kenju Ikuta demonstrated that rice could be produced commercially. In addition, a large number of other Japanese were engaged in farming, distributing, and retailing of rice during this period. In later decades, Keisaburo Koda, known among the Japanese as the "rice king," established a ranch near Dos Palos in Merced County, where he produced new strains of rice.

The 1930 census shows that Los Angeles County still had the most Japanese, almost doubling its population, to 35,390.  California's Japanese population numbered 97,456.  Los Angeles had more than four times as many Japanese as did the second county, Sacramento, which had 8,114.  Close in number were San Francisco with 6,250, Alameda with 5,715, Fresno with 5,280, San Joaquin with 4,339, and Santa Clara with 4,320. Again, the increase can be attributed to immigration of Japanese women as well as the birth of children. Because immigration was totally curtailed in 1924, however, the birth of children probably was the more important reason, numerically speaking. Another source for population increases was migration from other parts of the country.   Some Japanese residents of Seattle, Washington, for example, moved to Los Angeles County during the 1930s because of increased economic opportunities during a period of nationwide depression.

This period, however, was a time of growth for most nihonmachi throughout California.   Almost every agricultural area with a population of Japanese residents had a flourishing Japanese section of town.  Cooperatives established in previous years were functioning at their peak.  Nisei children were in schools and beginning to enter the labor market. This subtle change can be noted in such things as Japanese-language newspapers adding English sections to their publications, and Japanese church youth organizations being organized.

The 1940 census shows little change from the 1930 figures. During this decade, the Japanese population of California decreased from 97,456 to 93,717, although a few counties like Los Angeles continued to increase.  During the years 1942-45, Japanese Americans were incarcerated in 10 fenced and guarded concentration camps.   Two of these camps were located in California:  Manzanar in Inyo County and Tule Lake in Modoc County. The camp at Tule Lake did not close until March 1946. Encouraged by the War Relocation Authority to resettle in the East and Midwest, approximately one-third of the internees chose this alternative. Some never returned to the West Coast.

Those who did return had to rebuild lives that had been dramatically altered by the concentration camp experience. In some communities, one-third or more of the Japanese population did not return.  Moreover, some nihonmachi did not survive.   Non-Japanese businesses and residents had moved into sections of town previously occupied by Japanese Americans.  The war was also a turning point in generational control of businesses, churches, and community politics, as the adult children of immigrants began to dominate in all spheres of Japanese activities.

The Japanese population of California decreased to 84,956, according to the 1950 census.  Los Angeles County had the largest population, with 36,761. San Francisco, Alameda, Fresno, Sacramento, and Santa Clara counties each had 4,000-6,000 Japanese residents. This period was one of intensive efforts to re-establish Japanese American communities. After serving as hostels for returning internees, churches re-instituted their usual activities and services. The struggle for economic survival began anew. Those nihonmachi able to be rebuilt were again the centers of the Japanese American community, but were less oriented to the immigrant generation. For example, during the 1930s, landscape gardening emerged as an occupation. It gained in importance after World War II as the numbers of nisei working as gardeners increased.

The decade 1950-60 saw almost a doubling of the Japanese population in California, to 157,317.  Los Angeles County again led the state with 77,314, more than seven times the number in Santa Clara County, which had 10,432 Japanese residents. This large increase is generally attributed to the birth of sansei, the third generation of Japanese. A secondary but far less important reason numerically was the gradual return to the West Coast of individuals who had resettled to other areas during the World War II internment. A minor increase may also be attributed to Japanese women immigrating from Asia as wives of U.S. servicemen.

The birth of children resulted in a resurgence of activities in churches, Japanese-language schools, and athletic leagues.  The Japanese population had made the transition from a rural to an urban population with the economic base less oriented to agriculture, although this was still important.  In urban areas, Japanese women frequently worked in secretarial-clerical positions, while men obtained jobs in technical professional areas.  This pattern generally holds true today, although with sansei children in their adult years now, there is increasing technical and professional training, and occupations of greater diversity for both males and females.

SOURCE:  http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views4b.htm

* * *

Little Tokyo is an ethnic Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles, one of three official Japantowns left in the United States. Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, sometimes called Lil' Tokyo, J-Town, or Sho-tokyo (Japanese), is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California.

At its peak, Little Tokyo had approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in the area.  While a shadow of what it once was in terms of population (only about 1,000 mostly elderly residents actually live there now), Little Tokyo is still the undisputed cultural focal point for Los Angeles's Japanese American population.  It is mainly a work and entertainment district, because Japanese Americans today are likely to live in cities such as Torrance and Gardena, located just south of Los Angeles.

What is left of the original Little Tokyo can be found in roughly four large city blocks. It is bounded on the west by Los Angeles Street, on the east by Alameda Street, on the south by 3rd Street, and on the north by First Street and the Los Angeles Civic Center.   More broadly, Little Tokyo is bordered by the Los Angeles River to the east, downtown Los Angeles to the west, L.A. City Hall and the Parker Center to the north, and the newly named Artist District (made up of warehouses converted into live-work lofts) to the south.

SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Tokyo,_Los_Angeles,_California

* * *

The Japanese Community on Terminal Island, San Pedro

In an extreme instance, the historical memories of one Japanese community were lost in its entirety. What had happened in Terminal Island, a fishing community near San Pedro, California, is the case in point. It was their misfortune that this community of fishermen who cruised and fished in the coastal waters for their livelihood happened to be located adjacent to naval facilities. Authorities kept their watchful eyes on the activities of these Japanese fishermen in the late 1930s. And, soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, Issei fishermen together with community leaders were taken into custody as suspected enemy aliens. Some families began to move out of Terminal Island voluntarily. Then, the Navy suddenly issued an order on February 25, 1942 demanding that the still remaining two hundred families be removed from Terminal Island by the night of the 27th, only three days later. The forced evacuation of the Japanese residents from Terminal Island, therefore, began five days before Executive Order 9066 went into effect. As most of the adult men had already been detained, women and children had to try to comply with the order in panic. They were forced to sell their families' belongings for a few dollars to wicked dealers who flocked to prey on these unfortunate victims. Whatever they could not get rid of, they dumped into the bay. Reportedly, sunken to the bottom of the bay were books, personal records, photographs and newspaper files.

According to Nanka-sh Nihonjin Shichij-nen Shi [characters] [Japanese in Southern California: A History of 70 Years], Terminal Island was a rapidly growing center of the Japanese fishing industry on the West Coast. A fishermen's association was established in 1915 with a membership of 268 and 152 fishing vessels.    In 1930, Issei and their Nisei children, a total of about 3000, were living in this community.  In 1940, there were 5 medical clinics, 2 drug stores, 21 stores, 14 restaurants, 5 tailors, 2 photographers, 5 barbers, three Japanese language schools, a Japanese language press, a Baptist Church, a Tenriky temple, and a Shint shrine. Nearly all of the 600 pupils who were attending the Terminal Island Public School were Nisei children in that year. Most of the Issei men worked as fishermen, or were employed in the fishing industry; most of the Issei women worked in canneries.

Today, researchers can learn very little about this interesting Japanese fishing community in Southern California. The former residents of Terminal Island could not return to the community after the war, as their community became part of the expanded naval facilities, a restricted area.  The returned evacuees from this community, therefore, were scattered throughout Southern California and had to seek new places of residence and employment.  Few of the historiographical materials are known to have been saved.  For example, the publisher's file of the Minami Engan Jih [characters] [The Southern Coast Herald], a weekly newspaper published in Japanese on Terminal Island, continuously since 1927 until the outbreak of the Pacific War, was lost. Nor are there any materials which can inform researchers about the experiences of fishermen and cannery workers, the working conditions at canneries, or daily lives in this community.  Even when a former resident of Terminal Island is fortunate enough to be located, one has to listen to a sad story that everything is at the bottom of the bay.

SOURCE:  http://content.cdlib.org/view;jsessionid=KrHx2gjfbr8nrK9T?docId=kt109nb6gk&chunk.id=bioghist-1.8.7

* * *

Exerpts from Edward Drewry Jervey, The History of Methodism in Southern California and Arizona.  Nashville, TN:  Parthenon Press for the Historical Society of the Southern California-Arizona Conference, 1960, page 86.

Christian activity among California Japanese started in San Francisco.  In 1877, three young Japanese presented themselves for membership at the Howard Street [Methodist] Church.  The following year a Gospel Society was organized and by 1886 the Japanese work in California and Hawaii had become a district of the California Conference [of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North]. 

Evangelism in southern California began very slow.  Racial prejudice made the task difficult.  Buddhism also attracted large numbers of Japanese people.  In 1900 the Japanese program on the Pacific Coast was organized into a Mission Conference.   By 1910 there were Japanese missions in Oxnard and Santa Clara, where Japanese were employed in agricultural labor.  A residence for working girls in Los Angeles, the Jane Couch Memorial Home, was operated by the [Japanese] Mission Conference with the help of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Southern California Conference.  By 1937 there were eleven Japanese charges [churches and missions] within the bounds of the Southern California Conference, all small.  The same forces which early in the century had made work difficult were still present.  In Los Angeles County, where 35,000 Japanese lived, there were only three [Japanese] Methodist churches [in 1937].

* * *

The Japanese Union Church of Los Angeles was established February 7, 1918 through the merger of three congregations, the Los Angeles Presbyterian Church (Japanese, est. 1905), the Los Angeles Congregational Church (Japanese, est. 1908), and the Japanese Bethlehem Congregational Church of Los Angeles (est. by 1911).  By combining resources, it was hoped that a larger church with expanded programs could be created to better serve the community.  Rev. Giichi Tanaka was appointed as the first pastor of the church.

* * *

"Bunji and Toshi Kida:  Quaker Missionaries to the Japanese in California"
by Stephen Ward Angell, Earlham College

Under Quaker auspices, Bunji and Toshi Kida helped to found several churches for Japanese-Americans in the period from 1907 to 1917, including a Friends mission in Los Angeles that was eventually absorbed into the Los Angeles Holiness Church.   The Kidas' role in the Christianization of Japanese Americans, however, has been overlooked by scholars.  Arriving in the U.S. in 1907, Bunji Kida became the Japanese Evangelist for the California Yearly Meeting of Friends.  His theology blended together concerns of holiness and Social Gospel Christians.   In 1912, the Kidas opened a Friends mission in Los Angeles, but because of difficulties arising from this, Bunji Kida lost his position as Japanese Evangelist in the Yearly Meeting in 1913.