This postcard shows the intersection of First St. and Central Ave. in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, in the 1930s. The building directly on the corner now houses the administrative offices of the Japanese American National Museum. To the right is the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple; built by Japanese immigrants in 1925, it was the first Buddhist temple constructed in Los Angeles. It now houses the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.

According to the Los Angeles Convention Center's Downtown Guide, "Little Tokyo originated in 1886 when Charles Kame, an ex-seaman from Japan, opened a Japanese restaurant at 340 East First Street. By the turn of the century, a small Japanese immigrant community was already established around First and San Pedro Streets in Downtown Los Angeles. The area became known as Little Tokyo after the arrival of 2000 Japanese immigrants, recruited in northern California by Henry Huntington to lay tracks for the Pacific Electric Railway in 1903. The inhabitants were later joined by thousands more from San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake."