Little Tokyo Community Profiles

April 10, 2009 - June 23, 2009

Discover Nikkei partnered with Professor Morgan Pitelka of Occidental College and his students taking the Spring 2009 seminar “Japanophilia: Orientalism, Nationalism, Transnationalism” on a meaningful community-based documentation project. The students interviewed owners of five long-time Little Tokyo businesses to create Nikkei Album collections and articles.

Stories from this series

The Aoi Restaurant: A Little Tokyo Treasure

April 28, 2009 • Robert Bonaparte

Mrs. Hiroko Yamagata and the Aoi Restaurant have a remarkable story. The Aoi Restaurant is located on historic First Street in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Founded in 1976 by Mrs. Hiroko Yamagata, Aoi Restaurant has braved the highs and lows and remained in the same location for 33 years. Now a Little Tokyo mainstay, the restaurant has always offered delicious home-style cooking and a comforting atmosphere. As a Japanese immigrant in the 1960s, Mrs. Yamagata showed incredible perseverance and bravery …

Aoi Restaurant business California communities economics food Little Tokyo Los Angeles management restaurants United States

Community Connections: Aihara Insurance’s 61-Year Commitment to Little Tokyo

April 21, 2009 • Brittany-Marie Swanson

Upon his return to Little Tokyo after World War II, veteran Luis K. Aihara found the community much changed. Though his own family had been uprooted and incarcerated in internment camps, they, and many other families of Japanese descent, flocked back to Little Tokyo where the majority of Buddhist temples and Japanese markets were located. Even after the chaos and displacement of war, Little Tokyo’s sense of community reemerged, and it was here in 1948 that Aihara founded his company, …

Aihara & Associates Insurance Services California communities finance insurance interviews Japantowns Little Tokyo Los Angeles United States

The Aihara Family

April 16, 2009 • Deborah Southern

Doug Aihara, a third generation Japanese American, considers his family to be a “J-town family.” When he lived in Boyle Heights as a child, he and his family went into Little Tokyo at least once a week to buy their groceries and enjoy the community’s company and festivities. “You couldn’t even get rice outside of Little Tokyo, except for Uncle Ben’s… but that just doesn’t hold well for sushi” says Doug. Little Tokyo was the center of Japanese culture in …

Aihara & Associates Insurance Services California communities finance insurance interviews Japantowns Little Tokyo Los Angeles United States

The Little Tokyo Café: A Family Business

April 14, 2009 • Jamal Fahim

Mitsuko Minohara is the owner of the cozy Little Tokyo Café located at 116 N. San Pedro Street in Los Angeles. Mitsuko is a second-generation Japanese American and was born in Manzanar, California, in 1943. Manzanar served as one of the ten concentration camps that contained roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Mitsuko and her family came to Los Angeles in 1946, a year after the WRA (War Relocation Authority) closed Manzanar. Mitsuko has four children: an older …

California communities food Little Tokyo Little Tokyo Café Los Angeles restaurants United States

The Little Tokyo Cafe: More Than Just Traditional Japanese

April 10, 2009 • Matthew Tsujimura

The Little Tokyo Café, originally created in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s, and its current owner Mitsuko Minohara, have been familiar to many who lived in downtown Los Angeles. Initially located at the corner of 2nd and San Pedro, the Little Tokyo Café has moved various times, but still manages to hold a special place in the hearts of the locals. Known for its combination plate, which is a mixture of two Chinese dishes, Char Siu and Shumai, this …

California communities food Little Tokyo Little Tokyo Café Los Angeles restaurants United States

Authors in This Series

Caitlin Anderson @canderson

Caitlin Anderson is graduating from Occidental College in May 2009 with a Geology major and a minor in Theater. She loves that she gets to use both her left and right brain by studying the sciences by day and singing in the Glee Clubs and school musicals by night. She has an excellent rock collection from her travels in California, Arizona, Minnesota, and Argentina, and is always looking to expand it. She plans on going to graduate school in the near future for geology or theater, but she is open to any new area of study that life may throw her way. She eventually hopes to combine her love of teaching, performing arts, and science into some incredible dream job, which perhaps has yet to be created.

Updated May 2009

Robert Bonaparte @rbonaparte

Robert Bonaparte, class of 2010, is an Asian Studies major with a Japanese emphasis at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Having studied Japanese for over eight years and just returning from a semester abroad in Tokyo, visits to Little Tokyo are an exciting way to practice his language skills. After college Robert hopes to return to Japan and teach English.

Updated April 2009

Jamal Fahim @Jamal Fahim

Jamal Fahim is a junior at Occidental College majoring in Sociology and minoring in Film and Media Studies. He is a member of the Occidental Men’s Tennis team and has been playing tennis since he was 10 years old. He grew up in San Francisco, California and his interests include movies, photography, digital design, anime, Japanese culture, improvising and acting.

Updated April 2009

Angelica Jardini @Angelica_Jardini

Angelica Jardini was born and raised in Los Angeles, and is a Junior at Occidental College, where she is majoring in Art History and the Visual Arts. She says that conducting this interview for a community-based learning project in her Japanophilia class was a fantastic experience and allowed her to learn more about the historic community of Little Tokyo, as well as enjoy delicious and traditional Japanese cuisine.

Updated June 2009

Alexander Kaplan-Reyes @Alexander_Kaplan_Reyes

Alexander Kaplan-Reyes is a sophomore at Occidental College majoring in Asian Studies with a Japan emphasis and minoring in Politics. He is also a member of the Occidental College Glee Club and an avid consumer of Japanese popular culture.

Updated May 2009

Ava Mikolavich @avam

Ava Mikolavich is currently studying Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College. After Ava graduate in the spring of 2010, she plans on starting a publication that gathers information about current sustainable technologies and social initiatives, while incorporating aspects of local art.

Updated June 2009

Guilberto Moran @gmoran

Guilberto Moran was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. He is a junior at Occidental College and is hoping to graduate in May 2010 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and the Visual Arts. After college, he would like to get into the field of Advertising or Marketing, specifically in the Creative Design department. Inspired by Japanese anime, he has been fascinated by all things Japanese since he was a child. He has studied Japanese and has visited Japan twice.

Updated June 2009

Morgan Pitelka @mpitelka

Morgan Pitelka is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Occidental College. He has published Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, and Practice (Routledge, 2003), Handmade Culture: Raku Potters, Patrons, and Tea Practitioners (University of Hawaii Press, 2005), and What's the Use of Art? Asian Visual and Material Culture in Context (University of Hawaii Press, 2007).

Updated June 2007

Deborah Southern @southern

Deborah Southern is an Asian Studies major at Occidental College, class of 2011. She is originally from Rochester, New York, but enjoys the diversity of Los Angeles. Deborah enjoys visiting Little Tokyo and eating Japanese cuisine, especially Ramen.

Updated May 2009

Brittany-Marie Swanson @bswanson

Brittany-Marie Swanson is a senior Asian Studies major at Occidental College. Her primary academic focus has been on Asian popular culture, especially concerning China and Korea. Among other things, she has written for several newspapers in the Los Angeles area.

Updated April 21, 2009

Matthew Tsujimura @Matt Tsujimura

Matthew Tsujimura was born and raised in Honolulu, HI, graduated from Punahou School, and currently attend Occidental College.

Updated May 2009