This collection includes materials from the five businesses that students in the Occidental College Asian Studies seminar "Japanophilia" (2009) profiled through their collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum's Discover Nikkei project.

The goal of the project was for pairs of students to visit Little Tokyo multiple times over the course of the semester. On our first visit, we took a tour of the neighborhood and met people behind the scenes at the Japanese American National Museum. On subsequent visits the pairs of students contacted business owners and interviewed them about their lives and work. They also collected documents, old pictures, and took photos of the businesses today. They then used these materials to put together the included profiles and also to write individual articles about the business owners they interviewed, all of which can be found here: Little Tokyo Community Profile Articles

Please enjoy the collection!