Little Tokyo named one of America’s most ‘endangered’ historic places
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named Little Tokyo to its 2024 Most Endangered Historic Places list.
The list is assembled every year to spotlight American landmarks and historic sites, in hopes of bringing attention to efforts to protect them from being lost to the annals of history.
More than 350 sites have received the designation since the nonprofit began its list in 1988. It says only a handful of those places have been lost in the 37 years since the campaign began.
This year’s list features 11 places in and beyond the continental U.S. that the National Trust says help tell the “full American story.”
“The National Trust for Historic Preservation shines a long-overdue spotlight on generations of trailblazers by saving the places where they raised their voices, took their stands, and found the courage to change the world,” the nonprofit organization’s website reads. “It’s a story that does justice to the contributions of women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and all Americans in shaping our nation and leading us forward.”
The National Trust says the 2024 list of endangered places have a common theme of communities coming together to protect their cultural landmarks, local business and preserve their customs and traditions.
Los Angeles’ own Little Tokyo, one of only four surviving “Japantowns” in the U.S., is among the 11 landmarks and neighborhoods that the National Trust has recognized as an “endangered” place.
The enclave was established in 1884 and has bloomed into a cultural landmark for Japanese Americans, expats and immigrants. It’s now home to more than 400 small businesses, authentic restaurants and shops, including dozens that have operated for decades.
But Little Tokyo has endured many challenges and adversities since its founding, including the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
It survived demolition plans for the construction of municipal buildings and experienced an “urban renewal,” but has remained an important cultural hub for the Japanese American community thanks to community efforts to preserve it. Those efforts reached a head in the 1990s when the community banded together to have part of Little Tokyo’s main commercial corridor designated a National Historic Landmark.
But the National Trust says development from downtown Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods have encroached on the community in the decades since World War II and current residents face gentrification, rising rents and displacement of longtime businesses.
“Little Tokyo and its multigenerational restaurants, businesses, and cultural institutions are a
distinctive part of Los Angeles’s history and character,” said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “We hope that by bringing attention to displacement and gentrification occurring in the neighborhood, Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo can get the support and policy protections needed so that the community can thrive long into the future.”
Several local organizations within Little Tokyo have come together to advocate for more say in the future of the neighborhood and how to protect its history and culture while continuing to move forward as a community.
“It is particularly meaningful for Little Tokyo to receive this designation this year, while we commemorate 140 years of Little Tokyo,” said Kristin Fukushima, Managing Director of the Little Tokyo Community Council. “Together, they serve as a testament to generations of community working towards the preservation of this historic community, as well as the ongoing fight for Little Tokyo’s future. “
For more information about Little Tokyo, as well as the other ten places to receive the National Trust designation, click here.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
