Japantown Atlas - Los Angeles - Little Tokyo (normal view)

Detailed Map: Los Angeles Little Tokyo Japanese American Businesses of 1940–Full Size

Little Tokyo

Little Tokyo was a thriving place in 1940. We think of today's Little Tokyo as extending a couple blocks along East First Street, not much farther east than JANM; and filtering south several blocks to churches and senior housing on Third Street. But today's neighborhood extends into areas that were mostly industrial in 1940, without much direct Japanese American presence. And the expanding Civic Center complex took a big bite out of the north and east edges of Little Tokyo right after WWII, and post-war industrial uses erased the storefronts extending eastward towards Boyle Heights. Today, a few outlying landmarks including Fukui Mortuary, St. Francis Xavier Church, and the new Nishi Honganji Buddhist Church mark the east edge of 1940s Little Tokyo.

We include just enough hotel and business names near East First and San Pedro Streets to get your bearings, but see the companion map "Heart of Little Tokyo" to see full business listings in the boxed area.

One hazard of mapping such a huge area is that it doesn't fit on a web page you can view and print out. This version is easier to view, but will likely be too wide for your printer. The "printable JPEG" version divides the map and rotates the files so it more or less fits on 8-1/2 inch wide paper...but is harder to view. Both versions have large JPEGs–you may prefer to download both our Little Tokyo maps as a single PDF which you can view on screen at the scale of your choice.

 

Return to Little Tokyo Intro, Little Tokyo Map (printable view), or Home.

8/15/07