\n Historic Japanese American community in West Los Angeles centered around Sawtelle Boulevard. An enclave for Japanese American gardeners who served the homes of the exclusive neighborhoods surrounding it before World War II, it has evolved into a center of Japanese food and culture that was designated as \"Sawtelle Japantown\" by the Los Angeles City Council in 2015.\n
\n \n\n The prewar boundaries of the Sawtelle community were Santa Monica Boulevard to the north, Sepulveda to the east, Pico to the south, and Bundy to the west. The roots of the community stem from the \"Old Soldier's Home\"—now a sprawling Veteran's Administration complex—that was established in 1888. Entrepreneurs bought land south of the facility in the 1890s, subdividing it and selling it to hospital workers, veterans and their families, and others, with a school, churches, and other trappings of community life soon following. A rail line built in 1896 connected Sawtelle to Hollywood and Beverly Hills to the east and Santa Monica to the west. By 1899, the area was known as \"Sawtelle,\" named after W. E. Sawtelle, a manager with the Pacific Land Company, which was selling lots in the area. By 1902, the\n \n Los Angeles Times\n \n referred to the area as \"the little village that has sprung up round the Soldiers’ Home.\" The City of Los Angeles annexed a 1.48 square mile portion of the neighborhood in 1922.\n \n \n [1]\n \n \n
\n\n The first Japanese immigrants likely came to the area as farmers, since the southern part of the district was largely agricultural in the early 1900s. Another draw was the Armacost Nursery at Armacost and LaGrange, which hired many Issei workers. But the biggest draw was the area's location near wealthy enclaves such as Beverly Hills, Westwood, and Bel Air. Sawtelle soon became the residential community of choice for the Japanese American landscape gardeners who tended to the homes in those areas, areas that prohibited non-whites from living in them. Recognized as a Japantown by the 1920s, there were four hundred Japanese Americans in the area by 1927, and businesses serving that community—service stations, dry goods stores, barbershops, pool halls, etc.—sprang up along Sawtelle Blvd. The Japanese Institute of Sawtelle incorporated in 1929 at 2110 Corinth Ave. and became a community gathering place, combining a Japanese language school with a social hall that hosted movies,\n \n shibai\n \n , and other events. The West Los Angeles Buddhist Church and West Los Angeles Japanese Reformed Church were founded in 1926 and the West Los Angeles Japanese Methodist Church in 1930.\n \n \n [2]\n \n \n
\n\n By the eve of war, there were over 1,000 Nikkei in Sawtelle. Sociologists Leonard Bloom and Ruth Riemer estimated that just under half of employed Japanese American men in the area just before the war were gardeners, while others estimated an even higher percentage. Among the non-gardeners were many business owners, particular those in the nursery business. Since these occupations provided a steady income, a relatively high percentage (though still a minority) of Japanese Americans owned small single family houses in the neighborhood. In addition to serving the gardeners, the Sawtelle nurseries and other businesses also drew customers among Nikkei in Santa Monica, Venice, and other nearby areas, since it was much closer than going to Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.\n \n \n [3]\n \n \n
\n\n Nisei children attended Sawtelle Boulevard School (now Nora Sterry Elementary), Emerson Junior High School, and University High School, the latter named for its proximity to the new University of California campus that would become UCLA. The neighborhood and the schools were racially diverse, and Sawtelle Nikkei tended to have closer ties to non-Nikkei than the norm. The schools were also economically diverse, which created some awkwardness. \"A lot of the classmates in Westwood at Emerson Junior High School lived in Westwood, Holmby Hills, very wealthy areas, and they were my classmates who I would also see on Saturdays while I was helping with that gardening,\" recalled Robert Fujioka. \"So it was a little awkward.\" Some Nisei recall having movie stars or their family members as classmates, including Judy Garland, Linda Darnell, and Marilyn Monroe. M. Jack Takayanagi recalled that \"the movie stars never went and actually attended class, but they did have to attend the graduation ceremony. So every year there was always one or two students who were movie stars.\" Nisei also recalled the area as \"sleepy\" and \"semi agricultural,\" especially the southern part of the district that still had dirt roads and open fields.\n \n \n [4]\n \n \n
\n\n Japanese Americans from West Los Angeles and surrounding communities such as Venice, Santa Monica, and Culver City were sent to\n \n Manzanar\n \n as part of the mass roundup and incarceration of all West Coast Nikkei. While some were among the early \"volunteers\" who went to Manzanar in late March and early April, the bulk of Sawtelle area Japanese Americans were among the 1,314 removed under\n \n Exclusion Order No. 8\n \n and who gathered at the Japanese Institute to be taken to Manzanar on April 27, 1942. Some non-Japanese American neighbors gathered there to see them off.\n \n \n [5]\n \n \n
\n\n Relatively speaking, the many gardeners in Sawtelle fared better than other Japanese Americans, given that many owned homes and were able to store their tools and equipment in their garages, while renting out their homes. In contrast, nursery owners had a particularly difficult time, given their large inventories that they had to sell off at fire sale type prices. According to the Manzanar Community Analysis Section study authored by a local Kibei, some leased their land to \"fellow Mexican workers on a share basis, and some sold them to the Caucasian nurserymen.\"\n \n \n [6]\n \n \n
\n\n Under the leadership of its new pastor, Herbert Nicholson, the Methodist Church became a storage facility \"with furniture piled almost to the ceiling.\" Nicholson became a legendary figure for making dozens of trips to Manzanar and other western camps to bring stored furniture, pets, and other belongings to incarcerated Japanese Americans. The Japanese Institute facilities were turned over to the American Red Cross. The Buddhist church building was also rented out during the war.\n \n \n [7]\n \n \n
\n\n At Manzanar, most Sawtelle people were initially assigned to Blocks 13, 14, and 16, though many moved to other blocks subsequently. As with other inmates, Sawtelle Nikkei had a variety of experiences at Manzanar, with some leaving early to areas outside the exclusion zone, some transferring to Tule Lake as part of the segregation process, and some returning to Los Angeles in 1945 after the exclusion orders were lifted.\n \n \n [8]\n \n \n
\n\n A higher percentage of Japanese Americans returned to Sawtelle after the war than to other prewar Japanese American communities in Los Angeles such as Boyle Heights or Seinan, driven by relatively higher rates of home ownership and closer ties to non-Japanese Americans among other factors. The Japanese Institute and Buddhist and Methodist church buildings all served as hostels, and there were several boardinghouses in the neighborhood. A postwar boom in demand for \"Japanese\" gardeners also drew many to Sawtelle. And the fact remained that many wealthier surrounding communities in the area still had restrictive covenants that banned Nikkei and other people of color even if they could afford to live there. A census conducted by Bloom and Ruth Riemer in December 1946 found 1,061 Japanese Americans in Sawtelle.\n \n \n [9]\n \n \n
\n\n Landscape gardening played an even larger role in the community after the war than before. Based on their December 1946 survey, Bloom and Riemer found that 76% of employed Japanese American men were gardeners, up from 57% before the war, with a higher percentage of gardeners being Nisei. Though they found that gardeners were relatively worse off before the war, their earning still \"compared favorably with those of other workers\" and demand soared with the postwar housing boom. As many as ten boarding houses sprang up to house new gardeners and others. Though it began in the 1920s, the Kobayakawa Boarding House on Sawtelle Blvd. expanded after the war to hold up to sixty tenants. Led by proprietor Riichi Ishioka who helped tenants sharpen their skills and who ran a\n \n tanomoshi\n \n (rotating credit association) to help new gardeners start businesses, Kobayakawa became known as a \"gardening college\" into the 1970s. Many gardeners became part of the Bay Cities Gardeners' Association, formed in 1958. Local gardeners refurbished the Japanese garden in nearly Stoner Park in the 1950s.\n \n \n [10]\n \n \n
\n\n Many other businesses and community organizations helped build a sense of community in the decades after the war. Many Nikkei owned businesses that directly served the gardeners, such as nurseries, lawn mower shops, and automobile (and truck) service stations and repair shops. Sawtelle chronicler Jack Fujimoto estimates that there were about 150 Nikkei businesses in the Sawtelle area after the war, running the gamut from restaurants and grocery stores to various kinds of shops to service businesses. Some of the early postwar businesses included Yamaguchi, a department store on the corner of Sawtelle and Mississippi established by Tom Toshikazu and Midori Yamaguchi in 1946; Satsuma Gift Shop, opened in 1956; Safe & Save Market, run by Bob Iwamoto; Hashimoto Nursery, founded by Masahiko and Michiko Hashimoto prior to the war; and Bob's Shell service station, owned by Bob Fujimoto. Both the Buddhist and Methodist churches expanded and/or built new facilities, the former in 1955, the latter in 1957. The West Los Angeles Buddhist Church purchased additional land in 1962 and 1970 further expanding its property. Its\n \n hanamatsuri\n \n service and obon festival became a community staple that drew thousands to the neighborhood. Japanese language schools run by the Japanese Institute and Buddhist church drew scores of reluctant Sansei students. Troop 39 Boy Scouts, judo and kendo dojos as well as such Nisei/Sansei social clubs as the Jodies, San Souci, and Atomettes were also important parts of the community. The West Los Angeles chapter of the\n \n Japanese American Citizens League\n \n had over 1,000 members at its peak and was one of the largest in the country.\n \n \n [11]\n \n \n
\n\n The area also began to see physical and demographic changes. As demand for housing grew, more apartment buildings began to be built in the 1940s north of Missouri Avenue. In the 1950s, the construction of the 405 freeway two blocks east of Sawtelle Blvd. resulted in the razing of many homes and effectively set an eastern border to the Sawtelle neighborhood. City plans to widen Sawtelle Blvd. so as to handle more traffic in the 1970s led to Sawtelle merchants banding together to successfully oppose the project. The 1960s and 1970s saw many Japanese American gardeners leave the profession as they aged, with nurseries and lawn mower shops closing or moving away. An influx of new Japanese and other Asian immigrants, some of whom took over old Japanese American businesses, also changed the character of the neighborhood. Many Japanese American families moved to larger and newer homes in neighboring communities such as Mar Vista or Culver City, while others renovated or rebuilt the old Sawtelle homes as property values rose. Office buildings and the new Sawtelle Plaza shopping center appeared where nurseries or lawn mower shops once stood.\n \n \n [12]\n \n \n
\n\n By the turn of the century, Sawtelle was beginning another transition, perhaps heralded by the arrival of Eric Nakamura's Giant Robot store in 2001 that highlighted Japanese and Asian popular culture for a Generation X audience. Old Japanese American businesses continued to close or be taken over by new owners. Even the Yamaguchi store closed in 2006, the building sold to a developer who built a retail and residential complex occupied by multiple restaurants and tea shops. Nakamura may also have coined the term \"Little Osaka\" to refer to the neighborhood. By 2015, nearly all of the old Japanese American businesses had gone as \"the tranquil small-town ambiance has... been obliterated,\" having \"evolved into an eclectic haven for hipsters and devotees of Pan-Asian food,\" according to a\n \n Los Angeles Times\n \n article.\n \n \n [13]\n \n \n
\n\n In February 2015, the Los Angeles City Council approved officially designating the neighborhood \"Sawtelle Japantown.\" Though only a handful of Japanese American businesses remain—including Hashimoto Nursery and Yamaguchi Bonsai, started in 1949—the neighborhood retains its Japanese American character through the Sawtelle Japanese Institute and the Buddhist and Methodist churches and remains a destination for enthusiasts of Japanese and Asian food.\n \n \n [14]\n \n \n
\n \n \n\n Bloom, Leonard. \"A Controlled Attitude-Tension Survey.\n \n University of California Publications in Culture and Society\n \n 1.2 (1948): 25-48.\n
\n\n ———, and Ruth Riemer.\n \n Removal and Return\n \n . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.\n
\n\n Fujimoto, Jack.\n \n Sawtelle: West Los Angeles's Japantown\n \n . Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2007.\n
\n\n \n \n Our Neighborhoods with Huell Howser: Sawtelle\n \n \n (S01E05). Hosted and produced by Huell Howser for the City of Los Angeles Office of the Mayor and Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, 2002.\n
\n\n \n \n Redefining Community: The Evolution of Sawtelle Japantown\n \n \n . Documentary film produced and directed by Randall Fujimoto. Japantown Productions/GameTrain Learning, 2019. 30 min.\n
\n\n \"\n \n Sawtelle\n \n .\" California Japantowns website.\n
\n\n \"\n \n Sawtelle District/West Los Angeles\n \n .\" Japantown Atlas website.\n
\n\n Toyota, Tritia.\n \n Intimate Strangers: Shin Issei Women and Contemporary Japanese American Community, 1980–2020\n \n Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2023.\n
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