Incarceration and World War II occurred during the same time; with about 120,000 Japanese Americans evacuated from their homes, there was an enormous shortage of war-related industrial workers along the West Coast and many vacant apartments. Since laws were passed prohibiting Japanese Americans to own property, the non-Japanese landowners needed a way to attract tenants into their once Japanese-dominated apartment complexes. A meeting was held among the landowners of Little Tokyo and the initial idea was to open them up to Latin Americans, but before they began to execute their plan, a huge wave of Southern ("Bible Belt") African Americans migrated into an unsuspecting Little Tokyo. Hearing of the Japanese incarceration in the West, African Americans envisioned this move as their opportunity to not only escape the cruel Jim Crow Laws dominating the South, but also to work in the factories abandoned by Japanese Americans.
The influx of new African Americans did not occur without repercussions. Prior to World War II, Little Tokyo housed about 30,000 people; after the signing of Executive Order 9066 nearly 80,000 people (majority African American and some Latin Americans) filled up these vacancies. With nearly three-times as many people now living in the once Little Tokyo, it was plagued by overcrowding and as a result disease, more specifically communicable diseases. The once Japanese-run city morphed into a typical American urban neighborhood. Every apartment was stuffed with families and living conditions deteriorated.
Parents worked long hours and children had to rely on older siblings and social welfare to take care of them after school. Racially-based crime sky-rocketed as Los Angeles quickly became among the most diverse cities in America and as Los Angeles also became temporary stomping grounds for the many white servicemen defending the United States. Misunderstandings arose and racially-charged young adults began to feud. In the infamous Zoot Suit Riots in June 1943, African American 23 year-old Lewis W. Jackson, a young resident of Bronzeville was attacked by servicemen for wearing a zoot suit, which were wide-legged pants tightened at the ankle and a sleeved jacket down to their fingertips. During this era, zoot suits became a symbol of rebellious youths among racial minorities. Eventually, the Zoot Suit Riots led Mayor Fletcher Brown to call a unity meeting of Los Angeles.
Bronzeville, Los Angeles was a brief three-year moment in history, but was filled with incredible stories about the harms of urbanization, its powerful influence in popular and musical culture, and the aftermath of World War II in Little Tokyo. It's often a forgotten time in Los Angeles, but as Japanese Americans, we should not only remember the fight that occurred within the barbed wire fences of concentration camps or the literal battles on foreign soils, but also appreciate the non-Japanese minorities who brought their own unique cultures into Little Tokyo to influence a community that is truly Japanese American.