An archival photograph depicts LA's Little Tokyo neighborhood in 1942, which was when Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Excutive Order No. 9066 in February 1942, which explained that these relocations were necessary because "the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities." Because of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks, the Japanese were named the enemy. Following the evacuations of Little Tokyo in 1942, the area was populated by African Americans who called the neighborhood Bronzeville. Much of the redevelopment of Little Tokyo as we now know it began in the 1970s and 1980s.

Photo (of an archival photos) by Henrietta Stackpole via Flickr