Little Tokyo included in a list of endangered places

Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo has been included in a list of the most endangered historic places in the United States.

Each year since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation releases its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, one of the four remaining Japantowns in the U.S., was included in the 2024 list.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation explained that Little Tokyo has faced challenges since the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Currently, the trust says Little Tokyo is under threat from gentrification. Legacy businesses in the area are being pushed out due to rising rents. Other issues are also being “compounded by large-scale development and transit projects that are changing its culture and economy.”

“This year’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list shows how our collective idea of American history has expanded in recent years, along with our ideas about which places are worth saving,” Carol Quillen, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a press release. “Seventy-five years ago, widely recognized sites of national history were largely confined to the East Coast and ‘historic preservation’ was synonymous with the great architecture of our Founding Fathers.

“That foundation is still important, but today there’s more recognition that history ought to help us tell the full American story, including that of groups and places previously left at the margins. That expanded perspective is reflected throughout this year’s list, particularly in the three sites located outside of the contiguous United States.”