You’ve probably seen this photo. It’s been mis-captioned as something after Pearl Harbor, or simply as a photo from California. It’s from the 1920s. The specifics are still not clear to me, but it’s related to the Hollywood Protective Association, a racist organization opposed to Japanese living in Hollywood.

Larry Harnisch, a writer retired from the Los Angeles Times, has a great blog post about it.

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood’s Deep Roots of Anti-Japanese Bias

The property in the article, 1433 Tamarind, looks like it’s in good repair, and still the original form, more or less. It’s eligible for historic preservation.

https://historicplacesla.lacity.org/report/689c3a46-6bd9-41de-b041-7d9be989d5d7

Boarding Houses

Mentioned in the article are the many boarding houses in the area. Here’s a story about the last of the boarding houses:

https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/ozawa-boarding-house-obayashi-employment-agency-and-joyce-boarding-house-ozawa-residence

Aiso

Also mentioned is Frank Tokichi Aiso, who was father to John Aiso, a judge who has a street named for him, in Little Tokyo (it’s the northern end of San Pedro St.) Here’s an article about his home on Tamarind:

https://www.hhprc.org/asian-pacific-american-heritage-month