Sawtelle: The Ongoing Battle of Heritage versus Culture
Ralph Primo Jr, the proud owner of Primo’s Donuts, grew up seeing his neighbors sent to Japanese Internment Camps in the 1940s. He recalls many Japanese nurseries on almost every corner during his childhood. Now, however, there are only three. Sawtelle’s storied history of Japanese American heritage is being threatened with gentrification, and, as a result, the Japanese culture remains but with the neighborhood’s heritage and history dangling by a thread.
Sawtelle’s Japanese exodus is not new, but currently, there are hipster shops that feature cosmopolitan Japanese culture, right alongside seemingly cultureless McMansions all constructed within the last 15 to 20 years. Older Japanese Americans originally from the community have moved away to the San Fernando Valley with these rising house prices. The average house costs a staggering $855,300, according to Censusreporter.org. Also what’s occurring is the demolition of traditional Japanese styled houses being replaced with modern McMansions.
The younger generation of Japanese Americans also doesn’t seem to engage with the older generation meaning there’s a trajectory of heritage disappearing, according to UCLA’s publication of “Sawtelle’s Japantown.” I reached out and interviewed the people of this community, including one of the contributors of the publication, Randy Sakamoto, to get a diverse taste of what their thoughts are on what Sawtelle’s culture has come to.
