1940s: Japanese Americans on the West Coast are rounded up and sent to internment camps, as many American leaders fear that their race makes them a national security threat.

1970s: Emperor Hirohito of Japan visits Los Angeles.

Today: Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan.

1940s: Racial tensions are increasing in Los Angeles between whites and minority populations. Mexican Americans are portrayed in the media as dangerous members of criminal gangs. Some Hispanic men wear zoot suits, loose-fitting suits viewed by some as an affront to the war effort to conserve resources such as fabric. Amid this atmosphere and prompted by a reported fight between a small group of soldiers and Mexican Americans, hundreds of military men stationed in Los Angeles enter the city's eastside neighborhoods and beat men wearing zoot suits. Police arrest some six hundred Hispanics...