The Japanese American National Museum recently kicked off its groundbreaking exhibit documenting the history of Japanese Americans and the automobile. While most JNC readers are familiar with the Japanese American tuners that popularized modified Datsuns and Toyotas in the US, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community spans an astounding 110 years of history. It starts in the nascent days of the automobile itself, when a Los Angeles man organized history’s first Japanese auto race.
While interviewing Cruising J-Town‘s curator, Dr Oliver Wang, we learned about Fred Fujioka, a Japanese American immigrant who operated an auto repair shop in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. Established with his business partner George Kawamoto, F&K Garage was the first mechanic in Little Tokyo.
In August 1915 Fujioka, only 28 years old at the time, assembled several racing drivers of Japanese heritage with cars that he had purchased. Makes included a Stutz, Mercer, and Case. A newspaper article at the time identified the men as T. Watanabe, H. Sakamoto, S. Sata, and K. Nakagawa. The four drove the cars in a demonstration at Ascot Park, a track located near Gardena, just a few miles from downtown.
A few days later, the cars and drivers would depart by sea for Japan. There, they would compete against other cars, such as Fiats, from Europe. According to the article that Wang shared, those cars had competed in the French Grand Prix. The race took place at Meguro Raceway, a horse track, in October 1915 and is believed to be the first official auto race in Japan.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Albert Waddell called Fujioka “one of the greatest Japanese automobile engineers in the world.” His story also noted that there were 7,000 Japanese living in Los Angeles at the time, with a total of $1.5 million invested in cars and trucks.
Cruising J-Town covers all facets of Japanese American car culture, from hot rods to lead sleds to early tuned imports to modern movements like drifting. As part of the exhibit, Wang will be hosting a panel about the tuner era titled “From the Street to the World: Legacies of the Import Car Scene“. The event takes place Saturday, August 30, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm at the Daniel K. Inoyue Democracy Center in Little Tokyo. Some actual cars, including a 1977 Toyota Celica Fastback and a 1993 Acura NSX, will be on display. The Cruising J-Town exhibit runs until November 12, 2025. A companion book of the same name is also available.
