ABSTRACT
The Japanese experience in Hawaii and the West Coast of the country is explored. The chapter discusses the religious and architectural activities that took place in Hawaii, which produced a unique form of Buddhist sacred structure that successfully blends various cultures and visual histories. The Buddhist Church of San Francisco is shown to be a seminal community and structure as the twentieth century turned. The Nishi Hongwanji and Higashi Honganji churches in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo, as well as the neighborhood overall, are examined in depth with respect to their humanistic content and cultural monikers, which permeate the area and the structures that identify it as distinctly Japanese.
