YOKOHAMA -- Yokohama's Chinatown has been spruced up, its eateries ornately dolled up, its towering gates given a face-lift and a huge shrine adorned in gold.

The town and its people have a unique history, and they have endured major upheavals and rebuilt in the past 60 years from the rubble that the district turned into during the latter months of the war.

The first generation of Chinese immigrants, most from Guangdong Province, first came to Yokohama as servants for Westerners, who were entering Japan after centuries of seclusion ended in 1858. The port opened the following year.