During the American colonial era, Japanese laborers were brought in to build the Benguet Road(Kennon Road) to Baguio, but eventually after the project, many moved to work in abaca plantations in Davao, where Davao soon became dubbed as "Davaokuo" (in Philippine and American media) or (in ) with a Japanese school, a Shinto shrine and a diplomatic mission from Japan. The place that used to be ""Little Tokyo"" in Davao was Mintal. Prominent scholars and historian like Lydia Yu-Jose and Macario Tiu wrote extensively on the lively presence of Japanese migrants in pre-war Davao due to its noticeably thriving local economy predicated by a huge concentration of rubber, copra, and hemp plantations. Unsurprisingly so, when World War II broke out, it was reported that there were more than 21,000 Japanese residents in the Philippines with about 18,000 or more in Davao. There is even a popular restaurant called "The Japanese Tunnel", which includes an actual tunnel built by the Japanese during World War II.