Another person , Seiichi Kito , the founder of Fugetsu-do of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles , also claims to have invented the fortune cookie . He claims to have gotten the idea of putting paper in a cookie from the O-mikuji which are random fortunes written on pieces of paper at Shinto shrines and buddhist temples in Japan . According to Seiichi Kito , he sold his cookies to Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco . Kitos main claim was that he was the reason for the modern day fortune cookie being associated with Chinese restaurants . The real story seems to be that fortune cookies went from being a not very popular cookie from Japanese - americans to one dominated by Chinese - americans around World War 2 . During World War 2 , over 100,000 Japanese - Americans were put into internment camps to protect the US from any political attacks . The japanese - american bakeries that produced the fortune cookies went out of business because of their leave . While the japanese were in these camps , chinese americans saw this as an opportunity to make it their own. With the japanese americans absence , Chinese restaurants started selling the cookies as we know today . The cookies rapidly spread across the country . By the late 1950s , after World War 2 , an estimated 250 million fortune cookies were being sold each year by many small chinese bakeries . By 1960 , fortune cookies had become apart of the american popular culture and still is to this day
Another person , Seiichi Kito , the founder of Fugetsu-do of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles , also claims to have invented the fortune cookie . He claims to have gotten the idea of putting paper in a cookie from the O-mikuji which are random fortunes written on pieces of paper at Shinto shrines and buddhist temples in Japan . According to Seiichi Kito , he sold his cookies to Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco . Kitos main claim was that he was the reason for the modern day fortune cookie being associated with Chinese restaurants . The real story seems to be that fortune cookies went from being a not very popular cookie from Japanese - americans to one dominated by Chinese - americans around World War 2 . During World War 2 , over 100,000 Japanese - Americans were put into internment camps to protect the US from any political attacks . The japanese - american bakeries that produced the fortune cookies went out of business because of their leave . While the japanese were in these camps , chinese americans saw this as an opportunity to make it their own. With the japanese americans absence , Chinese restaurants started selling the cookies as we know today . The cookies rapidly spread across the country . By the late 1950s , after World War 2 , an estimated 250 million fortune cookies were being sold each year by many small chinese bakeries . By 1960 , fortune cookies had become apart of the american popular culture and still is to this day