Contrary to popular belief, fortune cookies are not a Chinese invention. They likely originated in California in the early 20th century, though their exact creator is debated. One strong theory credits Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who served a similar 'tsujiura senbei' cracker at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. Another theory credits David Jung, a Chinese immigrant in Los Angeles. The modern fortune cookie is based on a Japanese tradition of crackers containing small slips of paper. During World War II, the cookies transitioned from being a Japanese-American treat to a staple of Chinese-American restaurants after Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps. Today, billions of fortune cookies are produced annually, primarily by the Wonton Food Company in New York.