Historic Japanese village buildings on Terminal Island to see fresh future

Two vacant buildings are all that physically remain of a once-thriving Japanese American fishing community on Terminal Island, in San Pedro — and they tell an important story.

And thanks to the efforts of the descendants of those who, in 1942, lost everything during a particularly dark and difficult period in U.S. history — when the federal government sent Japanese Americans to internment camps — the structures have earned Historic-Cultural Monument status from the city of Los Angeles. The City Council approved the designation on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

The designation will help ensure the buildings, which once housed the Nanka Dry Goods Store and A. Nakamura Company Grocery Store, are preserved. Those companies served the once-thriving Japanese American fishing village that was erased during World War II when its residents were sent to internment camps, while their fishing boats were confiscated and their homes, stores, other places of business, schools, churches and shrines were bulldozed.

Somehow missed in that demolition were the two remaining buildings, 700–702 and 712–716 Tuna St. They are the only surviving structures from a community that played a key role in Los Angeles’ fishing industry and cultural history. The village, through innovations and hard work, helped establish the tuna industry as a cornerstone that put San Pedro on the fishing map. The once-vibrant neighborhood was known as Furusato (“home village”) and some 3,000 people lived there.

But they became part of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II, from March 1942 to November 1945, with the Terminal Island village destroyed after they left.

“While almost the entire village was lost,” Councilmember Tim McOsker said in a comment after he and his colleagues approved the historic designation, “these two buildings stand as a tangible link to the Japanese American story and a dark chapter of our country’s history, one marked by discrimination and displacement.”

McOsker brought the motion for the historic designation to the council.

For some, including McOsker, what happened in the 1940s bears an eerie resemblance to immigration raids now taking place in the United States.

“When we look at what’s happening on our streets in Los Angeles right now,” McOsker said, “this is why it’s more important than ever to preserve these buildings as a reminder. We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”

The Trump administration, for its part, has continually defended the increase in deportation actions as necessary to fight crime and make the country safer, though immigration advocates have decried the policy and the White House’s justifications for it.

As for the former fishing village, Los Angeles harbor commissioner Lee Williams said in a telephone interview that there wasn’t a hard-and-fast plan to demolish the buildings, though the Port of LA now relies on much of Terminal Island for industrial uses.

“I don’t think there were any set (port) plans (to demolish the buildings),” Williams said. But it was that concern that sparked the Terminal Islander group discussions a few years ago on how the preserve the structures — and the history they represent.

Williams recalled addressing a high school group about the history on a recent visit to the site.

“I told them, ‘Just imagine if you woke up today and let’s say there was something happening between America and Mexico or a place where your parents were born and all of a sudden, you had an hour to pack up everything and you were put on buses and taken away and housed somewhere for a year in horrible conditions.”

And upon arriving back home, he told them, they’d find that “everything you owned was gone.”

“In 1942, 125,000 individuals of Japanese heritage were removed from their homes and incarcerated for the duration of WWII.  Of this total, 60% were American citizens,” William T. Fujioka, chair of the Board of Trustees for the Japanese American National Museum, said in a written comment. “This was done without due process and represents one of the greatest violations of civil rights in our country’s history. Preserving the history and contributions of the Japanese who lived on Terminal Island is extremely important to both remember this injustice and ensure that it never happens again.”

The buildings bear little resemblance to their historic architecture, having been covered in stucco over the years, so plans will also include taking the structures back to their more original wood-siding look.

The city monument designation was the result of a nearly 10-year effort by descendants, including Paul Hiroshi Boyea, chair of the Terminal Islanders Preservation Initiative and whose mother and other family members were among those incarcerated at Manzanar Camp during World War II. And it has prompted immediate discussions with the Port of Los Angeles on how the salvaged structures might be rehabilitated and used to provide a memorial of that period.

Boyea’s grandfather was the first member of his family to immigrate to Terminal Island, doing so in 1905, and his fishing expertise landed him the role of captain of two boats. In 1936, he was elected president of the Terminal Islander Fisherman’s Association, traveling to Sacramento to oppose anti-Japanese legislation, Boyea said.

The elementary school on the island was part of the Los Angeles school district, Boyea said, and when students left there, they took the ferry across the channel to attend what was then Dana Junior High and San Pedro High schools. His mother graduated from San Pedro High in 1938, where, he said, “everyone got along well.”

“Living on the island was unique because it had Japanese culture but residents also learned American culture at the same time; there were Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts,” he said. “My mother was a California Federation Scholarship Award winner.”

She was an accomplished musician who performed at recitals, he said.

The City Council initially took the first vote on McOsker’s motion six months ago, on Feb. 19, the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which served as the basis for the forced removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent, the majority being American citizens, during World War II. The order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation centers” further inland – resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

The order was formally terminated by President Gerald R. Ford on Feb. 19, 1976.

With the monument designation now in place, the process will move forward to determine what to do with the buildings, Boyea said.

“So now, the next step is meeting with the Port of Los Angeles to talk about, how do we collaborate?” Boyea said in a Friday, Aug. 22, telephone interview, adding that the first meeting was on Thursday. “The port congratulated us on getting the historical monument designation. We think we’ll be able to move forward and do an adaptive reuse education center, gallery, office space or meeting space.”

For now, however, the proposed future uses remain undetermined.

Andrew Salimian, director of advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, said the options are open.

“We’ve been working with Terminal Islander Association and we’re open to all uses,” he said of the discussions. “But I think what is consistently said is that we’d like those uses to be able to tell the history of the place and honor the legacy of the Terminal Islanders.”

Options that have been raised, he said, include a small interpretive museum or a cafe with flexible space, with uses for talks, exhibitions and to provide services to port workers in that area.

“A cafe or takeout store with groceries,” Salimian said, “was presented as an option because for many workers at the port, there’s really no place to get lunch while learning about the history.”

But it is the Terminal Islander Association, Salimian said, that is taking the lead on plans, with the conservancy assisting.

“They will be the stewards of the site,” Salimian said. “It’s great to see the descendants of the Terminal Island Association stepping up to protect this history.”

A cafe, Boyea said, is “one of the options but one challenge (to that) may be whether there is the foot traffic” to support that and some other uses being suggested. The area is mostly surrounded by and filled with port uses and shipping containers, though Salimian said the wider area — where a Japanese Memorial stands nearby — does draw some visitors.

Regardless of the future use, however, for Salimian, it is important to preserve the story of the village’s history.

“It is one of the darkest chapters in American history and I think people see the reflection of what was has happening then in what is happening today,” he said. “It’s important that we not whitewash history or erase a chapter of history so we’re not doomed to repeat the same mistake.”