"Terminal Island is part of one of the country’s busiest container ports... it was the first place from which Japanese Americans were uprooted and sent to government camps...
The Port of LA is reportedly considering demolishing [its historic buildings] to make room for more container storage" +
"Tuna Street was the main business thoroughfare and home to the two remaining buildings: the dry goods store Nanka Shoten (1918) and the grocery A. Nakamura Co. (1923). The destruction of the village began immediately following its residents’ removal in 1942, and over the years more structures were razed as the island grew into an industrial and commercial port" +
From an LA Times story about #TerminalIsland, infilled land in the #port area with a rich history:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-05-07/terminal-islands-tuna-street-buildings-placed-on-2025-list-of-americas-11-most-endangered-historic-places
The National Trust for Historic Preservation aims to save from destruction the last two surviving structures from Terminal Island's pre-World War II days as a Japanese American fishing village.
(Archive link: https://archive.ph/UXuV3 )
I didn't write as much as I could have about Terminal Island in my book #OilBeach. (I'm still following some research threads about it, would be more active were it not for fascism)
Two photos of the area discussed in the article do appear in the book tho:
1, This statue commemorating the Japanese fishing village, taken by me, 2021
2, This is, if I'm not mistaken, one of the historic buildings that is discussed in the article (note intersection of Tuna St. and Cannery St.). My snapshots. They're in B&W in the book
#ports #shipping #LosAngeles #preservation #EthnicStudies #California
"Descendants of Terminal Island’s Japanese community see parallels between the second world war and ICE raids today"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/17/los-angeles-ice-raids-japan-terminal-islands
"Troops, with jeeps and machine guns, are shown guarding an entrance to Terminal Island on February 3, 1942, to prevent Japanese aliens from leaving the island. Nearly 400 Japanese were seized in the roundup"
(Los Angeles Public Library Herald Examiner Collection, discovered in an open browser tab)
Reading over a 1985 dissertation by an older Japanese-American person who completed it as a passion project in his early 60s, about his family's and community's experience of maintaining a community after being expelled from where they lives in Terminal Island and incarcerated in Manzanar and it's just so 😠but also really impressive and touching
ghouls for commensality 🧿
AI6YR Ben