The Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection features one transcribed oral history, one autobiography, and one possible rough draft edition of a book entitled, "Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995". All of the materials in this are available online.

Terminal Island was the location of a Japanese fishing village in the Port of Los Angeles. Early Japanese immigrants settled and fished for abalone and lobster in the San Pedro Bay area in 1899, but the community eventually shifted to East San Pedro on the western end of Terminal Island by 1910, where fishermen saw more profit in catching sardines and tuna[1]. By the 1930s, the Japanese settlers eventually outnumbered other immigrant communities in the area as their population reached its peak at around three thousand[2]. What was most unique about the Japanese on Terminal Island was that the residents were able to maintain their indigenous and cultural identity due to them being an insulated and mostly homogenous community.

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All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

There are no access restrictions on this collection.