Inventory of the Collection of the Terminal Island Personal Histories SPC.2020.036

Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection

Lindsay Anderson

California State University Dominguez Hills, Gerth Archives and Special Collections

December 10, 2020

University Library South -5039 (Fifth Floor)

1000 E. Victoria St.

Carson, CA 90747

archives@csudh.edu

URL: https://www.csudh.edu/libarchives/

Contributing Institution: California State University Dominguez Hills, Gerth Archives and Special Collections

Title: Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection

Creator: Hirashima, Mary

Creator: Izumi, Toshiro

Creator: Tamura, Bob

Creator: Tamura, Mary

Creator: Yamashita, Dorothy

Identifier/Call Number: SPC.2020.036

Physical Description: 401.4 Megabytes

Date (inclusive): 1994-1995

Abstract: 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.

Language of Material: English .

History of Terminal Island

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.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the FBI made quick work of arresting and searching the homes of Issei (first-generation Japanese American) leaders and fishermen under the suspicion that they had the potential to contact enemy vessels with their long-distance sea-faring boats and shortwave radios, and that the Issei, who were aliens ineligible for citizenship by law, would be more closely aligned to their home country than the United States[3]. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, resulting in the mass removal of all peoples of Japanese ancestry away from the West Coast. Terminal Islanders, though, were not given the luxury of preparing to move, unlike other Japanese American communities, as they were only given 48 hours beginning on February 25th before they would be forcibly evicted and sent to temporary quarters before being incarcerated in concentration camps, such as Manzanar[4].

Upon the return home soon after World War II ended, Terminal Islanders would come to find unfortunate dramatic changes: the navy soon occupied East San Pedro, razing homes and shops, and confiscating abandoned boats for military purposes, and the California Fish and Game Commission prohibited "Japanese aliens" or "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from getting commercial licenses. The prevention of Japanese Americans in California from getting commercial licenses would eventually be overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court (Takahashi v. Fish and Game Commission) in 1948 after its constitutionality was challenged[5]. Terminal Island would never be restored to the thriving fishing village it once was. What exists today, though, is the Terminal Islanders Club, which is an association comprised of former residents and their descendants.

[1]Lilian Takahashi Hoffecker. "Terminal Island, California," Densho Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Terminal%20Island,%20California (accessed Dec 14 2020). [2]Lilian Takahashi Hoffecker. "Terminal Island, California". [3]Lilian Takahashi Hoffecker. "Terminal Island, California". [4]Lilian Takahashi Hoffecker. "Terminal Island, California". [5]Lilian Takahashi Hoffecker. "Terminal Island, California".

Conditions Governing Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

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.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was loaned to the Gerth Archives and Special Collections in 2020. All materials were returned to the donor.

Existence and Location of Originals

This collection contains digital reproductions created from loaned materials. The donors retained the original, physical items.

Existence and Location of Copies

Most of the items in this collection have been digitized and the digitized materials are available at the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project Site: Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

All of the digital reproductions are available online at Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection. They are also available on the Public Use Drive as PDF files at the Gerth Archives And Special Collections. Please request copies at the reference desk.

Processing Information for Digitized Materials

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections created digitial reproductions (401.4 MB) from the original material for long-term preservation and access. These preservation files were scanned and stored on the Gerth Archives and Special Collections Department Drive. For more information on the best practices and standards for the digitization process, please see: CSU Japanese American Digitization Project Technical Reference Guide.

Scope and Contents

The Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection (1994-1995) contains 401.4 MB of digitized materials featuring 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", which compiles 34 more transcribed oral histories, biographies, and autobiographies of the Japanese American

residents who lived on Terminal Island before being forcibly removed in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Preferred Citation

For information about citing archival material, see the Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.

Related Materials

This collection is part of the California State University Japanese American Digitization Project. Other collections about the history of Japanese Americans are found in the digital repository: CSU Japanese American Digitization Project.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Terminal Island (Calif.)

United States -- Emigration and immigration -- History

Japan -- History -- 20th century

Japanese Americans--Biography

Japanese Americans -- History -- 20th century

Japanese American families

Japanese American soldiers

Japanese American veterans

Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941

World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration Camps -- United States

Racism

Interviews

Oral history

Transcription

Fish canneries

Fishing stories, American

item Public Use Drive , folder Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection , item teri_01_01

"Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995," 1 of 2 1994-1995

Physical Description: 8.5 x 11 inches; 264 pages; 16 PDF files; 80.3 MB

Language of Material: English.

Scope and Contents

Part one of a possible rough draft edition of the book entitled, "Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995", containing transcribed

oral histories, biographies, and autobiographies of the Japanese American

residents who lived on Terminal Island. Included are 264 pages separated into 16 PDF files.

item Public Use Drive , folder Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection, item teri_02_01

"Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995", 2 of 2 1994-1995

Physical Description: 8.5 x 11 inches; 183 pages; 18 PDF files; 10.5 MB

Language of Material: English.

Scope and Contents

Part two of a possible rough draft edition of the book entitled, "Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995", containing transcribed

oral histories, biographies, and autobiographies of the Japanese American residents who lived on Terminal Island. Included are 183 pages separated into 18 PDF files.

item Public Use Drive , folder Terminal Island Personal Histories Collection , item teri_02_02

Memoir and oral history transcription of former Terminal Island residents 1994-04-23, 1994-06

Physical Description: 8.5 x 11 inches; 18 pages; 2 PDF files; 915 KB

Language of Material: English.

Scope and Contents

Includes a memoir written by Kimiye Okuno Takeuchi Ariga in June 1994 and an edited version of Mary Hirashima's oral history transcription from April 23, 1994. A pre-edited version of Mary Hirashima's oral history transcription is included in "Terminal Island: An Island in Time, Collection of Personal Histories of Former Islanders 1994-1995." There are 18 pages total separated into 2 PDF files.