A Japanese village that helped develop California's fishing industry could become container storage

From the turn of the 20th century to the early 1940s, a human-made island in San Pedro Bay held a flourishing Japanese American fishing village that helped develop Southern California’s mighty seafood industry.

From the turn of the 20th century to the early 1940s, a human-made island in San Pedro Bay held a flourishing Japanese American fishing village that helped develop Southern California’s mighty seafood industry.

On Terminal Island, more than 3,000 first- and second-generation immigrant fishermen from Japan, the issei and nisei, pioneered innovative techniques, like 6-foot bamboo poles and live bait, to catch albacore tuna and sardines. Their wives cleaned and packaged their bounties in the canneries.

Then, during World War II, the entire community was uprooted and the village razed. The only remnants of the enclave are a pair of vacant buildings on Tuna Street, now dwarfed by colorful stacks of shipping containers and large green cranes that cover the island.

One of two remaining buildings on Tuna Street with ties to the former Japanese fishing village housed the dry goods store Nanka Shoten, which was established in 1918. Courtesy Paul BoyeaThe buildings are now under threat of demolition to make room for more containers, leading surviving Terminal Islanders and their descendants — now well past retirement age — to come together to try to save the last tangible connection to a largely forgotten legacy.

“These buildings are an integral part of American history that should never be forgotten,” said Paul Boyea, a board member of the Terminal Islanders Association, a group of about 200 former residents and their kin.