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'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home' ~ John Payne
In a somewhat hidden and deserted strip of land alongside the busy Port of Long Beach lies a former mudflat that was turned into an artificial island. Measuring less than 5 miles long, officially named Terminal Islandin 1918, this area was once the Tuna canning capital of the world.
Fine, I thought to myself last October as I was being driven through the shipyards of Long Beach to visit this place. But where was it ? No one in sight. No Maps, Directions, Concession stands, Museum Brochures or Restrooms. Not a soul in the area with the exception of a lone Mariner who was probably walking along this silent strip of land to get to his vessel docked a few miles away.
And then it came into view, this rather large Monumental Statue of two Issei Fishermen, cast in Bronze. Looking deep into the distance while their hands worked instinctively, perhaps dreaming of their old homes far away in Japan that they would in all reality probably never see again. At once somber and mystifying and touching. I had my fill of taking pics not realizing what all this was about until I got back to Texas and started reading up for this post.
A large amount of the work in those Canneries was performed by similar Japanese immigrants who took up residence there, building lives and families in their own traditional orthodox and naive way.
Although the older children took part in normal activities such as Baseball, dining with friends, attending Local Catholic schools, celebrating Christmas and New Years', enrolling in the Boy Scouts, etc., these 'Nisei' (second-generation Japanese- Americans of immigrant parents) still had a strong sense of their heritage thanks to their parents who were content it seems, to remain within the confines of their own tightly-knit, isolated community, speaking a weird dialect of English and Japanese words. For over two decades by all accounts it was an idyllic existence for these families, right up until the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Within twenty-four hours, these immigrants and their families were subjected to evacuation orders, literally banished forever from Terminal Island. A population close to 3,000 was forcibly and unofficially removed by the FBI and sent to internment in Camps. Most of these Islanders wound up in Manzanar at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, victims of Wartime and Racial hysteria.
After the war, they discovered that there was no 'going back home' since their homes and schools had been razed to the ground by the Navy. Not a trace remained to prove they had once lived a simple, happy life in the Cannery district.
Deeply dismayed but not willing to have a part of their lives obliterated, these former residents banded together and formed the Terminal Islanders Club in 1971. A club that holds periodic Reunions, Picnics, Dances, Sports competitions, etc., today these folks are well into their Eighties. As concerns grew about their unique heritage disappearing, they succeeded in erecting the Terminal Island Monument in 2002, a memorial to honor their parents and preserve their precious revered memories of Furosato: their Home Sweet Home. An almost-forgotten Memorial to an all-but forgotten time in Japanese-American History. Ansel Adams picture from the US Library of Congress
