This is a tremendous book about the history of residency on Terminal Island which is now part of the Los Angeles Harbor complex, one of the largest deep water ports in the world. The photographs and images and the story of how people made use of the resources takes us back to a pre-industrial time and then moves us forward to the development of the port. Surprises abound: the squatters shacks, burials of sailors, and an artist's colony, including a women's writing establishment. Then an important fishing village built by Japanese immigrants and the beginnings of the canned tuna developed, first fisherman, then their families.
The book is especially strong in describing the history of the Japanese immigrants and what happened after Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States government moved the people to internment camps.
I attended the presentation by the authors at Los Angeles Public Library Central, and then read the book page by page, rich with artistic and photographic displays.
For the purposes of this genealogy blog, I want to focus a bit on the authors research. In the acknowledgements it mentions that besides the individuals with a personal or familial history who were interviewed and contributed, including photographs from their own collections, a number of libraries and archives were consulted. Many of you forget to contact the local libraries, historical societies, and colleges so perhaps this will be an inspiration.
Who would have thought that Los Angeles Harbor College would have an archive that according to the authors, "opened an archive into another world for us." Additionally the San Pedro Historical Society helped with getting back issues of the local newspaper News-Pilot. Also mentioned was the Rosemead Library's Asian Pacific Resource Center for microfilmed issues of Rafu Shimpo dating back to 1919. California State University - Dominguez Hills Archives and Special Collections, Taiji Historical Archives, California State Historical Society, Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles Times (newspaper), UCLA Special Collections, Japanese American National Museum, California History Room of the California State Library, Autry National Center - Braun Research Library, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Huntington Library. Port of Los Angeles Archives was especially helpful. Have you heard of all of these?
One of the things I thought of as most helpful for Japanese-American genealogy was the 1912 map of the island, showing the layout of streets and houses - with the full names of the residents - that was probably prepared before the removal of the squatters.
I thought about was how these people, the squatters, created homes from lumber and driftwood on land they didn't have to buy or rent, which is what our homeless are doing too. From these squatters sprung some people who became important to the history of the city of Los Angeles
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