JAPANESE FARMER BEFORE EVACUATION - LOS ANGELES COUNTY

source of photograph : Library of Congress - Washington DC - Prints and Photographs Collection

Los Angeles County, California.  The evacuation of Japanese and Japanese-Americans from West Coast areas under United States Army war emergency order.

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TERMINAL ISLAND : LOST COMMUNITIES ON AMERICA'S EDGE by NAOMI HIRAHARA and GERALDINE KNATZ ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK RECOMMENDATION (NAME DROPPING THOSE LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES)

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 enterprise 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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JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM IREICHO SACRED BOOK - COLLECTED NAMES OF THOSE INTERRED : TIME TO STAMP THE BOOK OF NAMES

 JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM - SACRED BOOK OF NAMES of INTERRED

EXCERPT: Visitors will be invited to view the names and use a special Japanese HANKO (a stamp or seal) to leave a mark for each person in the Ireicho as a way to honor those incarcerated during World War II.  Community participation will "activate" it and rectify the historical record by correcting misspelled names or revealing names THAT MAY HAVE BEEN OMITTED for the record.  Time-entry reservations to view the Ireicho can be made online.  The Ireicho will be on display during museum hours starting Sunday, September 24, 2022, for one year.

***

President  Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my favorite U.S. President, though I realize not everything he did during his FOUR TERMS IN OFFICE, as elected through the vote, is without controversy. He entered the Presidency during the Great Depression, the dire conditions of which we in the United States luckily have not entered into again and created many program opportunities to. The forced internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in camps is one of the least popular of his legacies. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, this act of war with the United States provoked Roosevelt to respond by officially entering into World War II. Though not so long ago, intelligence gathering and information collections depended upon human contact, not IT or database systems, and there was no way to know who among the Japanese-American community might be a spy for Japan. The United States had held back from military involvement in Europe. There was also a concern that some Americans might take to harming the Japanese (or Asians) living in the United States so, though the camps were rugged, this was thought also to protect them from possible attacks or even mob rule. Roosevelt though Executive Order 9066, in 1942, ordered that Japanese-Americans be taken to camps which were located in-land from the coastal areas where most of them lived.

***

As the veterans of this war are in their late 90's, the opportunities to provide oral histories for future generations also ends with their passing.

I had the honor of meeting a man and befriending him some years ago, a Jewish man, who was involved in training the Japanese-Americans who fought in Italy for the United States.  (Italy and Germany were allied with Japan and thus against the United States and its allies.)

The United States' combat unit of Japanese-Americans was called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  They were highly decorated which means they faced savage fighting and had severe losses as well.

I urged Sam to contact the Japanese-American Museum and also offered to take him there to see the displays. I felt they might want to have his testimony on record.  It never happened. Sam passed away a few years ago, just a couple days after I visited him in his assisted living apartment, where we had a short visit during which he had all his wits. He had recently been hospitalized for some time and told me he was ready to pass. He told me how it was that he had been selected for this opportunity in the military. An engraved plaque honoring him for his service was on his wall, along with the photo of his departed wife and son. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Sam had been a patriotic American. Sam had been tested by the military psychologically as NOT BIGOTED or PREJUDICED.  They wanted people to work with Japanese-Americans who would be honorable and fair in working with them.

To put this into context, here was the son of Jewish immigrants who faced bigotry and prejudice themselves, who lived in an ethnic enclave (some call that a ghetto), who was somewhat religious but not so much, and who had fallen in love with his teenage sweetheart, who he would eventually marry and spend his life with. He put military service first. 

To me this testing means that the United States military certainly was open to these Japanese - American men fighting for the United States, knew that Japanese-Americans were patriotic, but had concerns that they be treated fairly. The military also thought it would be unwise to send them into the Pacific theater or war where they could be confused visually with the enemy.

One article I read said the United States considered all Japanese Americans to be enemies of the state.  That is not correct.

The book was compiled by a University of Southern California professor, Duncan Ryuken Williams, and lists all of those who were interred in camps, over 125,000 names.  A new book, but considered sacred, weighing in at 25 pounds or so, it is available for viewing and for placing a stamp or seal.

YOUTUBE - TODAY SHOW - NBC's Emilie Ikeda  Not embedded on this blog due to the commercials, but an good video of Emilie Ikeda's visit to the museum to stamp the book.  Note that you may stamp the book though not a relative to a person named in the book.

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