yesterday I got the hankering to follow these new signs they got up on the harbor freeway telling about “terminal island japanese fishing village memorial historical site” which I found out is also known by the people who lived there as furusato, one of california’s japantowns before wwII. it was trippy to follow all these signs to find absolutely nothing left of this town which was in the “fish harbor” part of terminal island (called rattlesnake island before that, there’s a new book out on this island’s history and the community lost there) – not one trace. what you do find is a memorial made of a ramp, a tori (shinto archway) and a bronze sculpture of two “nisei” (born here, parents born in japan) fisherman working a net next to the fireboat house for station 111. the memorial’s been here since 2002 but only now there’s signs up on the nearby highway and roads telling about it.
photos by mike watt
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I keep seeing those signs also. I have been meaning to take a quick trip over to check it out. Maybe I will take grandson over and make it a teachable moment. It is so sad what we did to our locals during WWII. Thanks for sharing this.