MANZANAR Historic Resource Study/Special History Study

TERMINAL ISLAND EVACUATION

The small-scale evacuation of Terminal Island in February 1942 was a precursor of the mass evacuation of the west coast and provided a vivid portent of the hardship that would be wrought by evacuation. Approximately six miles long and one-half mile wide, Terminal Island, most of whose residents would ultimately be evacuated to Manzanar, marked the boundaries of Los Angeles Harbor and the Cerritos Channel. Lying directly across the harbor from a U.S. Navy base at San Pedro, the island was reached in 1942 by ferry or a small drawbridge.

The isolated Japanese community on the island consisted of some 500 families, primarily occupied in the fishing and canning industries. A half-dozen fish canneries, each with its own employee housing, were located on the island. In 1942, the Japanese population of the island was approximately 3,500, of whom approximately half were American-born Nisei. The majority of the businesses, including restaurants, grocery stores, barbershops, beauty shops, and poolhalls (in addition to three physicians, and two dentists), which served the island were owned or operated by Issei or Nisei. [46]

Immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack, the FBI removed individuals from the Japanese community on Terminal Island who were considered dangerous aliens, and followed this with "daily dawn raids... removing several hundred more aliens" and sending them to internment camps in Montana and North Dakota. In late January 1942, the island was designated by authorities as a "strategic area" from which enemy aliens would be barred. Within several days, FBI agents again raided the Japanese community, arresting 336 Issei who were considered potentially dangerous. On February 10, 1942, the Department of Justice posted a warning that all Japanese aliens had to leave the island by the following Monday. The next day, a presidential order placed Terminal Island under the jurisdiction of the Navy. By the 15th, Secretary of the Navy Knox directed Rear Admiral R. S. Holmes, Commandant of the 11th Naval District in San Diego, to notify all island residents that their dwellings would be condemned, effective within 30 days. On February 25, however, the Navy informed the island residents that the deadline had been advanced to midnight, February 27, slightly more than 48 horn's away. The Terminal Islanders were, in essence, evicted, and the Navy did not care where they went as long as they left the "strategic" island. [47]

As a consequence of the FBI raids on Terminal Island, the heads of many families, as well as community and business leaders, were gone and mainly older women and minor children were left. With the new edict, these women and children, who were unaccustomed and ill equipped to handle business transactions, were forced to make quick financial decisions regarding their property and possessions. [48] Dr. Yoshihiko Fujikawa, a resident of the island, described the chaotic scene prior to evacuation:

It was during these 48 hours that I witnessed unscrupulous vultures in the form of human beings taking advantage of bewildered housewives whose husbands had been rounded up by the F. B. I. within 48 hours after Pearl Harbor. They were offered pittances for practically new furniture and appliances: refrigerators, radio consoles, etc., as well as cars, and many were falling prey to these people. [49]

The day after the Terminal Island evacuation, the former Japanese community was littered with abandoned goods and equipment, much of which would disappear or be stolen. [50] Most of the Terminal Islanders, unprepared for such an abrupt move, remained in Los Angeles County, many sleeping out in the open or sleeping under blanket tents in crowded church chapels or Japanese language schools. [51]

The experience of Henry Murikami, a Japanese fisherman on Terminal Island, was typical. He had become a fisherman after graduating from high school. After gaining experience, he leased a boat from the Van Camp Seafood Company and went into business on his own, saving money to increase and improve his fishing equipment. By the time of Pearl Harbor he owned three sets of purse seine nets valued at $22,500. After the Pearl Harbor attack, he, as well as the rest of the Japanese fishermen, were stopped from fishing and told to remain in their fishing camps. In early February, Murikami, along with every alien male on Terminal Island who held a fisherman's license, was arrested and sent to a Department of Justice internment camp in Bismarck, North Dakota. His equipment lay abandoned, accessible for the taking. [52]