Japanese Fishing Village

Ever since I was a kid. Everytime we would travel over the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro. I would notice a sign for a Japanese Fishing Village. I had learned in school how the Japanese would use Cormorants to fish. Because it was close to the Queen Mary, Spruce Goose and Ports of Call Village, I always pictured it as a tourist attraction with a show highlighting these birds that fished for people.

Fast forward to not long ago when I found the time to visit. I didn't find a tourist hotspot or light hearted themed show. Instead I discovered a memorial to one of the darkest hours in American history.

By 1907 the village of Fish Harbor was established on Terminal Island in San Pedro Bay and by 1942 at its peak had 3000 residents. Shortly after the bombing at Pearl Harbor all military aged Japanese males were arrested and on Feb. 19, 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executve Order #9066 which ordered the internment of all Japanese in the country. The residents of Fish Harbor were the first ordered to go and were given 48 hours to vacate with most being sent to Manzanar in the Owens Valley in California. All of this was done in spite of the fact that 62% of the residents were either 2nd or third generation and being born in the U. S. were naturalized citizens whose constitutionaly guarenteed rights were trampled on.

By the time anyone had returned in 1945, the village had been stripped of valuables and bulldozed into the ground.

Congressman Norm Mineta, who was himself sent to the internment camps, spearheaded an effort for reparations and an appology from the government. After a long fought battle he won and in 1990 the checks for $20,000.00 and appologies went out.

A symbolic victory but a victory none the less.