Virtual

People + Places: Tuna Street Buildings: An Untold Story about L.A.’s Japanese American Experience

Name: people-places-tuna-street-buildings-an-untold-story-about-l-a-s-japanese-american-experience
Start: 2025-05-07T12:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-05-07T13:00:00-07:00

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

12 p.m.

Join us to learn about the fight to preserve two remaining buildings tied to Terminal Island’s once-thriving Japanese American community and the efforts to honor this erased history. There will be an important announcement during the program!

Join us to learn what unfolded following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and why two surviving structures, once a vibrant Japanese American community on Terminal Island, the Nanka Shoten (1918) and A. Nakamura Co. (1923) buildings, are important to keep and are currently threatened with demolition.

Today, Terminal Island is a vastly different place and landscape, with the Port of Los Angeles prioritizing cargo container storage over heritage. It raises questions about places and spaces that radically change over time, and how and why it is important to acknowledge our physical past in a meaningful way. Hear from descendants of Terminal Island’s Japanese American community about what makes this place special and memorable.

We will share some early ideas for how these buildings could be adaptively reused, and talk about a pending Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) designation effort and next steps.

People + Places Virtual Series- Special Announcement!
Tuna Street Buildings: An Untold Story about L.A’s Japanese American Experience

Wednesday, May 7, 2025
12:00 – 1:00 P.M.

FREE Virtual Event | Registration is required.

Can’t make it? Click here to register to get the recording by email.

Few know the full story of Terminal Island in San Pedro, especially the rise and fall of the vibrant Japanese American community that once lived here.

For more than 15 years the Conservancy has worked to advocate for the preservation of historic places on Terminal Island, including successfully helping the Port adopt a new Master Plan that identifies the Tuna Street Buildings as historic.

Through preservation of the two buildings, advocates hope to honor their ancestors and commemorate this dark chapter of American history.

Much thanks goes to Councilmember Tim McOsker for initiating the HCM process.

In 2012, Terminal Island was included on the National Trust’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The interior of the once A. Nakamura Company on Terminal Island.

PANELISTS

Paul Hiroshi Boyea

Terminal Islanders Preservation Initiative, Chair and Terminal Islanders Association, Board Member
Donna Reiko Cottrell

Terminal Islanders Association, Board Vice President
Terry Hara

Terminal Islanders Association, Board President
Naomi Hirahara

Social historian and mystery writer
Aksel Palacios

Port & Capital Projects Director, L.A. City Council District 15
Carol Quillen

President and Chief Executive Officer, National Trust for Historic Preservation