San Pedro’s Terminal Island was once home to a bustling Japanese-American fishing village.

Japanese fishermen brought tuna fishing expertise, which revolutionized the canning industry on the Pacific coast. During World War II, when Japanese citizens were incarcerated.

The tightknit port side community was destroyed.

Colleen Shalby joined Lisa McRee on LA Times Today to talk about the fight to reserve Terminal Island’s Japanese history. 

Shalby explained Terminal Island was home to about 3,000 people before World War II. She explained that the community had a Buddhist temple, a Shinto shrine and gathering halls where Japanese-Americans felt “safe enough to keep your doors unlocked.”  

Everything changed in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

“After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the residents of this village, which was mostly Japanese-American residents, were given 48 hours to leave, and they were forced into incarceration camps. By the time they came back a few years later, the village had basically been completely destroyed. The homes have been razed, the shops were no longer there. It was something that was completely lost and wiped out,” Shalby explained. 

Now, some of the original residents and their families are trying to preserve what remains of that old community.

“Two buildings that have remained standing for the past 80 years. One was an old grocery store. One was an old dry goods shop. And this is basically the last vestiges of the history for the Terminal Islanders. When they learned that there was a possibility that these buildings could be demolished - they were actually tipped off by a local San Pedro woman who saw some inspectors in the area — they mobilized together… They’re working right now to try to get a historic designation before it’s too late,” Shalby said. 

The fates of the buildings have not been decided yet, but, Shalby explained, expansion at the port may force the issue.

“The forecast for shipping has grown exponentially over the past several years, and at the Port of Los Angeles, which is one of the busiest seaports in the world, there are hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into these expansion projects to help with rail yard expansion and container expansion, and to update the area. Not far from these buildings is where the old StarKist cannery building existed. And there’s design plans right now to freeze that area and turn it into a zone to lease,” she said. 

The families of the former residents are open to creative ways to preserve the buildings. 

“They acknowledge these buildings aren’t in an area where you would just stumble off the street. These are buildings that are old. They definitely need a facelift if they were to be stuck around. There are talks of turning one into a museum or an art installation, or, if possible, to relocate the building altogether. But really, the focus is to try to preserve it in some way,” Shalby said.

Officials are set to visit the sites this month, but Shalby said there is no timeline on a decision on what to do with the historic buildings.

Watch the full interview above.

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