Terminal Island, Boy's Day

Dorr Bothwell

Terminal Island is located in Los Angeles, California, between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Once known as Rattlesnake Island, it was a small natural mudflat that was eventually expanded by the U.S. government using the debris of another island - Dead Man's Island - which had been razed in order to end increasing bottlenecks by shipping vessels.

By 1937 when Dorr Bothwell created this image it was a hub of industry and military training, and it was home to around 3,500 first- and second-generation Japanese Americans descending primarily from Kii Province. Due to the location's relative isolation, a unique culture formed among these residents that included the formation of a regional dialect ("kii-shu ben") and a thriving economy with it's own commerce, celebrations, and education. In this image, Bothwell depicts the decorative flags of a traditional Boy's Day (now known as Children's Day, or Kodomo no Hi) celebration, which includes silk, carp-shaped windstreamers.

Five years after this image was drawn, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the enusing Excutive Order 9066 meant that Terminal Island was the first city whose Japanese American residents were imprisoned in internment camps. Given only 48 hours to leave the island, much of their belongings were left behind, and the town was razed to the ground by the government, destroying the a unique and important piece of California's multicultural heritage.