A sad day in Palos Verdes

Not long ago, I discovered the 40 Families Project, a fascinating online collection of photographs and history related to Japanese families on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Sifting through the materials on this elegant website, one comes to understand the rich cultural history that these families literally built with their hands on this land.

Drifting through an entirely different photographic repository the other day, I came upon some materials that show an entirely different side of the legacy documented in the 40 Families Project. This one is decidedly more tragic.

Recently, the UCLA Library posted online its immense collection of photographs from the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News from the years 1920 to 1990. The materials are relatively open for public use and entirely searchable. One can find some very interesting things relating to the South Bay by typing in words such as “Hermosa” or “surfing” or “pier.”

It was when I typed in “verdes” that I happened across the photographs below. They were taken in 1942 to document the forced evacuation of Japanese residents from Palos Verdes. The notes below the photographs are from the original newspaper files. All of these were from the Los Angeles Daily News.

The abandoned remnants of a fisherman's cabin, photographed during the evacuation of Japanese Americans from Palos Verdes.

Police officials await evacuation of Japanese residents in Palos Verdes (Calif.)

A police officer inspects the home or office of Ino Shigeo, a Japanese resident of Palos Verdes.

A police officer searches the home or office of Ino Shigeo, a Japanese resident of Palos Verdes, California.

-- Garrison Frost

(June 8, 2007)

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