On Monday, June 10, 2013 at 3:00pm, the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles will confer on Mr. Yukio Tatsumi, Past President of the Terminal Islanders, the Commendation of the Consul General. The Commendation is conferred on individuals or organizations promoting mutual understanding and friendship between Japan and foreign nations, in support of a consulate general’s mission.
Mr. Tatsumi’s biography and achievements are as follows.
1. Biography
Mr. Yukio Tatsumi was born in August 1920 in what was then called, East San Pedro , which was adjacent to Fish Harbor on Terminal Island, California. Later, it was just called Terminal Island. This was a village on a man-made island in Los Angeles Harbor that was settled by Japanese immigrant fishermen. His father, Kobei Tatsumi, was one of the original Japanese abalone fishermen who were forced out of White’s Point, just North of San Pedro, and settled on Terminal Island to start fishing there.. Later, he managed the only Japanese-owned cannery there and later managed the hotel and hot spring complex at White’s Point. .
Mr. Tatsumi grew up in Terminal Island, going to elementary school there and later crossing the channel by ferryboat to San Pedro to attend jr. high school. When his father passed away in 1933, his mother returned to Japan and took him with her. He enrolled in school in his father’s hometown of Shimosato, Wakayama Prefecture. Upon graduation from commercial high school there, he returned back to Terminal Island and completed his U.S. education by enrolling in San Pedro High School, graduating in 1940. It was then that he started dating a Terminal Island girl in his neighborhood, Chiye Shintani, who eventually became his wife.
After graduation, he worked as a bookkeeper, but became a crewman on a fishing boat, as it was much more lucrative. He was quite an athlete and excelled in many sports, including Kendo and baseball. His crowning achievement was being the Second Baseman for Terminal Island’s baseball team, the San Pedro Skippers, which became the premier Japanese American baseball team in California.
Then, World War II started and the Issei fishermen who were imprisoned in the Federal Penitentiary on Terminal Island needed an interpreter. So, Mr. Tatsumi was asked by the government to assist them, until they were moved on.
With the removal of all persons of Japanese Ancestry from the West Coast of the United States, Mr. Tatsumi was interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center on the eastern slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.. Among all of the internees there, there were 1,000 former residents of Terminal Island in Manzanar. It was there that he married his childhood sweetheart and then started growing his family with the birth of their daughter Sachiko Jeanne.
Upon his release in 1945, he eventually took a job as a crewman on fishing boats in Fish Harbor and commuted from Los Angeles. Soon afterwards, his son Mel Ichiro was born, so they moved to Long Beach, California. In 1952 he left fishing and became a produce clerk at a supermarket. In 1956, he purchased the Oriental Food Market in Long Beach and operated it with Chiye, for 26 years, until he sold it in 1982. Subsequently, he went to work for a Japanese company, the California Rice Company, as its sales advisor, until his retirement.
In 1971, he and a group of friends from Terminal Island, decided to establish an organization called Terminal Islanders. He was elected Vice President, then became the organization’s President from 1984 until the end of 2011. As President, he made great efforts to promote Japanese culture with its membership and to others.. During this time, he pursued his interest from his time in Japan, in the Art of Japanese Calligraphy , which culminated in his becoming a senior member of the Beikoku Shodo Kenkyukai and continues to practice Shodo over these many years.
Due to its achievements for many years, the Terminal Islanders was awarded the Commendation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Relationship. Mr. Tatsumi accepted this honor as President, on behalf of the Terminal Islanders in March 2004.
2. Achievements
The Terminal Islanders was established in 1971 to spread and develop the history and culture of Japanese in America. The organization has contributed to deepening friendship among its members, assisting other Japanese organizations and donated financial support to establish the Keiro Retirement Home in Los Angeles. By his leadership in participating and supporting the film “Furusato” and the building of the Terminal Island Memorial Monument, they tell of what was once the Japanese fishing village of Terminal Island and tells the American public of the great contribution these Japanese in America had to the development of its fishing industry, before the war.
Mr. Tatsumi was the organization’s Vice President for 14 years and then its President for 27 years. After the dedication in 2002 of the Terminal Island Memorial Monument, with the bronze statues of two Issei fishermen, replica of Terminal Island’s Torii Gate, Mr. Tatsumi’s Waka calligraphy, and photographs of pre-war Terminal Island, he made a great effort to preserve the monument for the last 10 years. Mr. Tatsumi continued to serve very diligently as President, even after the receipt of the Commendation from the Foreign Ministry of Japan to the Terminal Islanders in 2004, and until his retirement at the end of 2011.
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