Historical Marker · No. 934
Stockton Assembly Center
Stockton, San Joaquin County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation; Japanese American community of San Joaquin County, 1984
The bronze says 4271, and it is right. The state register and most transcriptions print 4,217, but the camp's peak was 4,271, reached on May 21, eleven days after the first people were brought to the fairgrounds. Most of the barracks stood inside the racetrack. Stockton ran longer than most assembly centers, until October 1942, and nearly everyone imprisoned here was then sent almost two thousand miles to Rohwer, in the Arkansas Delta, a camp they shared with families from Los Angeles.
What the plaque says
Stockton Assembly Center Here, within the confines of San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, enclosed by barbed wire and housed in temporary barracks, 4271 San Joaquin County residents of Japanese ancestry, predominantly American citizens, were interned from May 10 to October 17, 1942, under Executive Order 9066. May such usurpation of civil, social and economic rights, without specific charges or trial, never again occur. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 934 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Japanese American community of San Joaquin County, May 12, 1984.
Where it stands
37.93821, -121.26844 · Directions
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