Temporary Detention Camps for Japanese Americans-Tanforan Assembly Center

Two bronzes here disagree about what happened. The one at the shopping-centre entrance spends its first three lines on the racetrack and its famous horses, then gives 1942 to over 4000 persons of Japanese ancestry. The count is short by half. The garden plaque of 2007 says 7,800, names Executive Order 9066 and the absence of charges or due process, and puts them in horse stalls under armed guard for eight months. No state plaque stands here. The memorial that does the arithmetic honestly opened in 2022 outside the BART station, its wall carrying about 8,000 names.

What the plaque says

Tanforan Assembly Center Commemorative Garden This garden memorializes a time when this site, then the Tanforan Park Racetrack, was transformed into a temporary assembly center for persons of Japanese ancestry. On February 19, 1942, in the absence of charges or due process of law, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This act set into motion the forced evacuation of 7800 San Francisco Bay Area Japanese Americans, who lived under armed guard for eight months in horse stalls and makeshift housing at the Tanforan Assembly Center. They, along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans residing in the western states, were later forcibly removed to, and confined in, government detention camps in the nation's interior. May we honor this period of history by our remembrance and just action. Dedicated on September 29, 2007 Funding made possible by many former internees of Tanforan, descendants of the internees and other generous individuals and organizations. Tanforan Racetrack Japanese Assembly Center Racetrack opened in 1899 and had racing seasons until it burned down in 1964. Many famous horses raced and won here. In 1942, Tanforan became a temporary assembly center for over 4000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were to be interned for the duration of World War II.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Site of the Discovery of San Francisco Bay — 3.0 mi
• Portolá Expedition Camp at San Pedro Creek — 5.1 mi
• Sánchez Adobe — 5.3 mi
• Burlingame Railroad Station — 5.6 mi