Temporary Detention Camp for Japanese Americans, Pomona

The Army confined 5,514 people of Japanese ancestry at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds between May 7 and August 24, 1942, most of them American citizens, most from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. Each person had about 73 square feet. Nearly all were sent on to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. The bronze here went up in 2016 and softens nothing: it names hysteria and racism, and says the confinement came without charges or trial. The ground is a Fairplex parking lot now.

What the plaque says

Pomona Assembly Center The Los Angeles County Fairgrounds was one of 15 temporary assembly centers established during World War II pursuant to Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. The U.S. Army confined at this site 5,514 persons of Japanese ancestry, a majority of whom were American citizens from May 7 through August 24, 1942. In August 1942, the majority of the detainees were relocated to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, one of 10 detention camps that collectively confined 120,000 people without due process of law, charges or trial, or establishment of guilt as a result of hysteria and racism. May such injustice and suffering never recur. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 934

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Graber Olive House — 6.8 mi
  The oldest business in Ontario, a cannery of five hundred brine vats — shut since the pandemic and in foreclosure.
• Planes of Fame Air Museum — 10 mi
  On the field where the country smelted its surplus warplanes — and about thirty of the aircraft here still fly.
• Kaiser Steel Mill Site — 15 mi
  The mill that made Fontana a steel town, gave the country Kaiser Permanente, and drew a color line at Base Line Road.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 20 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.

More markers nearby

• Adobe de Palomares — 1.5 mi
• La Casa de Carrión — 1.6 mi
• First Home of Pomona College — 1.9 mi
• Glendora Bougainvillea — 6.8 mi