Historical Marker · No. 934
Temporary Detention Camps for Japanese Americans-Sacramento Assembly Center
Sacramento, Sacramento County · California
Erected by The Japanese American Community of Sacramento in cooperation with Sunrise Recreation and Park District, February 1987
Four thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine people from Sacramento were held here without charge or trial, on no ground but ancestry, before being moved on to the camps. Walerga was an assembly centre, the holding stage most accounts pass over. The army took the site afterwards and made it Camp Kohler, a Signal Corps training centre, and it is a public park now. California registered the landmark and never put a plaque on it. The Japanese American community of Sacramento placed one itself in 1987.
What the plaque says
Lest We Forget Walerga Assembly Center was established by the United States at the outset of World War II to assemble and temporarily detain, without charge or trial, 4,739 Sacramento residents solely because of their Japanese ancestry. Approximately 120,000 persons were uprooted from their West Coast homes and interned in ten War Relocation Centers. Over two-thirds were American citizens by birth. Given the opportunity, many thousands left the ten centers to work on farms and in war industries or to serve with valor in the armed forces. Their acts and deeds gave living proof that Americanism is a matter of mind and heart, not a matter of race or ancestry. May this memorial remind all Americans to be alert so that such injustices never recur. Camp Kohler succeeded Walerga Assembly Center with the departure of the last Japanese American internees in late June, 1942. After being taken over by the Army Signal Corps, the camp's facilities were greatly expanded to house and train military personnel. Camp Kohler became one of the Corps' three principal training centers during World War II. Dedicated by the Japanese American Community of Sacramento in cooperation with Sunrise Recreation and Park District February 1987
Where it stands
38.66834, -121.35131 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Sacramento — 10 miThe Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.