8/10/2013
8/10/2013
3/10/1996
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.
Landmark information
- Location:
Tanforan Park Shopping Center, El Camino Real, San Bruno - Plaque:
Other Plaque - Site:
Nothing Remains - Date First Visited:
3/10/1996 - Date Most Recently Visited:
8/10/2013 - GPS Coordinates:
N 37 38.123, W 122 25.140
About this landmark
Plaque text:
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 remembrances and just action.