Politics & Government

Executive Order 9066: LA County Remembers Japanese American Internment

Cities in the San Gabriel Valley served a role in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

For generations, the Santa Anita Race track in Arcadia has been a historical landmark in the San Gabriel Valley. Thousands enjoy the annual county fair in the Los Angeles County fairgrounds in Pomona. But both locations served a role in a dark chapter of American history.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, ordering the evacuation of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry to internment camps.

The order was to protect America from "every possible" threat of "espionage" and "sabotage."

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Some citizens of German and Italian descent were also detained, but the order forced 120,000 citizens and legal residents of Japanese descent into incarceration.

Several locations throughout the western United States were converted into large-scale assembly centers where Japanese Americans lived for several months before being shipped to relocation camps.

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The Los Angeles County fairgrounds was converted into a temporary detention center before interned Japanese Americans were relocated to permanent camps such as the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

In March 1942, about 19,000 Japanese Americans from all over California filed into the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, living in hastily-built barracks that still reeked of horse manure. The race track served as the largest assembly center in the nation.

A plaque near the entrance of the park serves as reminder of the men, women and children who were detained there.

On the 70th anniversary of Roosevelt’s issuance of Order 9066, Los Angeles County will observe the first day of remembrance for Japanese Americans incarcerated during the war.

County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced Feb. 19, 2012 as the official Day of Remembrance. The motion, made by Supervisor Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, was unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors.

“Los Angeles County, home to one of the largest populations of Japanese-Americans in the nation, has benefited economically and culturally in the fields of business, agriculture, academia, medicine, government and the arts from the many contributions of the Japanese-American community,” said Antonovich. 

President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1988, apologizing for President Roosevelt’s order, stating the order was based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The U.S. government paid more than $1.6 billion in reparations to those who had been interned.


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