Site information:

Pomona Fairplex, Pomona

34.081269, -117.766586

Plaque information:

Private plaque

Plaque text:

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, the 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.

OHP description:

The temporary detention camps (also known as 'assembly centers') represent the first phase of the mass incarceration of 97,785 Californians of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Pursuant to Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, thirteen makeshift detention facilities were constructed at various California racetracks, fairgrounds, and labor camps. These facilities were intended to confine Japanese Americans until more permanent concentration camps, such as those at Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, could be built in isolated areas of the country. Beginning on March 30, 1942, all native-born Americans and long-time legal residents of Japanese ancestry living in California were ordered to surrender themselves for detention.

Registered 5/13/1980