Japanese American Detention Camp - Sacramento, California

DATE VISITED:  03/28/2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Japanese American Detention Camp

LOCATION:  Walerga Park - 4901 Palm Ave., Sacramento, Sacramento Co., CA

MARKER #:  934

DEDICATED:  February 1987

"Walerga Assembly Center was established by the United States at the outset of World War II to assemble and temporily 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 internee's in late Jun, 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 of the Corps three principal training centers during World War II."

**closer look below

Marker Placed By: Dedicated by the Japanese American Community of Sacramento in cooperation with Sunrise Recreation and Park District 

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: I wasn't sure I would go out this weekend for two reasons. One, I had not finished writing my blog articles until Friday but the second reason is that I am sort of pouting over the fact that I only get 2 days off this weekend. It's amazing how quickly you get used to working only 3 days a week.

But my retirement is edging closer...as so many people keep reminding me and I do realize how fortunate I am to be able to retire so early. With that being said, I decided to pick a monument close to home and nothing too challenging.

In February 1942, President Roosevelt signed an Executive Order which basically gave America the right to "detain" those who were of Japanese, Italian and German ancestry. While there were Italian's and German's interned, it is the Japanese that were treated more unjustly than the other groups. After all, the Italian's and German's had more or less assimilated into American society whereas the Japanese kept to themselves and were encouraged to do so by most Americans.

I find this an interesting chance from the monument I visited last week, the Wakamatsu Tea & Silk Farm Colony. My research there found Americans taking a more positive stance towards the first Japanese coming to America.

During the period from 1860 to 1940, there was a large influx of Japanese, mostly to Hawaii to work in the cane fields. We have found one of the reasons there were so many Japanese migrating away from Japan was in response to the Boshin War. Once here, when their contracts expired, some stayed in Hawaii but many moved to California.

The Japanese naturally kept to themselves but it was made worse by the refusal of the real estate industry to sell properties to Japanese Americans outside of existing Japanese enclaves. In 1913, the California Assembly restricted land ownership to citizens and in 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s right to deny citizenship to Japanese immigrants. Not our finest moment.

When Japan entered WWII by bombing Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Americans were free to fear the Japanese they had come to disdain.

I've always said it's easy to sit in judgment of our past seeing it through the eyes of today's world.

EO #9066 gave the Secretary of War the power to decide which areas of the U.S. were to be considered "military zones". He deemed the entire west coast to be of enough military importance that the Department of Justice was ordered to detain anyone of Japanese ancestry with the exception of those serving in the military.

 

The Department of Justice had some real ethical issues over the detainment's and so the U.S. Army was instructed to carry out the orders.

I read a very interesting (ok, I can see all my family and friends rolling their eyes) article about the interments...looking at it from the vantage point of what was going on in 1941/1942; how quickly the decision had to be made and some of the factors. I'm not saying it was right, but again, it is not us in 2015 making that decision.

But leaving that up to history, the fact is, it happened. The Japanese were to be moved to what the U.S. would consider to be areas at less risk; mainly where no one else wanted to be. But because the decision was made quickly, those camps were not built and the deadline to "surrender" themselves was March 30, 1942. A little over a month!

So the U.S. opened "assembly" areas and the one I visited was in Sacramento. Today, the site is Walerga Park but originally it was a migrant labor camp and, while today's park is small, the original camp was larger than I had thought...eleven blocks with 225 buildings. The population would eventually reach 4,739 individuals before being moved to the permanent site at Tule Lake. It was populated for only 5 months before being closed as a detention center.

 

The site was used for other purposes before burning down in 1947.

In 1982, an official government study found the internments were unjustified and were based on "race prejudice and war hysteria".

PublicLaw #100-383 recommended a written apology from U.S. Government and $20k tax free "redress" person so interred. Those disbursements were made starting in 1990 and I remember someone I worked with saying her father received the funds.