- Santa Anita Race Track: 285 W. Huntington Dr., Arcadia 91007 (at Civic Center Pl.)
(626) 574-RACE, www.santaanita.com - Pomona Fairgrounds: 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona 91768 (at Paige Dr.)
(909) 623-3111, www.fairplex.com/fp/
The racetrack at Santa Anita Park is one of the most historic horseracing sites in the United States, and the scene of some of the greatest victories by Seabiscuit—the “people’s champion”—during the Great Depression.
Less well known is that Santa Anita served as a temporary detention center for many of the Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. Beginning on March 30, almost 100,000 Japanese Americans in California were sent to temporary detention or assembly centers, such as Santa Anita Park and the Pomona Fairgrounds. Because of the haste with which they had to evacuate, Japanese Americans were forced to sell their homes, businesses, and possessions for a pittance and to leave most of their remaining belongings behind. Internees were held at temporary detention centers until the more permanent concentration camps, such as Manzanar and Tule Lake, were completed. The internment of Japanese Americans is recognized as one of the gravest violations of civil rights in U.S. history. In the 1980s, Japanese Americans mobilized for reparations, and in 1988 President Ronald Reagan offered a formal apology, acknowledged that the internment had been a result of “racial hysteria,” and provided monetary compensation.
Images:
- View overlooking the horse stables at Santa Anita Park, 2007. Photo by Wendy Cheng.
- Japanese American internees arrive at Santa Anita, 1942. Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library.