Santa Anita Detention Center

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US government forcibly relocated over 125,000 people of Japanese descent at 75 incarceration sites (including both short-term detention centers and long-term incarceration centers). Four decades later, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 stating that Japanese-American incarceration was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership,” not legitimate security reasons. This bill also issued a formal apology to those who were incarcerated and paid $20,000 in reparations to each inmate.

 

Over 18,000 people were incarcerated at the Santa Anita temporary detention center while it was open from March 30 to October 27, 1942. This site was private property requisitioned by the federal government and converted in a very short period of time. Some detainees were housed in horse stalls converted to cramped living quarters, while others lived in quickly-constructed barracks. The temporary detention center was surrounded by barbed wire to prevent inmates from escaping, and detainees were forced to make camouflage netting to cover the outside of the center and for the war efforts more broadly. The majority of inmates at the Santa Anita temporary detention center were eventually transferred to the Jerome, Heart Mountain, Rohwer, and Amache incarceration centers. Japanese-American incarceration disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, separating them from their families, forcing them to lose valuable property and businesses, and robbing them of their freedom.