Groundbreaking took place Friday for a new memorial to pay tribute to the 8,000 Japanese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area imprisoned in horse stalls during World War II.
The government used the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno to temporarily imprison those of Japanese descent until they could be moved to a more permanent prison.
The Mercury News reports the memorial near a BART train station will include a bronze statue that will include a Dorothea Lange photo of two children waiting to board a bus to the Assembly Center.
It took a decade of planning and fundraising for this day to happen.
“This day is 10 years in the making, and 80 years in the making for those imprisoned,” Doug Yamamoto, president of the Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee, said to the San Mateo Daily Journal.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) attended the groundbreaking at Tanforan and said the story of those incarcerated there serves as a reminder of the past and something that cannot be repeated.
“People were stripped of their liberty and property at a time when bigotry prevailed and the constitution was scrapped and Americans lost their way,” Speier said to the Mercury News. “This memorial should remind us how important it is for all of us to enjoy the freedoms of this country. Something like this should never happen again.”
The Tanforan Race Track is now home to a shopping center. Between April and October of 1942, it served as a temporary location for people imprisoned merely because they happen to be Japanese American.
Okamoto was just five months old when his family was ordered to report there. He said his mother told him stories of the smell of manure and urine and the difficulty she had in finding baby formula.
Few in the area know the history of the current shopping center as a prison.
“I can tell you as a third generation, lifelong San Bruno resident, when I grew up, I knew this was a race track, I was taught that. I never was told, never was educated, what else transpired,” he said.
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