On the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Santa Anita Assembly Center, JANM and the Santa Anita Assembly Center Committee present a reunion and a public remembrance.

Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and President Roosevelt’s issuance of Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast, the detainees were first sent to makeshift assembly centers while the remote concentration camps were being prepared for their arrival. Santa Anita Assembly Center utilized the grounds, parking lots, and horse stalls at Santa Anita Park to hold nearly 19,000 individuals, who had been living as far north as San Jose and as far south as San Diego, in unspeakable conditions for five months.

The event at JANM, which is open to the public and includes a lunch and a program, will bring together surviving detainees, their families, and their descendants’ families, whose lives became forever entwined as a result of their shared experiences at Santa Anita between March 27 and October 27, 1942.

$30 per person. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. To make a reservation, please contact committee members June Aochi Berk at juneaochiberk@me.com or 818.400.3273, or Colleen Miyano at miyanofam5@aol.com or 310.908.7508.

Presented in partnership with the Santa Anita Assembly Center Committee.