Internment at Tanforan Racetrack
A majority of San Francisco Bay Area Japanese American residents were forcibly removed to Tanforan Racetrack, a horse racing facility in San Bruno, California.
Japanese American woman arriving at Tanforan Racetrack. Courtesy of Dorothea Lange.
Steve Okamoto recalls the Tanforan racetrack: "My family and others, we had to live in a horse stall, a horse stall that was filled with manure and urine, no partitions in toilets, having to lose your name and wear a tag with a number."
"When I saw the place for the first time, I was twice as dejected and the vague spark of hope that I had kept in a secret corner of my mind died out."
- Kiyoshi Jimmy Kimoto
April 29, 1942 — Tanforan Assembly center. Image courtesy of Dorothea Lange.
Japanese Americans had shabbily-made barracks for family living quarters - these "apartments" were repurposed horse stalls, dehumanizing the Japanese Americans forced to live in them.
Incarcerees lined up outside the only operating mess hall at Tanforan. Image courtesy of Densho.
The poor living conditions extended to a shortage in food supply, with the main mess hall unable to feed the 3,000 incarcerated J. Being forcibly removed is an appalling removal of rights itself, but forcing Japanese Americans into horse stalls shows a clear disregard for human rights.