A group of Japanese evacuees at the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese has gathered to watch a baseball game with both men and women on the teams. The west end of the Santa Anita Race Track Club House is seen in the background.
Group of new arrivals at the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese prepare to unpack belongings into numbered quarters seen behind them. Three cars are being unloaded. About 16 Japanese can be seen in the vicinity. Pepper trees are seen in the area.
Group seen walking toward camera; a man, woman & child stand beside a building at Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. What appears to be Club House ot Santa Anita Race Track, is seen in background.
Groups of six Japanese men seen hauling sand in a large wheel barrow and shoveling it. Santa Anita Race Track Club House is behind them. Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese.
The hands of evacuees are inspected closely by medical official at Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. Note: Tag fixed to sweater bears designation: Family Number _____.
Helmeted soldiers stand guard as a group of Japanese who have just arrived on Pacific Electric Rail cars prepare to go to assigned quarters at the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. One young mother sits on a bench with her arm around her baby.
Honorary degrees were awarded to Japanese-American former Pasadena City College students who had their educations cut short by internment during World War II. Japanese-American "nisei" students at what was then Pasadena Junior College never got the chance to graduate with the Class of 1942. One honorary graduate, Fusae Hamane (died in 1997), born and raised in Pasadena, was told to report to Santa Anita Park race track before being sent to a camp in Gila Bend, AZ. The graduation came 68 years later.
How Arcadia gained a rare piece of history. Riyo Sato was a developing artist by the time she was sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center at Santa Anita Park, in 1942, before being transferred to Wyoming, to a different detention facility called “Heart Mountain.” She left behind sketches of Santa Anita Park which will be displayed at the Gilb Museum of Arcadia Heritage.
Interview with author Brad Pearson who wrote the book The Eagles of Heart Mountain. He tackles the injustice of Japanese-American incarceration through the exploits of a World War II camp football team. Article mentions many evacuees were detained at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia before being shipped out.
In this photo, one staff member in dark sweater leans on large table set up to check belongings of new arrivals to Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. Approximately twelve Japanese wait for the check. Other staff members and police are standing about one large truck and two autos.
1. "Japanese buying Liberty Bonds." Arcadia Tribune, May 4, 1918. 2. Former students receive honorary degrees. World War II order delayed academic progress for two Japanese-American Citrus College students, Toshio Asano and Masako Mukai Kusumoto. Toshio Asano, 91, of Monrovia is pictured. He was a…
1. "Japanese buying Liberty Bonds." Arcadia Tribune, May 4, 1918.
2. Former students receive honorary degrees. World War II order delayed academic progress for two Japanese-American Citrus College students, Toshio Asano and Masako Mukai Kusumoto. Toshio Asano, 91, of Monrovia is pictured. He was a graduate of Monrovia High School a.k.a. Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte MAD High School in 1941.
3. Yosh Kuromiya, a graduate of Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School in 1941 was "the boy who never belonged," a feature article by Susie Ling, Arcadia Weekly, January 5, 2017. Kuromiya was evacuated to Pomona Fairgrounds and then to Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming during World War II.
A Japanese couple watch as their luggage is inspected at a table at the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. Man is wearing a sweater-vest with name tag attached. On the side of table closest to camera is an officer in dark uniform. Conducting the inspection is an officer in tan uniform.
A Japanese family (child, mother, father) pictured by small house they lived in on Harry Ainsworth Ranch which was just east of intersection of Santa Anita and Orange Grove Ave. The father was the head gardener for Ainsworth. Name unknown.
Japanese lady stands on running board of a car that apparently has just brought her and some of her family with their few allowed belongings to the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. Another car waits in line for the processing. Two Japanese men and a policeman stand nearby.
Large group of people seated at tables outdoors. Overhead are paper lanterns. Group is at Japanese "community" in Arcadia which apparently was near Holly Avenue below Huntington, for a performance of the MIKADO. Man directly in front (center, no hat) is Ed Ryan, caretaker at Baldwin racetrack. On his lap is his daughter, whom Vesta Tucker Reeves and her sister did not like so they scratched over her photo with a pin. Girl seen over his left shoulder, is Vesta Tucker. The lady next to her is not identified. The girl with the long necklace sitting on the lap of the unidentified lady near Mr. Ryan, is Dextra Baldwin. Small boy on left on Japanese man's lap, is Baldwin M. Baldwin. The man, three figures away from camera in row Dextra is in, is her grandfather, Elias J."Lucky" Baldwin. Large man in light suit just to right of Mr. Ryan, is Mr. Johnson, who owned Johnson's Inn. Seen on extreme right, man with mustache and white hair, is Blas Cuellar, the wine maker.
Large number of evacuees watch continuing transformation of facilities from Race Track operation to Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese. Here two small booth-like buildings are moved.
Life interrupted: personal sketches behind barbed wire, Santa Anita, Summer 1942, Riyo Sato (1913-2009). The Gilb Museum of Arcadia Heritage will be displaying Riyo Sato's sketches September 14-November 2, 2013.
Line of evacuees at Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese, headed by a mother holding a small girl, begin to come by serving area to select food from the 7 staff members ready to help.