What was Tanforan?

Tanforan was one of 17 temporary "assembly centers" set up to house the approximately 112,000 people of Japanese descent (the vast majority of whom were American citizens) who were unjustly ordered to leave their homes while the government built more permanent incarceration camps. ​

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Why were people of Japanese descent forced into these camps? 

Although anti-Japanese sentiment had existed since the moment Japanese immigrants stepped foot in the United States, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the subsequent declaration of war against Japan led to President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order allowed the military to remove and imprison anyone deemed a threat in the West Coast of the United States. In reality, this meant the total removal of all Japanese and Japanese Americans including infants, orphans, the sick, and the disabled.  Germans, German Americans, Italians and Italian Americans were not subject to the same treatment.

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Assembly Center or Detention Camp

Although termed "assembly centers" by the government, the reality of places like Tanforan were much more accurately described by a term such as "detention center." While people were assembled at these places,  the term "assembly center" makes no reference towards  the unjust nature of these detention centers, as the people being assembled, the majority of whom were American citizens, had committed no crime and were being held against their will without due process.  ​

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What was life like at Tanforan?

Approximately 8,000 people of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned at the Tanforan detention center. Some of the people sent to Tanforan were assigned to sleep in hastily and poorly assembled barracks. Others were forced to sleep in horse stalls, as Tanforan used to be a horse racetrack. The horse stalls reeked of urine and manure. There was little to no privacy, as the average stall room measured just 9' by 12', and multiple families and bachelors could be housed in a single stall.

​Especially early on, there was a complete lack of sanitation and laundry facilities. There were only six laundry stations for the entire camp, many bathroom toilets did not have partitions, and hot water would usually run out by mid-morning. There was no privacy, no furniture, no insulation or source of heat, and no way of knowing how long one would be staying at Tanforan. 

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The Stories of Tanforan

Steve Okamoto
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" I was just five weeks old when my grandparents, parents and three year old sister and me had to pack up our San Francisco home and walk six blocks to the pickup station.  We were told that we could only bring what we could carry.  Imagine my grandparents barely able to carry their suitcases and my mom having to carry me and the diaper bag?  My poor dad had to carry two heavy suitcases.  Many of us also wore several sets of clothes in addition to what we all packed.  We didn't know where we were going, how long we would be away ​and would we ever come back? The bus ride was hot and long.  We finally ended the ride at the infield of Tanforan Racetrack.  We've never been to San Bruno, let alone a racetrack.  We were assigned to a horsestall since they hadn't built enough barracks. My mom told me as I got older that she didn't remember too much about Tanforan but she would never forget the smell of the horse manure and urine for the rest of her life."

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Momoko (Kawahara) Hatamiya

Momoko Hatamiya had just turned seven years old when her family was forced to leave their home in San Leandro, California, and sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center, where they lived in a horse stall. Her family wasn't given much notice before they had to leave, so they sold practically all of their belongings and packed only what they could carry. "I was so young, there is not much I can still recollect, but I do remember that I knew something terrible was happening," Momo said. "I was the youngest of seven children, and I just remember there was a lot of fear. I could feel grief and worry, but I couldn't process it completely."

Ben Takeshta

Ben Takeshta was 11 years old when incarcerated at Tanforan. When recounting life at Tanforan, he said, "for lunch, at the mess halls where we got in line and ate what they served, I remember eating a lot of lunch meats such as baloney, salami, wieners. etc.  But many adults got tired of eating these lunch meats for lunch every time, so since I was hungry all the time, I would ask the adults if they could give me some of those salamis and baloneys, if they don't want to eat them, and they gave them to me. So I ate well in Tanforan as a kid. In fact, still enjoy the taste the these lunch meats." After Tanforan, Ben's family was sent to incarceration camps in Topaz, Utah and Tule Lake, CA. ​

Resources to learn more

Web Exclusive: Japanese-American Internment. Photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr. found surviving Japanese-Americans who were photographed by Dorothea Lange and others as they were taken to internment camps during World War II.

Documentary by Dyanna Taylor. Her photograph Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized and arresting images in the world, a portrait that came to represent America's Great Depression. Yet few know the story, struggles and profound body of work of the woman who created the portrait: Dorothea Lange.

BART San Bruno Station Photo Exhibit: Japanese American Evacuation. A powerful photo journalism exhibit is on display through the month of May at the BART San Bruno exhibit.