Tanforan Assembly Center

(click to enlarge image)

Family of Japanese ancestry arrives at assembly center at Tanforan Race track. Evacuees will be transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers where they will be housed for the duration.

Family of Japanese ancestry arrives at assembly center at Tanforan Race Track. Evacuees will be transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers where they will be housed for the duration.

This center is a converted race track. Here are shown what were horsestalls remodeled into living quarters for families. Photograph was made at noon on the third day after the center had been opened.

Barracks for family living quarters. Each door enters into a family unit of two small rooms. Tanforan assembly center was opened two days before the photograph was made. On the first day there had been a heavy rain. When a family has arrived here, first step of evacuation is complete.

This assembly center has been opened for two days. Busload after busload of evacuated Japanese are arriving this day. After going through the necessary procedures, they are guided to the quarters assigned to them in the barracks. This family newly arrived, are in the process of settling down. The old man proudly exhibits the bench which he has just made out of scrap lumber left over from construction. The quarters to which this family were assigned are remodeled horse-stalls.

Barrack home in one of the long lines of converted horse stalls. Each family unit consists of two small rooms- the rear room without outside door or window.

A close-up of an entrance of a family apartment. Note that the windows in this unit have been enlarged. Five people occupy two small rooms, the inner one of which is without outside door or windows.

Father and son while away the hours carving small wooden animals for the children in front of their home in the barracks. They have been living at the Assembly center for approximately two weeks.

This scene shows one type of barracks for family use. These were formerly the stalls for race horses. Each family is assigned to two small rooms, the inner one, of which, has no outside door nor window. The center has been in operation about six weeks and 8,000 persons of Japanese ancestry are now assembled here.

Many evacuees suffer from lack of their accustomed activity. The attitude of the man shown in this photograph is typical of the residents in assembly centers, and because there is not much to do and not enough work available, they mill around, they visit, they stroll and they linger to while away the hours.

Plaque

Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.)--These young evacuee volunteer helpers are resting a few moments from their big job of delivering baggage to evacuee families of Japanese ancestry as they arrive at this assembly center. Later they will be transferred to a War Relocation Authority center to spend the duration. 4/29/42

A Japanese woman, just evacuated, who arrived this morning is shown at the door of her living quarters. Each door enters into a family unit of two small rooms (remodeled horse-stalls).. 4/29/42

Barracks for family living quarters. Each door enters into a family unit of two small rooms (remodeled horse-stalls). The center was opened just two days before this picture was taken. The people shown in this photograph have just arrived and are occupying themselves with building benches, chairs, tables, and shelves, for their belongings, from scrap lumber. Quarters are equipped with only a bed and mattress for each person. 4/29/42

This assembly center has been opened for two days. Bus-load after bus-load of evacuated Japanese are arriving this day. After going through the necessary procedures, they are guided to the quarter assigned to them in the barracks. This family, newly arrived, are in the process of settling down. The old man proudly exhibits the bench which he has just made out of scrap lumber left over from construction. The quarters to which this family were assigned are remodeled horse-stalls. 4/29/42

Building of the Tanforan Center are plastered at this time with all manner of locally devised posters incident to the election of five members of the Advisory Council. Three candidates were nominated from each of the five precincts. 6/16/42

View of the Tanforan Assembly Center, showing a type of barrack peculiar to the center. Also shown is part of a line-up of evacuees waiting for places in the mess hall for their noon meal. 6/16/42

Shown here is one type of barracks for family use. These were formerly the stalls for race horses. Each family is assigned to two small rooms, the inner one with no outside door nor window. The center has been in operation about six weeks. 8,000 evacuees are now assembled here.

Supper time! Meal times are the big events of the day within an assembly center. This is a line-up of evacuees waiting for the B shift at 5:45 P.M. They carry with them their own dishes and cutlery in bags to protect them from the dust. They, themselves, individually wash their own dishes after each meal, since dish washing facilities in the mess halls prove inadequate. Most of the residents prefer this second shift because they sometimes get second helpings, but the groups are rotated each week. There are eighteen mess halls in camp which, together, accommodate 8,000 persons three times each day. All food is prepared and served by evacuees. 6/16/42

This assembly center was at the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno. It was occupied from April 28th to Oct. 13th, 1942, holding around 8,000 evacuees. There is a marker relating to its uses as an assembly center. Most of the rest of the structures no longer exist.


The Oakland Tribune, April 4, 1942

The Oakland Tribune, May 18, 1942

The Oakland Tribune, May 22, 1942

The Oakland Tribune, Sept. 13, 1942

The Tanforan Tantalizer

Although there have been many books written about the Japanese-American internment, only some of them even mention the newsletters produced at the camps and, at most, they generally will have only one or two pages from one of the issues.

This is leaving out one of the most historically interesting and important aspects of the internment. The newsletters that were produced give the day-to-day news of interest to the community of those who were interned. I am sure that there were restraints on what the newsletters were allowed to print, but they still tend to contain a wealth of interesting material.

I ran across one particularly valuable source, Densho. They have a vast number of the newsletters. I also managed to find a very few elsewhere.

This section will deal with the newsletter for the Tanforan Assembly Center at San Bruno, California. The name of their newspaper was the Tanforan Totalizer.

What I will do in this section is do some brief descriptions of the contents of the newspapers that I have been able to find. I have modified some of the original scans, primarily by whiting out some materials.

I will cover 17 issues of the newspaper.

Issues 1 through 5
Issues 6 through 10
Issues 10 through 15
Issues 16 through 19



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