POMONA >> A reminder of one of the darker chapters in American history is now found at the end of a short, flower-lined walkway to the west of the Pomona Fairplex administrative office.

A brass plaque placed upon stone marks the site of the Pomona Assembly Center, a detention camp at the Fairplex where from May to August 1942, 5,434 Japanese-American citizens were ordered to be held encamped as part of President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066.

The order resulted in the forced relocation and imprisonment of more than 120,000 residents of Japanese ancestry without any criminal charges. A congressional commission in 1980 determined the action was “not justified by military necessity,” the product of “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.”

Fairplex paid nearly $10,000 for the plaque and construction of its base and walkway. The site has been designated California Historical Landmark No. 934, the plaque noting the center was one of 15 temporary assembly centers President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Feb. 19, 1942.

• Video: Judge Lance Ito at the plaque ceremony

A passage on the plaque says 120,000 people were collectively confined “without due process of law, charges or trial or establishment of guilt as a result of hysteria and racism.” It ends with the call that “such injustice and suffering never recur.”

“This has been a long time coming,” said Dwight Richards, vice president of operations at Pomona Fairplex. “Our intention is to provide this plaque for a bit of closure for those that were here and still alive today, and have a marker so that their descendents can see and understand one of their loved ones was here at that point in time.”

West Covina-resident Bacon Sakatani, 87, who was a detainee at the center at the age of 12, said he began his effort to lobby the Fairplex for a memorial plaque or marker a decade ago. Sakatani and other members of the Pomona Assembly Center Committee enlisted the help of Mickey Gallivan, president of the Pomona Historical Society, and together they held meetings with Richards to push for the plaque.

“At one time, during 1942, this was an illegal place to detain us American citizens without any charges,” Sakatani said. “It’s great this finally happened after 74 years.”

Gallivan said the significance of the effort is to offer a place for those who were incarcerated unjustly to heal.

“It’s much more healthy and healing to try to ensure it doesn’t happen to anybody else again, and that’s a part of this, to help people who were here,” Gallivan said.

In 1942, 309 housing barracks were constructed along the north side of McKinley Avenue, where today the Fairplex parking lot Gate 1 stands, and southwest of the grandstand. The detention center was a temporary encampment for the thousands of Japanese-Americans who were later transported to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming, which incarcerated 10,767 from 1942 to 1945.

Among those who were detained at the Pomona Assembly Center and later incarcerated at Heart Mountain was the father of Judge Lance Ito. His parents had reportedly met at the internment camp. Ito, best known for presiding over the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, was among at least 100 attendees at the dedication ceremony held at the Fairplex on Wednesday morning.

“I’m glad it’s happened, but it should have happened a long time ago,” Ito said. “I’m grateful that the County Fair Association and the Historical Society managed to get this done because it’s something that should have been done decades ago.”

Other internees at the Pomona Assembly Center and later Heart Mountain included the parents of former Los Angeles County CEO William Fujioka, who also attended the ceremony and spoke during opening comments.

“My mother’s entire family and my father and his entire family were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, without any charges. They lost everything,” Fujioka said. “This plaque reminds people of what happened. It honors the Japanese but it reminds people of the injustice done to a group of individuals based solely on their race, nothing else.”

Fujioka and Sakatani couldn’t help but notice the parallels to today’s political rhetoric.

“That’s what (Republican presidential candidate Donald) Trump is talking about now, deporting 11 million people, which is obscene,” Fujioka said.

“It’s 1942 coming right back again,” Sakatani said. “Who knows? Something might happen. Innocent victims will be put into a camp through some kind of national emergency.”

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