Populating Amache

Children playing at Amache, May 1943.

National Archives

Forced Removal

Incarcerees at Amache came primarily from three areas of California: the Northern San Francisco Bay Area, primarily Sonoma County; Central California, namely the San Joaquin Valley; and southwestern Los Angeles, including the Seinan District. Nikkei from these areas were initially forced into either the Merced Assembly Center in the Central Valley or the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Los Angeles.

Although the population at Amache was a mix of families from both urban and rural areas,
farming communities were slightly more numerous. These close-knit families often maintained their connections throughout the upheaval of forced removal and incarceration. This population included the entirety of the Yamato Colony, founded in 1906 by Kyutaro Abiko, a San Francisco newspaper publisher and businessperson. This settlement eventually evolved into three separate but adjacent colonies known as Yamato, Cressey, and Cortez, located in and around the Livingston area.

Another discrete Japanese American community that was removed together was Walnut Grove, a small agricultural community in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that served as a commercial and social center for Japanese American farm laborers beginning in the 1890s. The Seinan District of southwest Los Angeles was another community whose members ended up in large numbers at Amache. Also a tightknit, thriving community, the Seinan District differed from the other communities because it was a part of a bustling urban city.

Relocation to Colorado

After spending a few weeks to months at the assembly centers, incarcerees were again uprooted and shipped to the more permanent relocation centers. They were placed on trains with armed guards without being told where they were headed. Shades were pulled shut on the train windows so they were unable to see where they were. After a few days of travel, they were unloaded at the Granada train station. Incarcerees either walked or where driven the two miles to the Granada Relocation Center, where most would remain for three years.