Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 16 (continued)
Assembly Centers

Fresno Assembly Center, California

The Fresno Assembly Center was located at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. Occupied from May 6 to October 30, 1942, it was the last assembly center to close. It held a total of 5,344 evacuees (with a maximum of 5,120 at a time) from the central San Joaquin Valley and Amador County. Over 100 barracks served by six sets of communal buildings were located within the infield of the fairgrounds racetrack, and four contiguous blocks with 20 barracks each were located adjacent to the fairgrounds (Figure 16.1).

Figure 16.1. Oblique aerial view of the Fresno Assembly Center. (from DeWitt 1943)

Figure 16.2. Grandstand at the Fresno County Fairgrounds today.

There are no assembly center remains or any historical marker at the site. Most of the fairgrounds has been changed so extensively from its 1942 appearance that it is difficult to determine whether any fair buildings present during the assembly center use still remain (Figure 16.2).

Continued

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ce16a.htm