National Park Service: Confinement and Ethnicity (Chapter 16)

Confinement and Ethnicity:
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An Overview of World War II
Japanese American Relocation Sites
by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord
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Chapter 16 (continued)
Assembly Centers

Merced Assembly Center, California

Figure 16.12. Oblique aerial view of the Merced Assembly Center.
(from DeWitt 1943)

The Merced Assembly Center, in the central San Joaquin Valley, was within the town of Merced at the county fairgrounds. Occupied from May 6 to September 15, it housed a total of 4,669 people (with a maximum of 4,508 at one time) from the northern California coast, west Sacramento Valley, and the northern San Joaquin Valley. Historical photographs show about 200 buildings at the assembly center, most located south of the fairgrounds proper (Figure 16.12).

A State of California historical marker is located at the main pedestrian entrance to the fairgrounds (Figure 16.13). Some fair buildings visible on the 1942 aerial photograph may remain, but there have been extensive changes at the site. Behind (south of) the fairgrounds the former barracks area is now a gravel parking lot. Eleven concrete foundations there may be from the assembly center: the slabs are in poor condition, but most measure approximately 20 ft by 100 ft, the standard barracks size (Figures 16.14 and 16.15). Concrete floors for temporary barracks were unusual, if not unique, given the assembly centers' hasty construction. The only relocation center with concrete barracks floors was Granada, where, coincidentally, the internees at Merced were transferred.

Figure 16.14. Concrete slabs at the Merced County Fairgrounds.
Figure 16.15. Concrete slab at the Merced County Fairgrounds.

Figure 16.13. Monument at the Merced County Fairgrounds.

Continued

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