Wartime History Of Santa Anita

Santa Anita Racetrack is have its problems now, with 23 horse having died either during or a race of during training, this race meet.  That's a lot, and it puts a damper on racing.  Santa Anita has a dark wartime history as well, as it was the nation's largest assembly center for Japanese Americans on their way to internment camps.  There's a plaque near the entrance to the racetrack, the sole reminder of this shameful time.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President FDR ordered the evacuation of Japanese Americans to internment camps.  While these relocation camps were being built, evacuees were ordered to stay for a few months at assembly centers.  Santa Anita was one such place.

Beginning in March 1942, about 19,000 Japanese Americans from California lived at Santa Anita, in  hastily constructed barracks or in converted horse stalls.  The entire grounds were used, and it was divided into seven sections, with temporary classrooms, post office, makeshift churches and kitchens.  The racetrack was surrounded by barbed wire.  At night, searchlights swept the streets.  Residents of the "prison" were banned from possessing any literature printed in Japanese.

Many Japanese Americans found work, some in their chosen professions, as doctors, teachers and cooks.  Despite the repressive environment, internees formed theatre groups, knitting classes, a choir and a string quarted.  They had 70 softball teams and several Boy Scout troops.  They started a newspaper, which was published bi weekly.

Hopefully Santa Anita will figure out why so many horses are being injured, and soon.  Then Santa Anita can return to "The great race place,"  that it once was.