Tanforan memorial underway: Effort to recognize Japanese internment camp at former race track being finalized

Okamoto, who was held with his parents and sister at the Tanforan internment camp in 1942, will host an event Saturday, Oct. 31, kicking off the fundraising campaign which will sponsor the creation and installation of the memorial.

Local officials such as U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, are slated to attend the event, said Okamoto, along with former journalist Wendy Hanamura, who produced a film about her family’s time spent in the camp.

Speier said the harm done to those interned in San Bruno should be memorialized, so as to never be forgotten.

“This is a location people see as a very large shopping mall, but there was a time when it was a race track and a time when people were interned there in horse stables,” she said. “They were Americans and their lives were destroyed. In many cases, they lost their jobs and their homes. This violated every constitutional right we espouse, and it is important we remember it.”

Okamoto was one of those who spent roughly six months with his family living in a single stall in a horse stable, which held overflow prisoners who could not fit in the hastily built barracks set up on the infield of the former race track.

Though Okamoto was only weeks old when living at the camp, he said his mother conveyed to him memories of the overwhelming stench of horse manure that prevailed throughout their time as prisoners.

After the months spent in San Bruno, Okamoto said he and his family were sent with thousands of others to Topaz, Utah, where they were kept captive with roughly 20,000 others for nearly three years before their release in 1945.

The memorial, which will be built by RHAA Architecture, will include a reconstruction of the door to the horse stable, in which the 7,800 prisoners who were interned at the camp will have their name inscribed, said Okamoto.

San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane said he supported the initiative to build the memorial.

“I think it is important to recognize what has gone on in the past,” he said.

City officials have participated in previous events acknowledging those who were interned at the site, said Ruane, but he favored building a larger and more substantial structure.

“This will be more permanent,” he said. “I think it is good.”

A small plaque is currently posted outside the Shops at Tanforan memorializing the internment camp, but Okamoto said the larger effort will pay a greater tribute and bring more recognition to the memory of the camp.

“We are trying to create a memorial that will honor all 7,800 people,” he said.

The idea to build a memorial came out of a photo gallery memorializing the internment camp which was installed at the BART station, due to the hard work of local residents Richard Oba and Doug Yamamoto, which then grew to a more substantive effort, said Okamoto.

The willingness of RHAA Architecture to contribute to the construction of the memorial stemmed from two members of the firm being held at the camp as well, said Okamoto.

He said it is becoming more important to build the memorial as soon as possible, because increasingly fewer of those who were held prisoner at the camp are alive to see its installation.

Also, the memorial stands to serve a value in the Japanese culture of honoring one’s predecessors, said Okamoto.

“We felt this was a significant and visual way that we can say to our ancestors — ‘we have not forgot about you,’” said Okamoto.

He noted the additional importance of building the memorial to inform current and future generations of the suffering caused by the internment camp, as an effort to try to prevent such a tragedy from being repeated.

“We understand what happened and we do not want it to happen again,” said Okamoto.

Speier echoed those sentiments.

“It is one of those dark moments we are appropriately embarrassed by and do not want to repeat,” she said.

An event commencing the fundraising campaign for the Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. Due to limited seating, email Steve Okamoto, at steveokamoto1@gmail.com, to RSVP.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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