MERCED
| Official name: | Merced Assembly Center | Location: | Merced, California |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinates: | 37.29° N, 120.49° W | Opening date: | May 6, 1942 |
| Peak population: | 4,508 | Date of peak: | June 3, 1942 |
| Closing date: | September 15, 1942 |
A stop between rural California and Colorado
The Merced Assembly Center stood on county fairgrounds property in the San Joaquin Valley. The Army brought people from Central California farming communities and the northern California coast into nearly two hundred newly built barracks.
Families contended with heat, insects, crowded quarters, and little privacy during the summer of 1942. In September, nearly the entire camp population was transferred to Amache, Colorado. The transfer carried rural and small-town California communities to southeastern Colorado for a much longer confinement.
Sources: Densho Encyclopedia · Merced
Across the assembly centers
Following their forced removal from the West Coast (described by the government as “evacuation”), Japanese Americans were initially confined in temporary detention centers called “assembly centers” before their eventual assignment to one of ten incarceration camps in the interior, officially designated “war relocation centers” and operated by the new civilian agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA). The fifteen hastily constructed temporary detention centers known as “assembly centers” held the 92,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry forcibly removed under Executive Order 9066.
The table and the collection below cover all fifteen assembly centers. Each object’s caption identifies the people, places, and events it documents. Its place on this page does not assign it to this center.
| “Assembly Center” | Maximum Population | Dates Occupied |
|---|---|---|
| Fresno, CA | 5,120 (Sept. 4) | May 6 – Oct. 30 |
| Marysville, CA | 2,451 (June 2) | May 8 – June 29 |
| Mayer, AZ | 245 (May 25) | May 7 – June 2 |
| Merced, CA | 4,508 (June 3) | May 6 – Sept. 15 |
| Pinedale, CA | 4,792 (June 29) | May 7 – July 23 |
| Pomona, CA | 5,434 (July 20) | May 7 – Aug. 24 |
| Portland, OR | 3,676 (June 6) | May 2 – Sept. 10 |
| Sacramento, CA | 4,739 (May 30) | May 6 – June 26 |
| Puyallup, WA | 7,390 (July 25) | April 28 – Sept. 12 |
| Salinas, CA | 3,586 (June 23) | April 27 – July 4 |
| Santa Anita, CA | 18,719 (Aug. 23) | March 27 – Oct. 27 |
| Stockton, CA | 4,271 (May 21) | May 10 – Oct. 17 |
| Tanforan, CA | 7,816 (July 25) | April 28 – Oct. 13 |
| Tulare, CA | 4,978 (Aug. 11) | April 20 – Sept. 4 |
| Turlock, CA | 3,661 (June 2) | April 30 – Aug. 12 |
