TURLOCK
| Official name: | Turlock Assembly Center | Location: | Turlock, California |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinates: | 37.50° N, 120.86° W | Opening date: | April 30, 1942 |
| Closing date: | August 12, 1942 |
A gathering of dispersed communities
The Turlock Assembly Center brought together Japanese Americans from places that were often far from the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds. People arrived from Vacaville and other Solano County communities, the East Bay, Los Angeles, and Walnut Grove.
The camp operated from late April to August 1942. Its population reflected several communities uprooted by the same removal program, rather than a single town brought inside a nearby enclosure. The people confined at Turlock were subsequently transferred to Gila River, Arizona.
Sources: Densho Encyclopedia · Turlock
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 |
