Licensing

Incarceration: Assembly Centers

April 9th 1942- Wartime Civilian Control Agency (WCCA) was established by the military to coordinate the evacuation to inland relocation centers. However, the relocation centers were far from ready for large influxes of people, and since the Japanese Americans living in the restricted zone were considered too dangerous to freely conduct their daily business, the military decided it was necessary to find temporary "assembly centers" to house the evacuees until the relocation centers were completed.

Civilian Assembly Centers were temporary camps, frequently located at horse tracks such as Santa Anita and Tanforan where the Nissei were sent as they were removed from their communities. The assembly centers were created in a very short amount of time with little resources and because of this many people were forced to live in horse stables and in very poor conditions. There were a total of 16 assembly centers that were set up for Japanese Americans mostly in California, but also two were located in Arizona and Washington.