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World War II in California's Inland Empire

Dr. Eileen V. Wallis, Author

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Pomona


The Treatment of Veterans in Pomona During the War


On May 7, 1944, The Santa Cruz Sentinel-News announced the “State Jr, C. of C. Ends War Confab”  stated, “the state junior chamber of commerce concluded its three-day wartime conference yesterday with the election of officers for the coming year”[1] This selection of board of directors from Sacramento to Pomona vice president, one of them Tom Morgan from Pomona, decided to help the servicemen who had been participating during World War 2. The featured speaker of the civic auditorium George Moran of the United States Marine Corps hit hard on the termed “inhumane treatment of servicemen by civilians”[2] He knew that the servicemen, once they came back from the South Pacific after two years of fighting, where going to need human treatment from civilians. However, the increasing growth of population in California had increased in the last three years on what it would have taken in 6 years. The problem raised questions on if the people were going to be leaving and returning to their home states. “He estimated that we will retain the major part of the persons who have come here since the start of the war.”[3]

The Pomona Fairgrounds During the War


Most of the internment camps in the United States, the majority were located in California. After the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, nearly “20,000 of the 93,000 Japanese-Americans who lived in California would be led­--- without the due process of legal hearing---behind the barbed-wire fences of Santa Anita.”[4] Of those, 5,000 Japanese-Americans were forcibly re-located to the “Pomona fairgrounds near the Los Angeles County’s eastern border.”[5] During the internment of Japanese Americans, the majority were concentrated in the Santa Anita Racetracks with a second concentration at the Pomona Fairgrounds, now known as the Fairplex. About 5,000 Japanese stayed in the interment camp there, that is not including those who were transferred to Wyoming internment camps. Many of these Japanese Americans at the internment camps had to replicate most of their lifestyles they had left behind. This did not only affect those who were in the camps but as well those who participated in the war.
In addition the Fairgrounds were not only used for internment. 

Before they were used to imprison the Japanese they were used as a training ground for civilian-soldiers. Southern California and San Joaquin Valley cities  sent their citizen-soldiers to the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds at Pomona for the opening of the California National Guard's first winter field training camp since the World War I Armistice [6]. In 1939, The Fairplex was used as the winter camp to have extra training for the soldiers.The training was opened to public. In Compliance with orders of President Roosevelt for extra training by the National Guard, the Pomona encampment will be intensive and there will be night operations[7]. The training was ordered by President Roosevelt and made sure the soldiers were well-trained. The soldiers would carried their own equipment to the winter camps, such as machine-guns. The purpose of the training was to give an idea to the Guardsmen what to expect during war time.
 

Footnotes


[1] “Invasion Beaches Are Bombed: State Jr, C. of C. Ends War Confab,” The Santa Cruz Sentinel-News, May 7, 1944. 1.
[2]“Invasion Beaches Are Bombed,” 1
[3] Ibid, 1.
[4] Berkley Hudson, “The Hurt Is Still There: Reparations Evoke Painful Recollections,” Los Angeles Times, August 25, 1988. 10.
[5] Berkley Hudson, “The Hurt Is Still There,”10.
[6] Guardsmen Leave Today: “Intensive Training Planned at Pomona,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1939, A3.
[7] “Guardsmen Leave Today: “Intensive Training Planned at Pomona,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1939, A3.
 
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