Qualla: Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorothea Lange, Public domain. Ruth Ihara saw her new home and could not speak. "When we first saw our living quarters we were so sick we couldn't eat, walk, or talk," she wrote. "We couldn't even cry till later." The living quarters were at the Merced County Fairgrounds, where cattle had stood weeks before. In the spring of 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, the fairgrounds were hastily converted into one of sixteen temporary assembly centers built to incarcerate Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast. The Merced Assembly Center operated for just 133 days, from May 6 to September 15, 1942, but in that time it held 4,669 people - farmers, shopkeepers, students, children - who had been given days to sell or abandon their homes, businesses, and belongings. Ten people died within its perimeter.

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Image: Dorothea Lange | Public domain

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: Carried What They Could

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amadscientist, CC BY-SA 3.0. The people sent to Merced came overwhelmingly from rural farming communities. Some 1,600 arrived from Colusa County and Yolo County. Another 1,400 came from the nearby regions of Modesto, Merced, and Turlock. A thousand more came from northern coastal towns. Families were allowed...

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Image: Amadscientist | CC BY-SA 3.0

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: Cattle Stalls and Searchlights

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorothea Lange, Public domain. The fairgrounds were never designed to hold thousands of people, and the conversion showed. Cattle stalls were cleared and made to house families of six. Barracks were thrown up from crude materials that could not withstand rain or wind; floods seeped in, and insects followed thr...

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Image: Dorothea Lange | Public domain

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: Life Inside the Fence

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorothea Lange, Public domain. Despite the conditions, the incarcerated community built what structure it could. Twenty Japanese American volunteers taught elementary, middle, and high school students in classes that ran from June 10 to August 21, 1942 - some held in grandstands, others in empty barracks where...

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Image: Dorothea Lange | Public domain

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: The Photographer Who Would Not Look Away

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorothea Lange, Public domain. The government hired Dorothea Lange to document the relocation process, expecting images that showed Japanese Americans being treated well. Lange was instructed to exclude barbed wire, watchtowers, and armed soldiers from her frames. WRA officials followed her constantly, and an ...

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Image: Dorothea Lange | Public domain

Merced Assembly Center: 133 Days Behind the Wire: What Remains at the Fairgrounds

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Intranila, CC BY-SA 3.0. In September 1942, the incarcerated were transferred in groups of roughly 500 to the Amache concentration camp in southeastern Colorado, a process that took several weeks. The Merced Assembly Center closed on September 15, 1942, and the fairgrounds returned to agricultural use. F...

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Image: Intranila | CC BY-SA 3.0