HISTORICAL SITE IN HAYWARD, CA: JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT MONUMENT UNVEILED IN HAYWARD PRESERVATION PARK AT THE SITE WHERE 600 JA’s BOARDED BUSES TO DETENTION CENTERS, MAY 1942

Japanese American Confinement Monument

On May 8th, 1942, Over 600 Japanese Americans were removed from their homes in the Hayward area and were collected onto buses at Watkins Street and then shipped off to an internment camp. 

History, that is often overlooked, but things have changed now with the Japanese American Confinement Monuments.


Over 80 years later, an artwork monument to those taken has been erected near Watkins Street to commemorate the people taken. This new artwork recognizes Eden-area Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes under Executive Order 9066 and was dedicated at the Hayward Heritage Plaza on Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 1 PM.  The City of Hayward, working with a team of Eden Township JACL members and others, commissioned artist Patricia Wakida to create a monument to honor the Japanese Americans and mark the Hayward Plaza site from which they left for detention on May 8, 1942.

On the left is Mayor Salinas, who opened the ceremony up.


Pictured above is Mae Yanagi Ferral.

Japanese American Commemorative Marker:

Located Hayward Heritage Park, Watkins Street Side

The commemorative marker, unveiled on Sept. 8, 2021, tells the story of the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II—600 of whom boarded buses on Watkins Street in downtown Hayward bound for a detention center at Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno and later for confinement camps in the Utah desert and elsewhere. Besides the experiences of forced removal & unjust incarceration, the panels also review the honorable military service and resettlement.

Thanks to the Committee Members who pushed through to the finish line.

Committee Members:

1. Watkins Street Japanese American Memorial Committee:
 Victor Fujii, Robbin Kawabata, Agnes Yokota Masuda, Janet Minami Mitobe
 Agnes C. Sasaki, Dick M. Sasaki, Naomi Shibata (Lead), Fred M. Shinoda

2. Hayward Heritage Plaza Japanese American Memorial Art Committee:
 Victor Fujii, Robbin Kawabata (Lead), Agnes Yokota Masuda, Janet Minami Mitobe
 Dick "Digger" Sasaki, Dana Ogo Shew, Winda Shimizu, Fred M. Shinoda

Thanks to the City of Hayward to sponsor the Memorial Panels and the Memorial art work.

Thanks to the JACL for bestowing a grant for the Memorial Art work.

Thanks to artist Patricia Wakida for designing the artwork.