The Tuna Canyon Detention Station opened 80 years ago this weekend.
To mark the occasion, the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition announced the scholarship winners from its first Marc Stirdivant Scholarship for Justice, which was made possible by those who shopped at TCDSC’s marketplace this year.
Tuna Canyon was created on Dec 7, 1941 when the U.S. Department of Justice took over a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Tujunga. The first prisoners arrived on Dec 16. The last prisoners departed on Oct 30, 1943.
The detainees were local Japanese, German and Italian immigrants as well as people of Japanese ancestry from Peru.
“We appreciate your support as we come together to remember and honor those who were held at TCDS,” the coalition said.
Click here https://youtu.be/mzSZun176pc for a 30-minute virtual program. It began Dec. 5 at 11 a.m. PST but will also remain up to watch after it has ended.
Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition is an educational nonprofit charity. On June 25, 2013, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-0 to designate TCDS one of the city’s Historic-Cultural Monuments. The city’s Cultural Heritage Commission denied the designation in April because the site no longer contained any of the original structures circa 1941-43.
After the Historic Cultural Monument status was approved by the council, designated representatives of the property owner, the city, the Japanese American, German American and Italian American communities, as well as local stakeholders met four times during the summer of 2013 to find a way to best commemorate and preserve the memory and the lessons of Tuna Canyon Detention Station.
On Aug. 7, 2013, at the end of the final working group meeting the attorney for the property owner announced that they had filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for granting the HCM designation. Those supporting the historic recognition for Tuna Canyon Detention Station continue to defend its “rightful place in our nation’s history.”
Donations may be sent to TCDSC at 12953 Branford St., Pacoima, CA 91331.
For more information, visit: http://Tunacanyon.org