During 1945, 17 men of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned here in what was officially known as Japanese Segregation Camp No. 1. Shortly after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government confined more than 120,000 Japanese American citizens to sites around the country. At least 8 of the men incarcerated here were Issei, Japanese immigrants who resided in the U.S. but were prohibited from citizenship due to racist exclusionary legislation. The others were American citizens by birth. All were accused of holding pro-Japanese sentiments. The site was heavily guarded and surrounded by a 10-foot-tall barbed wire fence. Prisoner quarters consisted of two-man wooden “victory huts.” The men shared basic facilities with German segregants housed next door. In October 1945, the Dept. of Justice transferred the 17 men from this secretive site to Terminal Island, California, for deportation to Japan.