The WWII Camp Wall was the vision of Kanji Sahara. During WWII, his family was incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center. He was transferred to Jerome and Rohwer camps. After the war, his family resettled in Chicago, IL. Dr. Sahara was an engineering supervisor in the aerospace industry and moved back to California. Upon retirement, he volunteered as a docent for the Japanese American National Museum for many years and advocated for human rights throughout his adult life. That battle for justice never died.

Kanji’s dream was to build a memorial that consists of ten walls, one for each of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps during World War II. Each of the camp walls will list the name of each person that was incarcerated at that camp. There will be an eleventh or even a twelfth wall, listing the names of those held at Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) camps.

Unfortunately, we lost Kanji on February 15, 2025, but his dream is soon to become a reality.

Individuals were issued ID tags which were worn on their lapels and attached to their suitcases as they were being relocated to concentration camps during WWII. Each tag includes the family number assigned to keep families together, the person's name, the date and time that they were to report to the assigned location for evacuation, and the bus number that they were to board.

The WWII Camp Wall logo features this ID tag along with a design that alludes to the walls of the camp wall monument.

Logo design by Nancy Hayata