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Backtrack to a sad past

At a reunion at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Setsuko Nomura, 78, center, joins fellow Japanese Americans who were interned at the track's "assembly center" 72 years ago.

At a reunion at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Setsuko Nomura, 78, center, joins fellow Japanese Americans who were interned at the track’s “assembly center” 72 years ago.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Dozens of Japanese Americans who were temporarily housed at Santa Anita race track 72 years ago while internment camps were being built in California and elsewhere during World War II return for a reunion.

Man with a nickname

George “Horse” Yoshinaga, 88, smiles while being honored at the reunion at Santa Anita. A columnist for a Los Angeles Japanese newspaper, Rafu Shimpo, Yoshinaga joked that he “got my name here,” referring to his nickname. “They say it’s because I ran on the track, but it’s because I smell like a horse.”   (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A tour by tram

While taking a tram tour, Willie Shibata, 72, right, and Sets Asand, 82, center, take pictures of where they lived at Santa Anita in 1942. “Remember how smelly the stables were?” asked a fellow internee.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Back in the present

Sets Asand, left, Willie Shibata, his sister Lily Masuno and Jennie Shitakubo pass a jockey on his mount. Seventy-two years ago, in the barns, a thin layer of asphalt was all that separated families from layers of manure. Beds were mats stuffed with straw.   (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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