Data center co. proposes 100-year lease on WWII Japanese detention site. Residents say no

A proposal to build a data center on the site where over 5,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II sparked public outrage in the San Joaquin Valley.

Hundreds of Tulare County residents flooded a board meeting at the county fairgrounds this week, urging the board to reject a company’s proposal for a 100-year lease of the site to build a data center, citing harm to the environment, public health, and historical value of the fairgrounds.

“This would not only be deeply disrespectful, but also blatantly erase the history of concentration camps in California only a century ago,” said Nashili Morales, a 17-year-old high school student. “This would be an erasure of the unjust treatment of Japanese people. A data center would be built for better technology or advancement, but at all these costs.”

Said Mikayla Ortiz, born and raised in Tulare: “No, it’s not going to be built here. This is detrimental to the historic land where a Japanese incarceration camp was held, and we don’t even have a monument to address that historic base.”

Opened on April 20, 1942, the Tulare Temporary Detention Facility operated for four and a half months and held more than 5,000 Japanese Americans. Of the 15 WWII detention centers in California, Tulare was the only one with no plaque, marker, or memorial of any kind, according to archaeologist Koji Lau-Ozawa, whose grandparents and great-grandparents were detained at the Tulare concentration camp.

For decades, the traces of history were lost as it turned into fairgrounds. Since 2016, some local alumni and students from Mission Oak High School have been raising awareness in the community and working to establish a memorial at the site.

On Tuesday evening, temperatures in Tulare exceeded 102 degrees and the air conditioning at the fairgrounds was out of service. The meeting attendees who packed the room had to stand or sit on the floor and use paper to fan themselves, but many stayed till the end of the four-hour-long public comment session.

Residents said inviting data centers into the community would exacerbate the water shortages, air pollution, and severe heat conditions in the valley, putting impoverished families and the agricultural industry at risk.

“Whenever I leave the valley, I’m astounded by how much better the air is,” said Ethan Magill. “We are at such a disadvantage just because of where we are born. As a teacher, I had days where my students couldn’t play outside because of the bad air quality, an externality that affects everyone who lives here.”

Deseree Arroyo, whose grandfather worked in agriculture since the 1960s and migrated the family to Tulare, said she and her children grew up near the fairgrounds. She said it’s disappointing to see her grandparents’ home possibly disrupted by the data center.

“Our food feeds the people across the nation,” Arroyo said. “Money is buying communities, destroying communities. You’re destroying the community. You’re destroying the nation.”

Data center on fairgrounds statewide

The proposal presented to the Tulare County Fairgrounds Board was put forward by Global Stack USA, a company founded in March with an ambitious plan to establish data centers on 70 fairgrounds across California by 2030. It’s aiming to help fairgrounds that are struggling with seasonal income and aging infrastructure, according to the company’s website.

In the proposal, the company said that the edge computing infrastructure it’s looking to build is different from a massive data center. Approximately the size of a standard shipping container, the facility can process critical information locally, providing computing capabilities to the community during emergency operations such as wildfires, earthquakes, and other disasters when traditional infrastructure may be compromised.

Global Stack USA did not respond to The Fresno Bee’s request asking how many proposals they have sent out and how many fairgrounds have agreed on the partnership.

The company has reached out to eight fairgrounds in the Bay Area, including a proposal that features a data center, a massive parking garage, and a helicopter landing pad at Cow Palace in Daly City, which was originally the California State Livestock Pavilion since 1941 and is known for hosting rodeo and livestock shows, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Two sites in the San Joaquin Valley, Tulare and Kings counties’ Fairgrounds from the California District Agricultural Associations, have received the proposal, according to a press release from Dena Rizzardo, the district’s CEO.

Both fairgrounds are considering the partnership but have not made a final decision, Rizzardo said.