Within days of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, a detainment center for Japanese nationals opened in the brushy hills of the Verdugo Mountains. The story of the facility at the LA Crescenta end of of La Tuna Canyon, which also held some German and Italian detainees before closing in 1943, is told by Cecilia Rasmussen in today's Los Angeles Times:

Federal archivist Gwen Granados said the first 35 Japanese nationals arrested here after Pearl Harbor were sent to Griffith Park, where there was a makeshift jail with tight security. They were transferred to Tuna Canyon, which opened Dec. 15, 1941; it had fences topped by barbed wire, sentry boxes at each corner and floodlights.

"They weren't just enemy aliens," Granados said. "They were arrested for immigration violations," overstaying visas or sneaking into the country illegally. "They were mostly fishermen who worked on Terminal Island in the canneries. They were picked up rather quickly because of their proximity to the naval base."

The Tuna Canyon facility was a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp built in 1933 on 54 acres near Glendale. It could hold 300 detainees. Authorities maintained a low profile there, as at the Griffith Park site (where Travel Town now stands).

Detainees were subject to Justice Department hearings and trials for such offenses as curfew violations and failure to register as an enemy alien. Their detention ranged from a few days to a few months....

In 1959, the county sold the property for $54,000 to a group of investors, who turned it into Verdugo Hills Golf Course.

The Griffith Park/Travel Town site had also held German prisoners of war for awhile.