SANTA FE STATION (SAN DIEGO, CALIF.)

Party station with a sad past

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Yasuhiro Takami

By Hajime Someya

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

After traveling down the West Coast for three hours, a blue train arrived at Santa Fe Station in San Diego. The train, part of Amtrak — the largest train network in the United States — arrived from Los Angeles.

About 20 passengers came out of a silver carriage after a private weekend party. Standing on the ramp, Stan Garner — the car's owner — was happy to see the passengers' satisfied faces. The 64-year-old said the party went well with everyone apparently enjoying their trip on his Pony Express car.

This is perhaps a typical way of traveling for people on the West Coast. Even on weekdays, people hire the party car whenever an opportunity arises. The car has an antique saloon bar like ones seen in Western movies.

While chefs fried chicken, the passengers appeared to have sated themselves on the picturesque coastal scenery passing by.

Walter Drogan, a 42-year-old security guard, said Santa Fe Station was also used as a party venue. Drogan said he had seen Bill Gates, former major league baseball player Tony Gwynn and rock band Kiss at the station.

Santa Fe Station is often mixed up with its namesake, the state capital of New Mexico. The station opened in 1915 to commemorate the opening of Panama Canal the previous year.

The colonial-style station building forms a striking contrast with the high-rise buildings behind it. There also is a view from the station platforms of sun-covered yachts plying the harbor.

Iris Engstrand, who was waiting for someone at the station, came to talk to me. The 70-year-old said she taught history at a local university.

The station is something special to local people, Engstrand said, adding that it was, historically, a place with bad memories for Japanese.

During World War II, 120,000 Japanese-Americans in California were forcibly interned in detention camps.

In San Diego, bordered by the ocean and mountains, the railway was the only means of transportation at that time, and Japanese-Americans were forced into trains at the station, she said.

The station's atmosphere now holds no shadows of its dark history.