In June 1968, the Columbia Broadcasting System donated 17.2 acres to the City of Torrance for physical activity and recreation. It was the largest single public land donation in the city's history, and the following month the City Council named it Columbia Park. When the Council chose that same ground for a World War II Japanese American incarceration memorial in 2023, Councilmember Jon Kaji pointed to an older chapter of the site. Japanese families had owned and farmed the property before it was a park.
Two separate decisions are now bringing that older history back to the surface. One is a monument with a groundbreaking expected before the end of this year. The other is a proposal to rename the park after a Torrance-born soldier, and it has no decision date at all.
The park as it stands this fall
Columbia is Torrance's largest park at 52 acres. The city lists four soccer fields, bocce courts, a community garden, an amphitheater stage, a gazebo, walking paths, a cherry grove and the Fujimahara sculpture. The rest of the list covers a playground, a softball field, a sand volleyball court, horseshoe pits, barbecues, picnic tables, restrooms, lighting, EV charging and accessible play equipment.
According to the city's park history, AYSO regularly uses the four lighted soccer fields, and the 1.33-mile exercise path is very popular with local residents. CBS's KNX radio tower still stands in the park. The community garden started with 52 plots in January 1975 and has grown to 125. All 125 are leased right now. A plot costs $120 for two years and comes with on-site water, and the city says the waitlist can take six months to a year.
Dogs are allowed on six-foot leashes under the city's general park rules but are kept off sports courts and playgrounds. The city's amenity list for Columbia doesn't include a dog run or an off-leash area.
The cherry grove already gives the park a Japanese American cultural event. The Cherry Blossom Cultural Festival took place here on Sunday, March 29, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It was free and had food, crafts, performances and shuttle parking. Rafu Shimpo's preview listed Rafu Mutsumi Kai, whose mikoshi procession carries a portable shrine, among the groups on the program.
So the park already holds a spring festival, a garden with a waitlist, and fields that fill up on weekends. The monument will add a permanent place of remembrance to all of that.
What is going up along Prairie Avenue
Columbia Park's address is 4045 190th Street. WWII Camp Wall's design page puts the monument on the park's east side, running parallel to Prairie Avenue. The published materials don't say which path, field or gate it will sit beside.
The city's September 17 announcement describes about 126,000 names on black granite walls, plus interpretive educational displays, a donor recognition wall and accessible visitor spaces. The Daily Breeze reports 11 walls. Ten are for the War Relocation Authority camps, and the eleventh covers the camps run by the Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Rafu Shimpo notes that individual camp memorials already list names, but this would be the first monument to list everyone held in all of the camps.
When Chee Salette presented the schematic design to the Council in April 2025, the plan placed the black granite walls along a timeline, surrounded them with trees, and added a path leading up to a hilltop overlook.
The project began with the late Dr. Kanji Sahara, a longtime Torrance resident. As a child he was held with his family at the Santa Anita Assembly Center and then at the War Relocation Authority camps in Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas. His granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Kristen Tang, serve on the board of WWII Camp Wall, the nonprofit he worked with.
Here is the timeline according to the most recent sources:
- 2021. Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi secures $5 million in state funding.
- 2023. The Council approves Columbia Park as the site.
- 2024 and 2025. Chee Salette wins the design contract, and the schematic design is approved.
- September 15, 2026. The Council votes unanimously to move forward.
- November or December 2026. City staff expect groundbreaking. They estimate at least 10 months of construction, possibly a year or more if there are delays.
- Fall 2028. The city's anticipated completion date.
Older city materials still show construction starting in Fall 2026 and completion in early 2028. The September announcement replaces those dates. The city hasn't published a construction notice yet, so nothing official says which entrances, paths or fields might close while work is underway.
Why the Council chose to pay more instead of waiting
The project went out to bid in March. All four bids that came back in June were over budget. City staff named custom granite, specialty paving, site infrastructure and higher supplier prices as the main cost drivers.
The Council had three choices. It could build the design as bid, which would take about $7.1 million to $8 million in additional funding. It could cut the scope and rebid, which meant more design work and a final cost no one would know until new bids came in. Or it could put the project off while looking for more money, which would leave the schedule open and could put the $5 million state grant at risk. The Council chose to build as bid. Council members and public speakers agreed there should be no more delay, because one goal is to unveil the wall while some former incarcerees are still alive.
The Council also authorized the city to ask the state to extend the grant through February 1, 2029. It adopted a donation policy as well, since the city now has to raise another $15 million. Gifts of any size are accepted, and donors at $100,000 or more are recognized on the monument.
"This monument is about remembering every name and ensuring the experiences of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II are never forgotten," Torrance Mayor Sharon Kalani said in the city's announcement.
WWII Camp Wall President Nancy Hayata told Rafu Shimpo that members of her group and the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition have been guiding the project since 2019, working alongside Sahara.
The name question, still open
The second decision involves Ted T. Tanouye. He was born in Torrance in 1919 and graduated from Torrance High School in 1938. He enlisted in February 1942, even after Executive Order 9066 had ordered Japanese Americans into camps, and served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He was wounded at Hill 140 in July 1944, and went back into the field. Two months later he was wounded again, and he died of those wounds five days after that. His Distinguished Service Cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2000.
On April 7, 2025, city staff filed a naming application on behalf of Councilmember Kaji to rename Columbia Park after Tanouye. The Council took up the item that October and sent it to the Parks and Recreation Commission. In November, the Commission voted 6-0 to recommend more research and more community outreach. The city's renaming page now lists three options:
- Rename Columbia Park to Ted T. Tanouye Park. Estimated cost is $10,000 to $30,000. Staff found nothing in the 1968 naming resolution that would prevent a rename.
- Create a separate Ted T. Tanouye Memorial Park. Councilmember Jeremy Gerson proposed this on January 13, 2026. The existing memorial triangle at 2200 W. Carson Street, near Torrance High, would be joined with the matching triangle on the north side of Carson. Part of El Prado Avenue would become Ted T. Tanouye Memorial Drive, part of Manuel Avenue would become Go for Broke Way, and a new monument would honor the 442nd. Estimated cost is $850,000 to $1.5 million.
- Make no changes to Columbia Park or the area around the current memorial.
The Daily Breeze reported that Gerson asked for his alternative to be included in the outreach and invited residents to send in other ideas. The community survey has closed, and no results have been posted. The Commission's annual report, which went to the Council on September 15, lists renaming outreach among its activities but doesn't record a chosen option. The Commission's next meeting is Wednesday, October 14, at 6:30 p.m. The posted calendar doesn't show whether the renaming is on that agenda.
Where the two decisions meet
The monument will be built either way, and the name doesn't affect its schedule. What the name decides is how much Japanese American history Columbia Park carries. Under the first option, the 442nd soldier and the names of the incarcerated would share the same 52 acres. Under Gerson's option, Tanouye's memorial would grow at Carson Street, a few steps from the school he graduated from, while Columbia keeps the name CBS's 1968 gift gave it. Tanouye is already honored at the existing Carson Street memorial, at the Ted Tanouye National Armory on Cabrillo Avenue, and on the Veterans Memorial Wall in front of City Hall.
For people who use the park, the nearest date is the groundbreaking window in November or December, on the Prairie Avenue side. The name decision will come later, possibly starting with the Commission meeting on October 14.
Cindy and Tiffany have family roots in the South Bay going back more than 60 years, and they follow projects like the Camp Wall closely because these places carry their community's history. If you'd like to talk about how Columbia Park's changes fit into the Torrance neighborhoods around it, contact Cindy & Tiffany at Kawata Team for a personalized market consultation.
