Due to Executive Order 9066 the Japanese Americans who lived in Chula Vista were sent to Santa Anita Racetrack then the Poston War Relocation Center.</ref> One of those Japanese Americans from Chula Vista was Joseph K. Sano, who was an air corps veteran of World War I, and a member of the American Legion; during World War II, Sano served in the Military Intelligence Service Language School at the University of Michigan.</ref> In 1944, the state of California attempted to seize land in Chula Vista owned by Kajiro Oyama, a legal Japanese resident who was then interned in Utah. Oyama was correctly charged with putting the property in his son Fred's name with the intent to evade the Alien Land Law because Fred was a native-born citizen. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court as "Oyama v. California" where the court found that Kajiro's equal protection rights had been violated.</ref>