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Manzanar

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Manzanar National Historic Site
LocationInyo County, California, USA
Nearest cityIndependence, California
Area814 acres (3.29 km²)
EstablishedMarch 3, 1992
Visitors78,172 (in 2005)
Governing bodyNational Park Service

Manzanar in the Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine, California to the south, and Independence, California to the north, is most widely-known as the site of one of ten American concentration camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. It is located approximately 230 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.

Manzanar (which means “apple orchard” in Spanish), located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, was identified as the best preserved of the former camp sites by the United States National Park Service, and is now the Manzanar National Historic Site.[1]

Long before the first internees arrived in March 1942, Manzanar's history included settlement by Native Americans, ranchers and homesteaders. But as different as those groups might seem, they are tied together by the common bond of forced relocation at Manzanar. Since the last internees left Manzanar in 1945, former internees and others have worked to preserve and protect the site, and to establish it as a National Historic Site that serves to perpetuate and interpret the site for current and future generations. Although the primary focus is the Japanese American Internment era, as specified in the legislation that created the Manzanar National Historic Site, the town of Manzanar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Owens Valley Paiute (the indigenous people in the area), and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens Valley are also interpreted at the site.[2]

A hot windstorm brings dust from the surrounding desert. Photographer: Lange, Dorothea. Manzanar, California. 7/3/42

Manzanar Before World War II

Owens Valley Paiute woman weaving a basket.

Owens Valley Paiute

Manzanar was first inhabited by Native Americans nearly 10,000 years ago, and approximately 1,500 years ago, the area was settled by the Owens Valley Paiute,[1] who settled the Owens Valley from Long Valley on the north to Owens Lake on the south, and from the crest of the Sierra Nevada on the west to the Inyo Mountains on the east.[3] Other Native American nations in the region included the Miwok, Western Mono and the Tubatulabal to the west, the Shoshone to the south and east, and the Mono Lake Paiute to the north.[3] The Owens Valley Paiute hunted, fished, collected pine nuts and raised crops utilizing irrigation in the Manzanar area,[1] and they traded brown ware pottery for salt from the Saline Valley. They also traded other wares and goods across the Sierra Nevada during the summer and fall.[4]

In the early 1860s, the Owens Valley Paiute, along with other native peoples in the region, were forcibly relocated to Fort Tejon when they were forced at gunpoint to walk almost 200 miles by the United States Army in one of many “Trail of Tears” inflicted upon Native Americans in United States History.[5][6] This action was preceded by years of conflict between the indigenous peoples of the region and white settlers, as Native Americans in the Owens Valley saw their way of life being threatened by the settlers, who grazed their cattle and mined in the area.[5][7]

Approximately one-third of the Native Americans in the Owens Valley were forcibly relocated to Fort Tejon, but many of these people returned to the Owens Valley, and after 1863, returned to their permanent villages that had been established along creeks flowing down from the Sierra Nevada mountains.[5] In the Manzanar area, the Owens Valley Paiute had established villages along Bairs, Georges, Shepherds and Symmes creeks.[5] Evidence of Paiute settlement in the area is still present.

Ranchers

Manzanar Community Hall, ca. 1912. Building in back was Hatfield’s (later Bandhauer’s) General Store which housed the post office.

White settlers first arrived in the Owens Valley in the mid-19th century, and they found a number of large Paiute villages in the Manzanar area.[8] John Shepherd was one of the first settlers, and he homesteaded 160 acres of land three miles north of Georges Creek in 1864, and his ranch eventually expanded to 2,000 acres.[9] In 1905, George Chaffey purchased some of Shepherd’s land and subdivided it, along with other adjacent ranches, and founded the town of Manzanar in 1910.[1][10] By 1920, the town had more than twenty-five homes, a two-room school, a town hall and a general store.[10] Also at that time, nearly 5,000 acres of apple, pear and peach trees were being grown, along with alfalfa. Some of these early orchards, along with some remnants of the town and ranches, are still present at Manzanar today.[10]

Quenching Los Angeles’ thirst

File:LAAqueductUnlined.jpg
Unlined portion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct near Manzanar (1991). Photographer: Bain, G. Donald.

As early as March 1905, the City of Los Angeles had secretly begun acquiring water rights in the Owens Valley,[11] and they completed construction of their 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, [1] transporting diverted Owens River water to Los Angeles instead of allowing it to drain into Owens Lake.[12][13] But it did not take long for Los Angeles water officials to realize that Owens River water was not enough to quench the thirst of a rapidly-growing metropolis, and in 1920, they began to purchase more of the water rights on the Owens Valley floor. As the decade went on, the City of Los Angeles bought out one Owens Valley farmer after another, and even extended their reach northward, into Mono County, including Long Valley.[14] By 1933, the City of Los Angeles owned eighty-five percent of all town property and ninety-five percent of all ranch/farm land in the Owens Valley, including Manzanar.[10]

Although there were those who sold their land for prices that made them financially independent, a significant number chose to stay. But in dry years, the City of Los Angeles pumped ground water and drained all surface water, diverting all of it into their aqueduct and leaving Owens Valley ranchers without water.[15] As such, even though they chose not to sell, without water for irrigation, these hold-out ranchers were forced out of their ranches and communities, and that included the town of Manzanar, which was abandoned by 1929.[1] Manzanar would remain uninhabited until the United States Army leased 6,200 acres from the City of Los Angeles for the Manzanar War Relocation Center.[1]

Wartime Manzanar

Barracks under construction at Poston. Barrack construction and materials were the same at all ten camps, including Manzanar. Photographer: Clark, Fred. Poston, Arizona. 5/19/42

After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Government swiftly moved to begin solving the “Japanese Problem” on the West Coast of the United States,[16] and by the evening hours that same day, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested selected “enemy” aliens, including 2,192 who were of Japanese descent.[17] On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War to designate military commanders to prescribe military areas and to exclude “any and all persons” from such areas. The order also authorized the construction of “relocation centers” to house those who were to be excluded.[18] This order resulted in the forced relocation of over 120,000 Japanese Americans — two-thirds of them were native-born American citizens, the rest were prevented by federal law from becoming citizens. Over 110,000 of those were imprisoned in the ten American concentration camps.[17]

Far end of a barrack row looking west to the desert beyond with the mountains in the background. Evacuees at Manzanar are encountering the terrific desert heat. Photographer: Lange, Dorothea. Manzanar, California. 7/2/42

Manzanar was the first of the ten concentration camps established.[19] Initially, it was a temporary “reception center,” known as the Owens Valley Reception Center from March 21, 1942 to May 31, 1942.[19] At that time, it was operated by the United States Army’s Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA).[20]

The Owens Valley Reception Center was transferred to the War Relocation Authority (WRA) on June 1, 1942, and officially became the Manzanar War Relocation Center. The first Japanese American internees to arrive at Manzanar in those early days were volunteers who helped build the camp, but by mid-April, up to 1,000 Japanese Americans were arriving daily, and by July, the population of the camp neared 10,000.[21] Over ninety percent of the internees were from the Los Angeles area, with the rest coming from Stockton, California and Bainbridge Island, Washington.[21] Manzanar incarcerated 10,046 internees at its peak, and a total of 11,070 people would be imprisoned there.[1]

Climate

The weather at Manzanar had a tremendous impact on the internees, few of whom were accustomed to the extremes of the area’s climate.

"In the summer, the heat was unbearable," said former Manzanar internee Ralph Lazo (see Notable Manzanar internees section below). "In the winter, the sparsely rationed oil didn't adequately heat the tar paper-covered pine barracks with the knotholes in the floor. The wind would blow so hard, it would toss rocks around."[22]

Indeed, summers on the desert floor of the Owens Valley are hot, sometimes passing the 100-degree mark, while winters can be very cold, with an occasional snowfall, and there was always the wind.[20] The area’s mean annual precipitation is just under five inches, and the ever-present dust was always a problem, so much so that internees usually woke up in the morning covered from head to toe with a fine layer of dust, and barracks constantly had to be swept.[23]

Camp layout/facilities

A typical interior scene in one of the barrack apartments at Manzanar. Note the cloth partition separating one apartment from another, lending a small amount of privacy. Photographer: Lange, Dorothea. Manzanar, California. 6/30/42

The camp site was situated on 6,200 acres at Manzanar, leased from the City of Los Angeles,[1] with the developed portion covering approximately 540 acres.[24] The residential area was about one square mile, and consisted of 36 blocks of hastily-constructed, 20-foot by 100-foot tar paper barracks, with internee families living in a single 20-foot by 25-foot “apartment” in the barracks, which all had open ceilings, eliminating any chance of privacy.[25][26]

Each residential block had a communal mess hall, men’s and women’s latrines, a laundry room, a recreation hall, an ironing room and a heating oil storage tank, although Block 33 lacked a recreation hall.[26] In addition to the residential blocks, Manzanar had 34 additional blocks that had staff housing, camp administration offices, two warehouses, a garage, a camp hospital, and 24 firebreaks.[24] The camp also had sentry posts at the main entrance, school facilities, a high school auditorium, staff housing, chicken and hog farms, churches, a cemetery, a post office, a cooperative store, other shops, a camp newspaper, and other necessary amenities that one would expect to find in most American cities.[25] Manzanar also had a camouflage net factory, an experimental plantation for producing natural rubber from the Guayule plant, and an orphanage called Children’s Village, which housed 101 Japanese American orphans.[25][27] The camp perimeter had eight watchtowers manned by armed Military Police and it was enclosed by five-strand barbed wire.[24][25]

Life behind the barbed wire

Calisthenics at Manzanar: Group of girls standing in line formation, each one reaching both of her arms straight out to the side). Photographer: Adams, Ansel, 1943.

After being uprooted from their homes and communities, the internees found themselves having to endure primitive, sub-standard conditions, the complete lack of privacy, and having to wait in one line after another for meals, at the latrines, and at the laundry room.[28]

Each of the ten concentration camps was intended to be self-sufficient, and Manzanar was no exception. Cooperatives operated various services such as the camp newspaper,[29] beauty and barber shops, shoe repair and more.[28] In addition, internees raised chickens, hogs and vegetables, and they cultivated the existing orchards for fruit.[28] Internees even made their own soy sauce and tofu.

Food at Manzanar was based on military requirements. Meals usually consisted of hot rice and vegetables, since meat was scarce due to rationing.[28] In early 1944, the chicken ranch went into operation, and in late-April of that same year, the hog farm was completed. Both operations provided a welcome supplement to the internee’s diet.[30]

Most internees were employed at Manzanar to keep the camp running. Unskilled workers earned $8.00 per month, semi-skilled workers earned $12.00 per month, skilled workers made $16.00 per month and professionals earned $19.00 per month. In addition, all internees received $3.60 per month as a clothing allowance.[28]

The internees also made Manzanar more liveable through recreation, and they participated in sports, including baseball and football, martial arts, and other sports.[23] They also personalized and beautified their barren surroundings by building elaborate gardens, which often included pools, waterfalls and rock ornaments. There was even a nine-hole golf course.[28][31] Remnants of some of the gardens, pools and rock ornaments are still present at Manzanar.

Resistance

Part of a line waiting for lunch outside a mess hall at noon. Photographer: Lange, Dorothea. Manzanar, California. 7/1/42

Although most internees quietly accepted their fate during World War II, there was some resistance in the ten concentration camps. The camps at Poston, Heart Mountain, Topaz and Tule Lake each had civil disturbances about wage differences, black marketing of sugar, intergenerational friction, rumors of “informers” reporting to the camp administration or the FBI, and other reasons.[23] However the most serious incident occurred at Manzanar on December 5-6, 1942, and became known as the Manzanar Riot.[32]

After several months of tension between internees who supported the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and a group of Kibei (Japanese Americans educated in Japan), rumors of sugar and meat shortages as a result of black marketing by camp administrators spread.[23] To make matters worse, internee and JACL leader Fred Tayama was beaten by six masked men. As a result, Harry Ueno, the leader of the Kitchen Workers Union, was arrested and removed from Manzanar.[32] Soon after, 3,000 to 4,000 internees met and then marched to the administration area, protesting Ueno’s arrest. After negotiations with camp administration, Ueno was returned to the Manzanar jail,[32] but a crowd of several hundred returned to protest. When the crowd surged forward, Military Police threw tear gas to disperse the crowd. As people ran to avoid the tear gas, some in the crowd pushed a driver-less truck towards the jail. At that moment, the Military Police fired into the crowd, killing a 17-year-old boy instantly. A 21-year-old man who was shot in the abdomen died just days later. Nine other internees were wounded and a Military Police corporal was wounded by a ricocheting bullet.[23][33]

Manzanar closes

Monument at Manzanar cemetery. Photographer: Mayer, Daniel, 03/24/2002.

On November 21, 1945, the WRA closed Manzanar, the sixth of the camps to be closed. Although internees were brought to the Owens Valley by the United States Government, they had to leave the camp on their own,[34][32] with the WRA giving $25.00, one-way train or bus fare, and meals to those who had less than $600.00.[34] Although many left the camp voluntarily, a significant number of internees refused to leave because they had no place to go after losing everything when they were forcibly uprooted and removed from their homes. As such, they had to be forcibly removed once again, this time from Manzanar.[34]

146 internees died at Manzanar.[35] Fifteen internees were buried there but only five graves remain, as most who were buried there were later reburied elsewhere by their families.[36]

The Manzanar cemetery site is marked by a monument that was built by internee stone mason Ryozo Kado in 1943.[37] An inscription in Japanese on the front of the monument reads, 慰靈塔 (Soul Consoling Tower).[35] The inscription on the back reads "Erected by the Manzanar Japanese" on the left and "August 1943" on the right.[35] Today, the monument is often draped in strings of origami, and sometimes has offerings of personal items left by survivors and visitors. The National Park Service periodically itemizes and collects these items.

After the camp was closed, the site eventually returned to its original state, and within a couple of years, all the structures were removed, with the exception of the two sentry posts at the entrance, the cemetery monument, and the former Manzanar High School auditorium, which was purchased by the County of Inyo. They leased it to the Independence Veterans of Foreign Wars, who used it as a meeting facility and community theatre until 1951. After that, the building was used as a maintenance facility by the Inyo County Road Department.[32].[38]

The site also retained numerous building foundations, portions of the water and sewer systems, the outline of the road grid work, remains of the landscaping constructed by internees, and much more.[38] And despite the four years of use by the internees, the site also retained evidence of the ranches and the town of Manzanar, as well as artifacts from the days of the Owens Valley Paiute settlement.[39][40]

Notable Manzanar internees

Manzanar Committee Chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey welcoming the crowd at the 33rd annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, 04/27/2002. Photo courtesy of Manzanar Committee.

Koji Ariyoshi, born in Hawaii in 1914, served in the Military Intelligence Service, and was also assigned to intelligence work in the China-Burma-India Office of the War Information Psychological Warfare Team. A native of Hawaii, Ariyoshi returned to Honolulu after the war and established the Honolulu Record, a progressive newspaper that he edited from 1948-58. In 1951-52, as part of the Second Red Scare, he and six others were arrested and convicted for "...conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force and violence," but his conviction was overturned in 1958.[41] Ariyoshi eventually taught Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii.

Sue Kunitomi Embrey, born on January 6, 1923, was an editor of the Manzanar Free Press (camp newspaper) and wove camouflage nets to support the war effort. She left Manzanar in late 1943 for Madison, Wisconsin, and one year later, moved to Chicago, Illinois. She returned to California in 1948 where she became involved in progressive politics.[42] After receiving a Bachelor's degree in English from California State University, Los Angeles in 1969, and a Master's Degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1972, Embrey went on to become a schoolteacher. She also became a labor and community activist.

In 1969, Embrey was one of the approximately 150 people who attended the first organized Manzanar Pilgrimage (see Manzanar Pilgrimage section below), and was one of the founders of the annual event. More importantly, she would go on to become the primary force behind the preservation of the site and gaining National Historic Site status.[42][43]

Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig, born in 1925 in Los Angeles, was 17 years old when she was imprisoned at Manzanar, where she married and had her first child. Later, she would be incarcerated at Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas[44]

After the war, Yoshinaga-Herzig returned to the Los Angeles area, but after divorcing her husband, she moved to New York, where she joined her mother and four siblings.[44] After a second marriage and subsequent divorce, she became a community activist in the 1960s and was a member of Asian Americans for Action (AAA), the first Asian American political organization on the East Coast, which included prominent Asian American activists Bill and Yuri Kochiyama.[44]

In 1978, Yoshinaga-Herzig married John "Jack" Herzig and moved to the Washington, D.C. area. Although she was not trained to be an archival researcher, Yoshinaga-Herzig decided to find out what historical documents about herself and her family might exist at the National Archives.[44]

Yoshinaga-Herzig and her husband pored over mountains of documents from the War Relocation Authority, a task that "...was roughly equivalent to indexing all the information in a library, working from a card catalog that only gave a subject description by shelf, without giving individual book titles or authors."[44] And it was their efforts that resulted in the discovery of evidence that the United States Government perjured itself before the United States Supreme Court in the 1944 cases, Korematsu v. United States, Hirabayashi v. United States and Yasui v. United States by presenting falsified evidence to the Court, by destroying evidence, and by withholding other vital information, thus providing the legal basis Japanese Americans needed for seeking redress and reparations for their wartime imprisonment. The Herzig's research was also valuable in their work with the National Coalition for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR), which filed a class-action law suit against the United States Government on behalf of the internees.[44]

William Minoru Hohri, born in San Francisco, California in 1927,[45] was imprisoned at Manzanar when he was fifteen years old. His family entered Manzanar on April 3, 1942 and remained behind the barbed wire until August 25, 1945.[46]

Portrait of photographer Toyo Miyatake. Photographer: Adams, Ansel.

Hohri became a civil rights and anti-war activist after World War II, and in the late 1970s, he became the chair of the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR), which brought a class-action lawsuit against the United States Government on March 16, 1983 for their unjust imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II.[47]

The lawsuit stated twenty-two causes of action, including fifteen violations of constitutional rights, and asked for $27,000,000,000 in damages.[48] Although the Federal courts would eventually rule against the class-action plaintiffs, the lawsuit served to help bring the case for redress and reparations into the public eye and it showed the Congress and the Executive Branch that the United States Government still had considerable exposure to future damage claims resulting from the internment.[49]

Ralph Lazo, born in 1924 in Los Angeles, was of Mexican American and Irish descent, but when, at age 16, he learned that his Japanese American friends and neighbors were being forcibly relocated and interned at Manzanar, he was outraged.[22]

"Internment was immoral," Lazo told the Los Angeles Times. "It was wrong, and I couldn't accept it."[22] "These people hadn't done anything that I hadn't done except to go to Japanese language school."[50]

Lazo was so incensed by the injustice that he joined his friends on a train that took hundreds to Manzanar in May, 1942.[51][52] Manzanar officials never asked him about his ancestry.

Portrait of PFC Sadao S. Munemori, a Manzanar internee who volunteered for active duty with the US Army. As a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1944, Lazo was elected president of his class at Manzanar High School.[22] He remained at Manzanar until August of that year, when he was inducted into the United States Army.[22] The US Army Staff Sergeant served in the South Pacific until 1946, helping liberate the Philippines during the war and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism in combat.[22][51]

After the war, Lazo graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a Masters degree from California State University, Northridge before becoming a teacher.[22] Later, Lazo became a strong supporter of redress and reparations for Japanese Americans interned during the war.[50] The film, Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story, from Visual Communications documents his life story, particularly the stand he took against the internment.[53]

Toyo Miyatake, who was born in Kagawa, Shikoku, Japan in 1896, immigrated to the United States in 1909. He settled in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles, and was interned at Manzanar along with his family. As a Los Angeles-based photographer, Miyatake smuggled a lens and film holder into Manzanar and later had a craftsman construct a wooden box with a door that hid the lens. He took many photos of life and the conditions at Manzanar, but his contraband camera was eventually discovered by camp administration and was confiscated. However, camp director Ralph Merritt eventually allowed Miyatake to photograph freely within the camp, even though he was not allowed to actually press the shutter button, requiring a guard or camp official to do this simple task. But Merritt finally saw no point to this technicality and allowed Miyatake to take photos himself.[54]

Sadao Munemori volunteered for service with the United States Army directly from Manzanar, and served in Europe with the 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his courage when he single-handedly knocked out two machine guns and dove on a grenade, smothering its blast—sacrificing his own life to save two of his comrades near Seravezza, Italy on April 5, 1945.[55]

Karl Yoneda, Block Leader at Manzanar. He is married to Elaine Black Yoneda, and they have a child, Tom, four years old. Photographer: Lange, Dorothea. Manzanar, California. 7/3/42.

Harry Ueno, born in Hawaii in 1907, was a Kibei (Japanese American educated in Japan) who was interned at Manzanar with his wife and children.[56]. After volunteering for mess hall work, Ueno discovered that Manzanar camp staff were stealing rationed sugar and meat and were selling them on the black market.[56] Ueno exposed the thefts and worked to organize internee workers in order to deal with them. This led to his arrest, and made Ueno the focal point of the Manzanar Riot, February 5-6, 1942.[56][57]

Ueno was one of the internees who was featured in Emiko Omori's Emmy Award-winning film, Rabbit in the Moon.[58]

"Ueno made us aware there was opposition in the camps," said Omori. "He made us feel that people did fight back and made us realize that one person can make a difference."[56]

Karl Yoneda, was born in Glendale, California on July 15, 1906, but his family moved to Japan in 1913.[59][60]

Yoneda became an activist early in his life, participating in a strike against the newspaper he delivered papers for while he was still in high school.[59] In the 1920s, Yoneda joined the labor movement, working on printer and rubber workers' strikes, and was arrested in 1925 for his participation and for publishing Tsuchi (Earth), an unlicensed monthly poor farmers journal.[59] With Japan on a path towards war, Yoneda returned to the United States rather than face being drafted into the Japanese army.[59]

Aboard the S.S. Shunyo Maru, Yoneda arrived in San Francisco on December 14, 1926, and was taken to the Immigration Detention House on Angel Island, where he would be detained for two months, even though he had his California birth certificate.[60] Yoneda later moved to Los Angeles, where he would find work organizing with the Trade Union Educational League and later, the Japanese Workers' Association.[59] He would also work as a longshoreman before World War II.

Yoneda arrived at Manzanar on March 22, 1942, one of the first Japanese Americans to arrive as one of the men who volunteered to help build the camp.[61] Yoneda would later distinguish himself in service to his country, volunteering to serve in the Military Intelligence Service.[62] After the war, Yoneda returned to longshoreman work, and he continued to support progressive causes such as the anti-Vietnam War movement, nuclear weapons proliferation, labor struggles, and civil and human rights issues.[59]

Preservation and remembrance

File:WatchtowerReplica.jpg
Replica of an historic watch tower at the Manzanar National Historic Site, built in 2005. Eight watchtowers, equipped with searchlights and armed with machine guns that were pointed inward at the internees, were positioned around the perimeter of the World War II concentration camp. Photographer: Matsuda, Gann, 04/27/2007.

In 1969, about 150 people departed Los Angeles by car and bus, headed for Manzanar.[63] It was the "first" Manzanar Pilgrimage, but as it turned out, these Pilgrimage pioneers learned that two ministers, Reverends Sentoku Maeda and Soichi Wakahiro, had been making annual pilgrimages to Manzanar since the camp closed in 1945.[63]

The non-profit Manzanar Committee, led by the late Sue Kunitomi Embrey (1923-2006), has sponsored the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since that first organized event in 1969, and it was their efforts that resulted in the State of California naming Manzanar as California Historical Landmark number 850 in 1972 with the historical marker being placed at the sentry post on April 14, 1973.[39][64] The Manzanar Committee also spearheaded efforts for Manzanar to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and in February, 1985, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark.[39]

National Historic Site

Embrey and the Manzanar Committee also led the effort to have Manzanar designated as a National Historic Site, and on March 3, 1992, President George H.W. Bush signed House Resolution 543 into law (Public Law 102-248; 106 Stat. 40). This act of Congress stated that the Manzanar National Historic Site was established "to provide for the protection and interpretation of the historical, cultural, and natural resources associated with the relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II."[2][65] A little over five years later, the National Park Service acquired 814 acres of land at Manzanar from the City of Los Angeles.[65]

Today, the Manzanar National Historic Site features an Interpretive Center that is housed in the historically restored Manzanar High School Auditorium. The center has a permanent exhibit that tells the story of the internees at Manzanar, and provides information on the Owens Valley Paiute, the ranchers, the town of Manzanar and the story of water in the Owens Valley. The site also features restored sentry posts at the camp entrance (the main entrance to the site), a replica of a camp-era watchtower, a self-guided tour road, and informational markers at prominent features on the site. Manzanar staff also offer guided tours and other educational programs. The National Park Service is also working to restore an historic mess hall and build a replica of a portion of a residential block, including barracks. They are also in the process of taking oral histories of former internees and others from all periods of Manzanar's history.

Approximately 1,100 people from all ages and all walks of life attended the 38th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 28, 2007. Photographer: Matsuda, Gann, 04/28/2007.

Manzanar Pilgrimage

Each year, on the last Saturday of April, the Manzanar Committee sponsors the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage,[63] held at the Manzanar cemetery. Hundreds of visitors of all ages and backgrounds, including some former Manzanar internees and internees from the other camps, gather to remember the internment and to learn about it in the hope that what is generally accepted to be a tragic chapter in American History is never repeated. The afternoon program traditionally consists of speakers, cultural performances, an interfaith service and Ondo dancing. Over the years, the Pilgrimage has served to ensure that Manzanar and what happened there during World War II is not forgotten. The annual event also played a crucial role in the site gaining National Historic Site status.[65]

In 1997, the Manzanar At Dusk (formerly known as Manzanar After Dark) program became an official part of the Manzanar Pilgrimage.[66] The program, which is usually held in the Interpretive Center on the evening of the Pilgrimage, draws a diverse crowd in terms of ethnicity, age, gender, and also attracts local area residents, descendents of Manzanar's ranch days and of the Manzanar town residents. Through small-group discussions and cultural performances, the evening event gives participants (with an emphasis on college-age youth) the opportunity to hear about the experiences of former internees first-hand, to share their experiences and feelings about what they learned during the traditional afternoon program, and talk about the relevance of what happened at Manzanar to their own present-day experiences.

Other works about Manzanar

Manzanar At Dusk: In a small group session, former Manzanar internee Wilbur Sato (far right) relates his experiences behind the barbed wire to a group that consisted of a wide range of ages and ethnic groups. Photographer: Matsuda, Gann, 04/28/2007.

Channel 3's song titled "Manzanar" is about the internment.

The 1994 award-winning novel Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson contains many scenes and details of Japanese Americans from the Puget Sound, Washington area and their internment experiences at Manzanar, as does the 2000 Universal film (directed by Scott Hicks) based on the book.

Fort Minor's song Kenji, from the album, The Rising Tied (2005), tells the true story of Mike Shinoda's family and their experiences before, during and after World War II, including their internment at Manzanar.

The Asian American jazz fusion band Hiroshima has a song entitled, "Manzanar" on their album, The Bridge (2003). It is an instrumental song that was inspired by Manzanar and the Japanese American Internment. [67] Also, their song, Living In America, on their album entitled East (1990), also mentions, "I still remember Manzanar" in its lyrics.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manzanar.

Additional reading

Owens Valley resources

  • Chalfant, William A. (1980). Story Of Inyo. Chalfant Press. ISBN 0-912494-34-4.
  • Ewan, Rebecca Fish. (2000). A Land Between: Owens Valley, California. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-801864-61-5.
  • Hoffman, Abraham. (1992). Vision or Villainy: Origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-890965-09-9.
  • Kahri, William L. (1983). Water and Power: The Conflict Over Los Angeles Water Supply in the Owens Valley. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520050-68-1.
  • Nadeau, Remi A. (1997). The Water Seekers. Crest Publishers. ISBN 0-962710-45-8.
  • Wehrey, Jane. (2006). Voices From This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollections of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312295-41-3.

Wartime Manzanar-related resources

  • Armor, John and Wright, Peter. (1989). Manzanar; Photographs by Ansel Adams. Vintage Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Adams Ansel, Benti, Wynne (ed.), Embrey, Sue Kunitomi (contributor), Michael, Willian H. (contributor). (2001). Born Free And Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese Americans. Spotted Dog Press. ISBN 1-893343-05-7. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bunting, Eve, Soentpiet, Chris K. (1998). So Far from the Sea. Clarion Books. ISBN 0-395720-95-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Cooper, Michael. (2002). Remembering Manzanar: Life In A Japanese Relocation Camp. Clarion Books. ISBN 0-618067-78-7.
  • Embrey, Sue Kunitomi. (1972). The Lost Years: 1942-1946. Moonlight Publications. ISBN 0-930046-07-2.
  • Embrey, Sue Kunitomi, Hansen, Arthur A., Mitson, Betty Kulberg. (1986). Manzanar Martyr: An Interview WIth Harry Y. Ueno. The Oral History Program: California State University, Fullerton. ISBN 0-930046-07-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Garrett, Jessie A., Larson, Ronald C. (ed). (1977). Camp and Community: Manzanar and the Owens Valley. Japanese American Oral History Program: California State University, Fullerton. ISBN 0-930046-00-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. (1983). Farewell To Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment. Laurel Leaf. ISBN 0-553272-58-6.
  • Inada, Lawson Fusao (ed.) (2000). Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Heyday Books and the California Historical Society. ISBN 1-890771-30-9. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  • Weglyn, Michi. (1976, 1996). Years Of Infamy: The Untold Story Of America's Concentration Camps. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97484-2. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)

Post-War Manzanar-related resources

  • Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. (1997). Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97558-X.
  • Daniels, Roger, Kitano, Harry H.L., Taylor, Sandra C. (1986). Japanese Americans From Relocation To Redress. University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-258-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Irons, Peter. (1983). Justice At War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503273-X.
  • Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California. (1998). Nanka Nikkei Voices: Resettlement Years, 1945-1955. Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California.
  • Maki, MItchell T., Kitano, Harry H.L., Berthold, S. Megan. (1999). Achieving The Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02458-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Takei, Barbara, Tachibana, Julie (2001). Tule Lake Revisited. T & T Press. ISBN 0-971167-60-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


References

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  2. ^ a b "Manzanar National Historic Site - Congressional Record - House". Retrieved May 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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External links

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