A Brief History of Manzanar
There were many great accomplishments in the 20th century — air and space travel and computers to name a few — and some things we wish had never happened. The Manzanar Camp is one of these mistakes.
In the wake of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, Executive Order No. 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt in 1942, which forced almost 120,000 Japanese Americans who resided in western states to be relocated. To be clear, these mostly were American and not Japanese citizens who were forced to leave their homes and jobs to be moved into government run camps. There is no evidence that these people were engaged in espionage for the Japanese, nor that most had any significant loyalty to the country of their ancestors. Their bank accounts were frozen, and their lives totally uprooted.
There were ten “relocation centers” run by the newly created War Relocation Authority, all situated in isolated places and run in a prison style. Every camp was surrounded by barbed wire, with guards in towers monitoring the residents. The relocation centers were to be self-sufficient with their own health facilities, post offices, schools, etc. But the Japanese Americans forced to live in them were far from free.
The first completed relocation center was Manzanar, situated in the Owens Valley of eastern California just north of the town of Lone Pine. Manzanar was once a farming community, but the town was large abandoned as the city of Los Angeles diverted water away from the Owen’s Valley to quench the thirst of its residents in southern California. Manzanar camp was quickly constructed on 6200 acres of leased land and ultimately was home to as many as 10,000 people. Many Japanese Americans would spend three years in these facilities, and most lost or had to sell their homes and close their farms and businesses. Detainees were allowed to leave at the end of WWII, although many had nowhere to go. The camp was abandoned in November 1945.
(Manzanar camp in July 1942)In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act that provided some redress for Japanese Americans. Each living survivor was paid $20,000 for their forced incarceration. In 1989 President Bush issued a formal apology. Manzanar was named a National Historic Site in 1992. An interpretive center opened in the camp’s high school auditorium in 2004, which includes exhibits and a gift shop.
Our Visit to Manzanar
As you drive into the site, you pass a guard tower which is to the west of the entry road. The tower is nicely framed by the desert and Sierra Nevada Mountain range, the pretty setting belying its true purpose — to keep free citizens locked up. The tower is one of the few remaining structures at the site as today Manzanar is largely abandoned.
A photo of the Manzanar guard tower (see below image) was used as last weekend’s One Clue Mystery photo. Congratulations to George G and Jonathan L, who recognized where we were!
We initially bypassed the Visitor Center and drove a little further south to the original entrance to Manzanar camp, still surprisingly well preserved:
(Original entrance to the Manzanar Camp)
The crowded landscape seen in the black and white image from 1942 (above) no longer exists. Most of the buildings are gone, although their footings can still be found if you look carefully. Except for a few structures, the landscape is largely empty and returning to the desert.
Our next stop was at the Visitor Center building (former an auditorium), only to find that it was closed on the day of our visit. It is said to contain a lot of interesting exhibits, so this would have been our preferred introduction to the camp. But we did not let this spoil our visit.
(Manzanar’s Visitor Center is located in an old auditorium)
My wife and I went on the 3.2-mile self-guided driving tour around the site, which included a lot of stops and walking and which was well worth doing. Our first stop was to see two residential buildings, filled with exhibits, in Block 14.
The residential buildings are quite stark, and living in them would have been rather like being in a crowded dormitory or prison camp. The construction was rudimentary and of low quality. Families had to share rooms with many strangers they didn’t know. Often bedsheets were hung to give family units a semblance of privacy.
Residents were successful in helping to create schools in Manzanar, and it is interesting to learn more about this:
Outside the residences of block 14 is a simple reconstructed basketball court, of which there were a number in the camp. Basketball and baseball were popular ways for people to fill their days. Some jobs existed, like growing food and making materials for the US military.
(Basketball court outside of Block 14, Manzanar camp)
I found the most interesting aspect of the camp was its Cemetery. It’s located on the most westerly aspect of Manzanar and is marked by a white obelisk, with Japanese characters on two sides.
There were many small gifts and mementos left on the monument, which ranged from coins to small toys to jewelry. I’m not completely sure of the significance of everything, but it was a touching act of remembrance.
(some of the items left on the Manzanar Cemetery monument)
The cemetery contains individual marked and unmarked graves as well:
It’s hard not to be moved by how the people who were forced to relocate suffered. I’m not a person who believes a society should flagellate itself over the sins of its ancestors, but I do believe we should learn from our mistakes and do our best to make sure something like this never happens again. Sadly, I’m inclined to believe that the lessons of Manzanar have mostly been forgotten.
If you Visit:
Manzanar is located on the west side of U.S. Highway 395, 9 miles north of Lone Pine, California and 6 miles south of Independence, CA. The site is fee-free year-round (no entrance fee or pass is required).
Manzanar Visitor Center is open Thursday to Monday (Note: it is closed Tuesday and Wednesday) from 9:00AM to 4:30PM. Manzanar is closed on most major holidays.
So moving. History we should never forget.