BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Independence -- Manzanar NHS -- Visitor Center

CA -- Independence -- Manzanar NHS -- Visitor Center:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MANVC_090729_009.JPG: A Community's Living Room: This auditorium is one of three original buildings remaining here from Manzanar War Relocation Center. As you walk closer, listen for laughter, tears, music -- the sounds of celebration and sadness and once echoed through this building's cavernous space. They linger in the stories you will hear inside, of those who worked and played here over many decades: internees, War Relocation Authority (WRA) staff, and Owens Valley residents. In just five months, internee carpenters transformed standard government blueprints into a community auditorium for the more than 5,000 people still confined here in June 1944. With a stage, locker rooms, and projection booth, the 14,000 sq. ft. building changed the way Manzanar gathered. Concerts, lectures, Japanese American cultural activities and physical education classes filled its calendar -- and often its 1,280-seat capacity. Tickets for dances, talent shows, and movie nights were 5 cents for children, 25 cents for adults, 50 cents for camp staff and "everyone else". Built To Last: The auditorium faced an uncertain future as Manzanar closed in November 1945. Inyo County purchased it in 1947, and the Independence Veterans of Foreign Wars hosted community social and sports events here until 1951. The south wing was moved to Lone Pine in 1954, and Inyo County converted the auditorium to a road equipment maintenance shop where many local residents worked over the next forty years. A Place for Remembering: Time, weather, and alteration had taken their toll when the National Park Service purchased the building in 1996. Six years later, a $3.5 million rehabilitation process began. On April 24, 2004, more than 2,500 former internees, local residents, and others celebrated the building's dedication as Manzanar's interpretive Center and Park Headquarters. As you enter, look for original walls, doors, light fixtures, and other pieces of the past.
2. MANVC_090729_017.JPG: Manzanar National Historic Site: In 1942, the United States Government ordered over 110,000 men, women, and children to leave their homes and detained them in remote, military-style camps. Two-thirds of them were born in America. Not one was convicted of espionage or sabotage. For 10,000 of them, Manzanar would be their new home.
3. MANVC_090729_024.JPG: Manzanar Auditorium: Welcome to a piece of history. This building was constructed by internee carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and painters as the Manzanar High School auditorium-gymnasium in 1944. Its use soon expanded, however, to embrace a variety of needs. Instead of holding dances in the mess halls and showing movies in the firebreaks, internees finally had a large, comfortable fathering place. Camp Director Ralph Merritt called it the community's "living room." Internees and camp staff used the auditorium for a year and a half, until Manzanar War Relocation center closed in November, 1945. For the next fifty years, it served the Owens Valley community. The auditorium underwent several transformations before becoming the building you stand in today. A Community's Living Room: Even before the auditorium was officially completed in September, 1944, internees and camp staff were putting it to use. In June, a thousand people attended the high school graduation ceremonies for 177 students. A 1945 schedule of planned activities included talent shows, concerts, educational movies, high school parties, oratorical contents, pageants, and dances. Meetings and memorial services were also held here. In some ways, this building reflects the changes at Manzanar over its three and a half years as a War Relocation Center, when a bleak and barren landscape encircled by barbed wire was transformed into a community of 10,000 people. A County's Garage: After the camp closed, the building was purchased by Inyo County and leased to the Independence chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The VFW hosted an assortment of social events here including old time dances and exhibition basketball games. In 1955, the auditorium was modified to serve as a garage and shop for the Inyo County Road Department. Workers cut a large door in the center of the east wall for vehicle access, removed the stage, and replaced the wood floors with concrete. The building remained a garage for the next forty years before being purchased by the National Park Service in 1996. A Nation's Heritage: Welcome to Manzanar's interpretive center and park headquarters. A two-year restoration project included reinforcing the entire building with structural steel, reconstructing the stage and south wing, and installing new windows, flooring, and modern electrical, plumbing, and climate control systems. The entire building was repainted to its 1945 colors. Offices, theaters, and restrooms replaced the locker rooms in the north and south wings. Today, you join thousands of visitors who have fulfilled Camp Director Ralph Merritt's idea of the auditorium as a living room, where we hop you get a sense of Manzanar as a community.
4. MANVC_090729_027.JPG: 1942 Fire Engine: Manzanar's initial fire protection was limited to garden hoses, water buckets and shovels. This Ford arrived in July 1942, offering a pumping capacity of 500 gallons per minute. The Dodge fire engine arrived in April 1943, adding an additional 500 gallon capacity. The fire department was located one block north of here. The crew was headed by a Caucasian fire chief and three captains. Thirty Japanese American firemen split three eight-hour shifts. The crew doubled with the addition of volunteers. Between 1942 and 1945, the department responded to nearly 100 fired in mess halls, barracks, service buildings, grass and brush. On July 28, 1944, the camp's only large fire destroyed warehouses 33, 34, and 35. A strong south wind drove the flames toward Block 4 as internees and camp staff rushed to wet down their roofs. After the war, the truck was acquired by the Bishop Fire Department which expanded the bed and added the ladder. The National Park Service purchased it in the 1990s and now uses it for parades and events.
5. MANVC_090729_031.JPG: Welcome to Manzanar: Ever since the U.S. Army enclosed this one-square mile with barbed wire in 1942, people have debated how to accurately describe Manzanar. During World War II, it was officially called a "War Relocation Center," while newspapers and some locals referred to it simply as the "Jap Camp." President Roosevelt and other officials on occasion referred to it as a "concentration camp." Every person whose life was affected by Manzanar has their own story. In their own words. We invite you to discover some of these stories, and to ask yourself: - What does Manzanar mean to history? - What does Manzanar mean to me?
6. MANVC_090729_039.JPG: "Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside room in the badlands. Let 'em be pinched, hurt, hungry, and dead up against it... Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them" -- Henry McLemore, nationally syndicated columnist, 1942 No single cause can explain the exclusion of Japanese Americans as an entire ethnic group from the West Coast. A number of social, political, and historical factors contributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to grant the U.S. Army the authority it sought. Beginning in the late 1800s, labor leaders in western state exploited anti-Asian sentiment to protect jobs for Euro American workers. Local politicians and newspapers amplified this prejudice to win electoral race and attract readership. As the nation still mourned its loss at Pearl Harbor, news reports of an isolated attack by a Japanese submarine on the California coast and the sensationalized "Battle of Los Angeles" inflamed public support for mass removal.
7. MANVC_090729_043.JPG: Welcome to Manzanar: Ever since the U.S. Army enclosed this one-square mile with barbed wire in 1942, people have debated how to accurately describe Manzanar. During World War II, it was officially called a "War Relocation Center," while newspapers and some locals referred to it simply as the "Jap Camp." President Roosevelt and other officials on occasion referred to it as a "concentration camp." Every person whose life was affected by Manzanar has their own story. In their own words. We invite you to discover some of these stories, and to ask yourself: - What does Manzanar mean to history? - What does Manzanar mean to me?
8. MANVC_090729_045.JPG: Fear of Attack: Fact vs. Fiction: Two events during February 1942 illustrate both real and exaggerated concerns that Japan would attack, possibly invade, the West Coast. On February 23, a lone Japanese sub shelled an oil field at Goleta, California, north of Santa Barbara. The Navy issued an alert and the following night "The Battle of Los Angeles" broke out. The radar signature of a weather balloon, mistaken for an airplane, caused the Army to issue a Green Alert, meaning "ready to fire." Unsubstantiated sightings of enemy planes soon followed. Antiaircraft batteries opened fire, raining shrapnel down on the city and causing panic in the streets. Although the Army and Navy disputed the true nature of the event, West Coast newspapers persuasively clamored for the mass removal of Japanese Americans.
9. MANVC_090729_050.JPG: Propaganda and Politics: During the ten weeks between Pearl Harbor and the signing of Executive Order 9066, newspaper columnists and politicians debated whether to oust Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Many were persuaded by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox's statement that "fifth column activity" -- collaboration from within -- explained Japan's stunning success at Pearl Harbor. California Attorney General Earl Warren and other politicians claimed the proximity of Japanese-owned farms to airstrips, harbors, and rail lines was proof of intended sabotage, even though most of this acreage had been reclaimed from marginal land decades earlier. In mid-February 1942, all of California's congressman stated their unequivocal support for removal. Although some clergy and newspaper editors consistently voices opposition, they could not alter the course set by Executive Order 9066.
10. MANVC_090729_052.JPG: Imperfect Opportunities: Immigrants from Asian countries experienced both opportunity and oppression in the U.S. Beginning in the 1850s, Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad and in California's gold mines transformed the labor pool in the West. Following their exclusion in the 1880s, Japanese immigrants arrived in greater numbers, a trend soon protested by labor leaders in the West. Concerned that "Japanese" farmers controlled a growing percentage of the state's agriculture. California legislators passed the Alien Land Law in 1913, preventing Japanese and other Asian immigrants from owning land. The 1924 Immigration Exclusion Act effectively prohibited further immigration from Japan and selected other countries, based on the legal precedent that "non-whites" could not become citizens.
11. MANVC_090729_054.JPG: Roots of Racism
12. MANVC_090729_061.JPG: A Democracy at War: "We should never have moved the Japanese from their homes and their world. It was un-American, unconstitutional, and un-Christian." -- Francis R. Biddle, U.S. Attorney General, 1944 On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Mary Tsukamoto abruptly stopped practicing the piano for her church's upcoming Christmas program when she heard the news. Japan had attacked the U.S. naval base in Hawaii. "The whole world turned dark," she later recalled. At the same time, Tom Kawaguchi left the public library in San Francisco as newsboys screamed, "Extra! Extra! Japs Bomb Pearl harbor!" On his way home, Tom feared that bystanders were "ready to pounce" on him. In the days that followed, all people of Japanese ancestry living in the U.S. came under suspicion. Many politicians, military leaders, and ordinary citizens believed they would side with their country of ancestry, Japan, rather than their country of birth, America. Mary Tsukamoto and Tom Kawaguchi were just two of nearly 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast in 1941 whose lives would be forever altered. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan the next day, and on Germany and Italy three days after that. On February 19, 1942, he signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the U.S. military to carry out the exclusion and detention of American citizens and resident aliens. Although the order did not specify any ethnic group by name, in practice it applied to German and Italian aliens as individuals, but to all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast. Timeline: September 5, 1905: Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, raising international concern about Japan's increasing military strength. September 18, 1931: Japan invades and occupies Manchuria, a first step toward military domination of East Asia. December 7, 1941: The Japanese military attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. December 11, 1941: The West Coast is declared a Theater of War. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt leads the newly created Western Defense Command. January 2, 1942: Japan takes Manilla in the Philippine Islands following US retreat to its last-stand positions on the peninsula of Bataan and the island forces of Corregidor. January 29, 1942: Attorney General Francis Biddle declares certain harbors, airports, and other sensitive areas off-limits to "enemy aliens." February 15, 1942: Japan occupies Singapore. February 19, 1942: President Franklin D Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the US Army to exclude "any or all persons" from designated areas.
13. MANVC_090729_074.JPG: War Relocation Centers: For a three week period in March 1942, Japanese Americans could move to a destination of their choice outside the Exclusion Zone. However, in light of objections from Western states that did not wish to be "made a dumping ground for enemy aliens," few exercised this option. Similar opposition influenced the Army's decision to transfer internees from Assembly Centers to permanent War Relocation Centers. Rather than being resettled away from the Coast, internees were moved to one of ten camps during the summer and fall of 1942.
14. MANVC_090729_078.JPG: "Where the water touches this soil of disintegrated granite, it acts like the wand of the Enchanter, and it may with truth be said that these Indians have made some portions of their Country, which otherwise were Desert, to bloom and blossom as the rose." -- U.S. Army Captain J.W. Davidson, 1859 The Owens Valley relied on abundant water from snow-fed Sierra streams and a diversity of plants and animals for their subsistence. Living in settlements along the waterways, the Palute created unique irrigation systems to enhance the growth of native plant foods. For more than three thousand years they hunted game, gathered pinion nuts, made baskets and pottery, and traded with other native groups beyond the mountains. The Paiute's rich cultural heritage is evident in the landscape at Manzanar. In the 1860s, discoveries of gold and silver in the Sierra Nevada and Inyo Mountains attracted a flood of prospectors. Ranchers and farmers followed, often utilizing Paiute irrigation systems and grasslands. A harsh winter and scarce food in 1861-62 forced the Paiute and settlers into open conflict. The military intervened and, in 1863, forcibly removed 1,000 Paiute to Fort Tejon in the mountains south of Bakersfield. Many Paiute eventually left Fort Tejon and returned to the Owens Valley where they lived in camps near towns and farms. They integrated farm and domestic labor with traditional food gathering and, by 1866, were indispensable to the Owens valley's agricultural economy. As Captain A.B. MacGowan, commander of Fort Independence observed. "The people in the valley could not get along without them as they do most all the labor required."
15. MANVC_090729_085.JPG: Nearly half of the miners who came in search of riches in the 1860s were immigrants from countries including Scotland, France, Mexico, and Chile. Pablo Flores, a Mexican miner, first discovered silver at Cerro Gordo in 1865. The area eventually produced over $13,000,000 in silver, lead, and zinc. Other newcomers, using the Homestead and Pre-emption Laws to settle on Paiute homelands, farmed and raised livestock to support the mining camps. After 1880, a decline in mining reduced demand for local farm products. With no adequate transportation to outside markets, the Owens Valley's economy wilted until the narrow gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad was built on the east side of the valley. It provided an adequate, though expensive, means of shipping livestock and crops. By 1885, seven major canals provided Owens River water to valley farms. The silver boom at Cerro Gordo created new economic opportunities in the Owens Valley and a trade link with Los Angeles. Silver was transported by steamship across Owens Lake and by freight wagons to Los Angeles. Supplies for the mining camp were shipped from Los Angeles via the same route.
16. MANVC_090729_091.JPG: In 1905, the city of Los Angeles announced plans to build a 230-mile-long aqueduct to supply their growing city with Owens Valley water. That year, John Shepherd sold his Owens Valley ranch to George Chaffey, a prominent agricultural developer from Southern California. Over the next five years, Chaffey's Owens Valley Improvement Company (OVI) laid the groundwork for an agricultural subdivision, piping water from local creeks and planting thousands of fruit trees. OVI's promotional brochures promised "Fortunes in Apples in Owens Valley," and several dozen families moved to the area. The new town of Manzanar grew to include a general store, community hall, garage, and school. During the 1920s, the city of Los Angeles began buying additional water rights and property in the Owens Valley. Chaffey sold his OVI interests to the city in 1924, and other farmers followed. Some leased their orchards back from the city while others moved away. The city of Los Angeles managed the Manzanar orchards until 1932, and the town's last two families left in 1934. "It was a marvelous place to live. Clean air, beautiful mountains and a close neighborly association. The rich volcanic soil produced the largest vegetables and plentiful fruit crops. None better in the whole world!"
17. MANVC_090729_093.JPG: When Grace Fukuhara was born here in 1942, Manzanar was a War Relocation Center. Martha Mills was born at Manzanar in 1914, when it was an apple farming community. Three decades before, Johnny Symmes' birthplace was a cattle ranch that once occupied this land. Together, their life stories illustrate Manzanar's long history of recurring human settlement, inhabitation, and displacement. They reflect the conflicts over land and resource use that shaped landscapes and lives in the Owens Valley.
18. MANVC_090729_098.JPG: Local reactions to the city of Los Angeles' buyout policies ranged from acceptance to hostility. A group of locals seized the aqueduct at the Alabama Gates, a few miles south of Manzanar, in 1924 and diverted the entire flow back into the dry riverbed. Over the next three years, the aqueduct was bombed a dozen times. Within a decade, Owens Lake and portions of the river were dry, and the city of Los Angeles owned 95 percent of the valley. Local residents' November 1924 takeover of the Alabama Gates evolved into a social gathering for 350 people,complete with a barbecue, an orchestra, and other entertainment. The takeover last four days and attracted national media attention. The Owens Valley's economic problems were compounded in 1927 when examiners closed the local Inyo County Bank. The bank was owned by Mark and Wilfred Watterson, brothers who had organized resistance to Los Angeles. Many local residents who sold property trusted the bank with their money. When the bank collapsed, businesses throughout the valley failed and families lost their life savings. The Wattersons were later convicted of embezzlement. As farms sold and jobs disappeared, some Owens Valley Paiute were left destitute. The city of Los Angeles proposed removing the Indians from the valley but later abandoned the idea. In 1937, the city, the federal government, and the tribes negotiated the Owens Valley Land Exchange to form reservations near Bishop, Big Pine, and Lone Pine. The Fort Independence tribe remained on its original reservation, established in 1915.
19. MANVC_090729_100.JPG: By the 1930s, local business leaders pinned their economic hopes on the area's spectacular scenery and tourism potential. The Inyo Associates, founded by Father John Crowley and Ralph Merritt, promoted the region as a recreation paradise. In 1940, an estimated one million tourists traveled through the Owens Valley. As tourism diminished with the onset of World War II, the Owens Valley received a new economic boost. The federal government leased 6,000 acres of Manzanar from the city of Los Angeles to construct a War Relocation Center. In response to local opposition, an Owens Valley Citizens' Committee was formed to appeal to the patriotism of valley residents to "do their part" for the war efforts and to promote the project's economic benefits. After the war, the federal government sold the barracks and returned Manzanar to the city of Los Angeles. For the next four decades, local residents hunted, cut firewood, and harvested fruit from the original orchards. In March 1992, Congress established Manzanar National Historic Site, entrusting the National Park Service to preserve the site and tells its stories.
20. MANVC_090729_103.JPG: Becoming "American": "It was not acceptable to me to be less than a full citizen in a white man's country." -- Gordon Hirabayashi, an American Quaker from Seattle, 1988 In 1887, soon after American poet Emma Lazarus penned an invitation to Europe's "poor... huddled masses yearning to breath free," George Shima arrived in California. He picked potatoes and dreamed of owning his own farm. By 1913, the "Potato King" controlled over 28,000 acres, a feat heralded by the San Francisco Chronicle as open to "anybody with pluck and intelligence." In 1924, the same year a new law effectively ended further immigration from Japan, George Shima declared he felt "more at home here than in Japan." Not all newcomers shared his experience. In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court denied citizenship to Takao Ozawa, a self-proclaimed "true American" who attended high school and college in Berkeley, California. The court ruled he was "in every way eminently qualified... to become an American citizen." Except one: he was not white. During the same period that Ellis Island welcomed immigrants from Europe, Angel Island in San Francisco met arrivals from Asian countries. Newcomers on both coasts shared common dreams and overcame similar challenges. In spite of immigration quotas established after 1908, Japanese men living in Hawaii and the U.S. could send to Japan for "Picture Brides." Approximately half of these Issei, or first generation, couples stayed to work, raise their children, the Nisei, and adopt a new country as their own. Many Nisei embraced two cultures, attending both American schools and Japanese-language schools ... At her public school in Seattle, Monica Sone remembered she "was a jumping, screaming, roustabout Yankee." But at Japanese-language school, she "suddenly became a modest, faltering, earnest little Japanese girl with a small timid voice."
21. MANVC_090729_109.JPG: "Our Japanese friends ran the produce section in an open-air market. They were there one day and the next day they weren't. I don't remember too much about these people, except that they were always kind to us." -- Sheril Cunning, a young girl living in Southern California when WWII broke out, 1984. On the eve of World War II, the communities destined to converge at Manzanar -- from Bainbridge Island near Seattle to Terminal Island south of Los Angeles -- represented a diverse slice of America life. While the small fishing community on Terminal Island experienced relative isolation from the dominant Euro American (or hakujin) culture in Southern California, strawberry farmers on Bainbridge Island sent their children to integrated schools and participated in community events and festivals. In other neighborhoods later uprooted to Manzanar, including Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, and parts of Hollywood, Stockton, Florin, and the San Fernando Valley, lifestyles and occupations varied widely. Many Nisei embraced two cultures, American by birth, Japanese by heritage.
22. MANVC_090729_111.JPG: Losing a Way of Life: Terminal Island, San Pedro Harbor, California: When the fog rolled in, ferries stopped running from San Pedro to Terminal Island and a single bridge linked it to the mainland. Just 3-1/2 miles long and a short distance from San Pedro, Terminal Island formed its own little world in the 1930s, part American company town, part traditional Japanese fishing village. Everything changed on December 8, 1941. The FBI rounded up all Japanese American community leaders and took fishermen into returning from the sea into immediate custody. The next morning, teenagers who usually rode the ferry to school were sent home. Blocked from fishing, with funds in Japanese branch banks frozen, families lost their livelihoods. Ten days after the signing of Executive order 9066, the Navy took control of Terminal Island, ordering residents to leave their homes within 48 hours. Over 3,000 islanders had to find temporary shelter and endure weeks of uncertainty until they were sent to Manzanar and other Assembly Centers in April 1942.
23. MANVC_090729_115.JPG: Most of the Japanese Americans living on Terminal Island worked in the fishing industry. Canneries provided employment, loans for new boats, and housing. The Los Angeles Harbor Authority owned much of the land, leasing it to merchants and residents. Strong communal bonds became even stronger at Manzanar, where Terminal Islanders lived together in Blocks 9 and 10. Other internees considered them "rough" and "Japanesey." Some returned to San Pedro after the war, but never again to the Island.
24. MANVC_090729_117.JPG: Bainbridge Island: Puget Sound, California: Once the stands of fir trees had been logged, the soil on Bainbridge Island proved ideal for farming. After working as mill hands, many Issei turned to the most labor-intensive crop of all, strawberries. Recounted one, "All you needed... was one horse, a plow, and lots of kids." In 1941, many looked forward to a promising harvest. Yet after Pearl Harbor, the Navy considered nearby Bremerton Naval Base highly strategic. On March 24, 1942, the U.S. Army ordered the Island's 50 Japanese American families to leave in six days. Ikuko Watanabe reflected, "those that would be friends for life, you really knew right then and there." Many arranged for friends and neighbors to look after their property and left for Manzanar knowing they "had their homes to come back to" after the war. A student at Bainbridge High, Ikuko Watanabe, remembered pre-war life on Bainbridge as "a big party-like atmosphere. The women went to cook the feast, and the men all went out in the fields; the children helped, too, to plant strawberries... it was quite a community-spirited group."
25. MANVC_090729_121.JPG: Little Tokyo: Los Angeles, California: Many of its 6,000 or so residents agreed, "The best thing was not to go outside of Little Tokyo at all." In the early 1900s, a time when anti-Japanese sentiment was growing, many merchants, business owners, and produce market workers lived and worked within a three-mile radius of First and San Pedro Streets. Japanese Americans throughout Southern California went to "Lil' Tokio" to shop for specialty items, attend festivals, and frequent favorite restaurants and theaters. As public support for mass relocation mounted, the community paper, the Rafu Shimpo, spoke for both Issei, by then classified as "enemy aliens," and Nisei, who initially believed citizenship would safeguard their future. On April 4, 1942, the Rafu temporarily ceased publication and many of its residents were soon sent to Manzanar. For the first time since 1903, the corner of San Pedro and First looked like a "ghost town." The Rafu Shimpo's co-editor Togo Tanaka described his dual upbringing: "My lessons at school taught me about the lives and character of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, but at home my father... instilled in me the values... that had been taught to him by his forebears in Japan."
26. MANVC_090729_144.JPG: A Forced Removal: "The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken." -- Lt. General John L. DeWitt, formal memorandum to the Secretary of War, 1942 In the last days of March 1942, the Japanese Americans living on Bainbridge Island, Washington, became the first community to face removal under the exclusion orders. Ichiro Nagatani described his community's dilemma: "We are just as good Americans as the next guy, only we haven't had a chance to prove it." A U.S. Army officer in charge of the ouster called it "one of the toughest things this outfit has ever been told to do." As the Army issued similar orders up and down the West coast, all people of Japanese ancestry attempted to prepare for an uncertain future. Many sold property at steep losses, gave away pets, and burned or buried photographs, letters, and heirlooms from Japan. Most had less than two weeks to "pack only what they can carry." On April 1, 1942, 227 Bainbridge Islanders arrived at Manzanar under military escort. Kazuko Sakai soon wrote home: "This place is so hot at day and cold at night; so different from dear old Bainbridge." In the 1930s, the government began gathering information on resident aliens, enabling the FBI to sweep into immediate action after Pearl Harbor. Within days, Japanese, German, and Italian citizens residing in the U.S. became "enemy aliens." By February 10, 1942, the FBI detained 3,848 aliens; 55% were Japanese. One of a handful of newspapers to do so, the Bainbridge Review protested the "evacuation" as "an outrage against all the precious rights of citizenship." As the day of departure neared, editor Walter Woodward described the hurried military operation as "pointless and merciless in its speed."
27. MANVC_090729_146.JPG: Behind the Wire: "Children have not seen a kitchen stove, a bath tub, a family dinner table or the privacy of a back yard for two years... Their poems, stories and pictures reflect a barren world of watch towers, barbed wire fence, tar-papered barracks, desert flora and high mountains capped with snow." -- Dr. Genevieve W. Carter, superintendent of education at Manzanar, 1944 Momo Nagano arrived at the Owens Valley Reception Center with her parents and younger brothers on April 2, 1942. "I had envisioned Manzanar as a camp of little white cottages," she later recalled. "I can still vividly recall my dismay... as we pulled into Manzanar.. .and saw rows of black tar-papered barracks, some finished and others still being built, out home for an indeterminate future." The Owens Valley Reception Center became Manzanar War Relocation Center on June 1, 1942, and reached its peak population of 10,046 in September. "Camp life was highly regimented," recalled Kinya Noguchi. "It was rushing to the wash basin to beat the other groups, rushing to mess hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner." In the spring of 1943, Shizuo Hori, who had relocated from Manzanar, described his new life in Chicago to a friend still in camp: "Manzanar life is easy but it isn't living... Life out here isn't easy but it's life in AMERICA!" Japanese Americans arrived in the Owens Valley under military escort. Many traveled by train from Los Angeles to Lone Pine, where they boarded buses for Manzanar. One group drove their own vehicles in a four-mile-long caravan from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Despite protests from the WRA, the U.S. Army constructed four guard towers in June 1942, and another four that fall, in response to local concerns about "lax security." Eight people were assigned to each 20' by 25' barracks "apartment." Some hung blankets to create a sense of privacy.
28. MANVC_090729_150.JPG: Of Liberty and Loyalty: "People walked the roads, tears streaming down their troubled faces, silent and suffering. The little apartments were not big enough for the tremendous battle that waged in practically every room." -- Mary Tsukamoto, a Nisei woman from Sacramento, 1981 Two months after Manzanar opened, the U.S. victory at the Battle of Midway boosted America's confidence in the war against Japan. By early 1943, a growing number of military leaders and WRA administrators believed that tens of thousands of loyal U.S. citizens should no longer be deprived of their liberty. As the Washington Post exclaimed, "American democracy and the Constitution of the United States are too vital to be ignored... the panic of Pearl Harbor is now past." Acting jointly, the War Department and the WRA implemented a program to distinguish the "loyal" from the "disloyal." The War Department sought to clear Nisei for voluntary service in the armed forces, and the WRA hoped to pave the way for resettling internees out of the camps. However, the "loyalty questionnaires" they used, intended to rush the release of internees, instead ushered in a period of chaos at all ten camps. Ben Takeshita recalled that the turmoil created by the loyalty questionnaires "left families torn apart, parents against children, brothers against sisters." An Issei at Minidoka War Relocation Center recognized the conflict between parents, prevented by law from becoming U.S. citizens, and their children, citizens by birth: "I know it is hard for you... to send your sons to the front... they do not belong to us, but to their country." A total of 913 Nisei men from Manzanar answered "no" to two key questions on the loyalty questionnaire. Although the reasons for their answers varied, the U.S. government considered each negative respondent "disloyal" and later sent these "no no" boys and more than 1,000 others from Manzanar to Tule Lake Segregation Center.
29. MANVC_090729_154.JPG: Hawaii: Hours after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Hawaiian territorial governor declared martial law. As John Garcia, a pipe-fitter who worked in the Navy yard, later described: "We all started to cry. We had no idea what was happening, what was going to happen." Under martial law, the Army controlled the judicial system, censored news, and issued dozens of regulations to control the civilian population. "Everyone had to work twelve hours, six to six," John Garcia recalled. "The military took over the islands completely... all civil liberties were suspended." In spite of these restrictions, the majority of Hawaii's 158,000 Japanese Americans experienced greater freedom and less prejudice than those on the mainland. Comprising one-third of Hawaii's population, their labor was essential for the war effort. However, Japanese Americans were excluded from occupations such as fishing, teaching, defense work, and photography and were removed from homes and businesses near harbors and railroad terminals. They were also discouraged from practicing Buddhism and speaking Japanese. "We must remember that this is America and we must do things the American Way," stated Delos Emmons, Hawaii's military governor. Several hundred Japanese Americans were interned in the U.S. Army facility at Sand Island Detention Center across Honolulu Harbor. They were treated as criminals or prisoners-of-war until December 20, 1941, when they were reclassified as detainees. Less than 2,000 were later sent to WRA camps on the mainland, and others were transferred to the U.S. Army's Camp Honouliuli on Oahu.
30. MANVC_090729_157.JPG: Liberty and Justice for All: "You may think that the Constitution is your security -- it is nothing but a piece of paper.. it is nothing at all, unless you have sound and uncorrupted public opinion." -- Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice, U.S Supreme Court, 1930-41 Two weeks after his re-election in 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly confronted the legality of relocating Japanese American citizens. He stated, "It is felt by a great many lawyers that under the Constitution, they can't be kept locked up in concentration camps... After all, they are American citizens, and we all known that American citizens have certain privileges." Weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the WRA could no longer detain "concededly loyal citizens." The court's decision concerned Mitsuye Endo, who filed a court case "asking that she be discharged" from camp and "restored to liberty." On December 18, 1944, she got her wish, although the ruling did not declare the relocation unconstitutional. Only one day earlier, the WRA had announced the camps would close within a year. On January 2, 1945, the exclusion order was lifted allowing Japanese Americans to return to the West Coast. FBI agents conducted searches of homes and arrested previously identified community leaders without warrants or criminal charges. The U.S. government banned the religious practice of Shinto, because its followers considered the Emperor of Japan divine. Japanese Americans sent to Department of Justice facilities were held while waiting for individual hearings to determine if they were to be paroled, released, or interned.
31. MANVC_090729_163.JPG: Magnitude of the Task: The day before President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson wrote in his diary that he had "no illusions as to the magnitude of the task that lies before us." Ultimately, numerous federal agencies detained and imprisoned Japanese Americans including the U.S. Army, the War Relocation Authority (WRA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Alien Enemy Control Unit (AEC), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The regions involved stretched from Hawaii to New York, and from Canada to Peru. At the urging of the U.S., Peru and other Latin American countries deported people of Japanese ancestry to the U.S. as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange program with Japan, while Canada, Cuba, and other countries established their own relocation programs. In addition to the ten War Relocation Centers, the WRA operated Citizen Isolation Camps at Moab, Utah, and Leupp, Arizona for suspected "troublemakers", including sixteen men removed from Manzanar in January 1943 after the riot. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI investigated and apprehended aliens and selected citizens for temporary detention. These "enemy" aliens were interned in Department of Justice (DOJ) camps run by the INS. The DOJ interned approximately 21,000 aliens and family members of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during the war. The Federal Bureau of Prisons held over 300 Japanese American draft resistors, and many city jails functioned as temporary holding facilities. The U.S. Army was responsible for sixteen assembly centers and seven internment camps on the mainland, and two internment facilities in Hawaii.
32. MANVC_090729_165.JPG: Canada: Seven days after the U.S. announced its decision to relocate all people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, Canada passed Order-in-Council PC 1486, which authorized the relocation of "every person of the Japanese race." 20,881 Japanese Canadians were removed form the West Coast of British Colombia, leaving their farms, businesses, and homes to be sold by the government to pay for their confinement. Over half were sent to Interior Housing Centers at abandoned mining towns and newly built sites in the British Colombia interior. Thousands of men were separated from their families and sent to road construction camps. The remainder went to work in the sugar beet fields of Manitoba and Ontario or settled in self-supporting communities throughout the country. Japanese Canadians were not allowed to return to the "protected zone" of British Colombia until 1949.
33. MANVC_090729_168.JPG: Latin America: Under pressure from the U.S., sixteen Latin American countries interned 8,500 residents of German, Italian, and Japanese descent. Over 3,000 others were deported to the U.S., where they were exchanged for U.S. citizens held as prisoners-of-war. The deportees' passports were confiscated and, upon arriving in the U.S., they were declared illegal immigrants and placed in Department of Justice camps in Texas. The majority of deportees of Japanese ancestry were eventually sent to Japan either as part of the exchange program or as repatriates after the war. Of the 2,264 Japanese nations who were deported from Latin America, eighty percent were from Peru. When the war ended, Peru refused many of those remaining in the U.S. reentry and the U.S. denied their residency requests. In 1952, 364 Japanese Peruvians were declared "permanent legally admitted immigrants" and became eligible for American citizenship.
34. MANVC_090729_171.JPG: Starting Over: "It would be good for the United States generally and I think it would be good from the standpoint of the Japanese-Americans themselves, to be scattered over a much wider area and not to be bunched up in groups as they were along the coast." -- WRA Director Dillon S. Myer, 1943 When one teenager at Manzanar thought about life after camp and "going back in to public schools with Caucasians," she got "butterflies" in her stomach. As difficult as adapting to life in camp had been, starting over posed its own challenges. According to the WRA, nothing presented "so widespread an obstacle" as housing shortages and discrimination. Limited job opportunities compounded matters. Despite the valor of the 100th/442nd and the MIS, returning Japanese American soldiers encountered many of the same obstacles faced by their friends and family at home. After a tour of duty overseas, Mitsuo Usui rode a bus in Los Angeles, wearing his service medals with pride. When a passenger called him a "Damn Jap," the bus driver interceded: "Lady, apologize to this American soldier or get off my bus." The bus driver, too, had been a soldier. Young adults left camp first. Approximately 40,000 went to colleges and jobs in the Midwest or East Coast, and several thousand left to serve in the military. Other internees remained in camp as long as possible, and a few elderly bachelors chose to commit suicide rather than leave camp. By January 1945, only one of every six Issei had left the camps. By then, most had lost their property due to the difficulty of making tax and lease payments while they were interned. Many Japanese Americans moved to transitional housing in hotels, churches, hostels, and trailer parks such as this one in Burbank, California, until they could gain an economic foothold.
35. MANVC_090729_179.JPG: Back Home: For most Japanese Americans, returning home was difficult. When Charlotte DeForest arrived at Manzanar in June 1944, her job was to relocate as many of the remaining 6,000 internees as possible. One unusual case perplexed her: When a young Nisei born in Hawaii was asked why he requested deportation to Japan, he exclaimed, "Because the ships from Japan go to Hawaii and I want to get back home." Nearly three years after removing Japanese Americans from their homes, the U.S. Army lifted the mass exclusion order. By then, many Nisei had resettled in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Parents faced the decision of whether to join their children in new communities or to return to their pre-war communities. Many had lost their homes, businesses, and farms, and were forced to start over again.
36. MANVC_090729_180.JPG: In October 1944, Henry Tanaka visited Manzanar to encourage other Nisei to attend college outside camp. During his visit, Superintendent of Education Genevieve Carter noticed "how serious the gap was between the Nisei who have stayed behind the barbed wire... and those who have left the centers behind." Two years earlier, the Quaker-led American Friends Service Committee and the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council started working together to transfer 4,300 Nisei college students to institutions outside the exclusion zone. Although the Quakers were one of the few organized groups to consistently protest the internment of Japanese Americans, support also came from neighbors, ministers, priests, teachers, and friends who stayed in touch with internees. As Swarthmore College student William Inouye reflected, "my faith and my hope in America is greatly strengthened whenever a willing hand helps us." Beginning in June 1942, the WRA granted permission for some internees to leave camp. After being investigated and cleared on an individual basis they moved east to work or attend college. Hundreds of people left on temporary furloughs to help farmers harvest crops. By August 1943, 11,000 had left the War Relocation Centers; by 1944, that number increased to 35,000. The Nomuro family was one of nearly one thousand families who "voluntarily" moved from the West Coast in March, 1942. They later helped other Japanese Americans relocate to their neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin.
37. MANVC_090729_183.JPG: Dismantling Manzanar: The last Japanese Americans left Manzanar on November 21, 1945, with a one-way ticket and $25 provided by the WRA. They left behind barracks, ponds and gardens, dusty baseball diamonds, and enduring structures, including the sentry posts, cemetery monument, and auditorium. They took with them memories of life behind barbed wire. Manzanar War Relocation Center once had the Owen Valley's newest hospital, sewage treatment plant, and overall infrastructure. The U.S. government spent $4 million to construct Manzanar, and approximately $80 million on all ten camps, and recouped a fraction of the cost by selling barracks as scrap lumber after the war. Manzanar's hospital equipment was transferred o the Northern Inyo Hospital in Bishop, and nearly 200 Manzanar buildings were moved elsewhere to serve as homes, churches, motels, and meeting halls. Hundreds more were demolished and their materials salvaged. To alleviate the post-war housing shortage, barracks were offered to returning soldiers for $333.13. Each 20 foot by 100 foot barrack yielded "8000 square feet of seasoned pine and redwood lumber, 1000 square feet of wallboard, 22 slide windows, four interior doors, 200 feet of wiring and six electric outlets."
38. MANVC_090729_190.JPG: "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?" -- Thomas Jefferson
39. MANVC_090729_193.JPG: The World War II exclusion of Japanese Americans lasted from 1942 to 1945. Nearly forty years later, the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded: "Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity... The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." At the heart of the experience lies the U.S. Constitution and the rights and protections it promises all Americans.
40. MANVC_090729_196.JPG: A City of Barracks: "The desert was bulldozed to level it off. Barracks were built all over for the 10,000 people that lived there. When the wind blew, it was terrible, just like Imperial Valley sandstorms. Oh, everybody resented being put in such a place, especially when they were suffocated by sand!" -- Yoriyuki Kikuchi, 1974 Manzanar changed substantially between the day it opened in March 1942 and the day it closed in November 1945. Internees transformed the landscape with ponds and gardens. Families welcomed babies and mourned deaths. Schools educated students, internal security help prevent crime, and the fire department extinguished fires. In its first anniversary issue, the Manzanar Free Press published an an anonymous poem abut the complexity of life at Manzanar: "Out of smiles and curses, of tears and cries, forlorn; Mixed with broken laughter, forced because they must... Out on the desert's bosom -- a new town is born."
41. MANVC_090729_198.JPG: A Place In History: "We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II." -- President George H.W. Bush, in a letter of apology to former internees, 1990 Reflecting on his years as a young man at Manzanar, Shi Nomura recalled both "ghosts of a nightmarish past" and "happy memories." The government could "corral our bodies, control our movements, but not our spirit," he later wrote. Beginning with a visit to the site in the early 1970s, Shi collected stories, photographs, and artifacts from former internees to create a Manzanar exhibit at the Eastern California Museum. Sue Kunitomi Embrey, once a Manzanar camouflage factory worker and Free Press reporter, returned for the first Manzanar Pilgrimage on a day of "bitter cold" in December 1969. In the decades that followed, she spearheaded a grassroots effort to achieve state and federal recognition of the site. "No one could really learn from the books," she later said. "You have to walk through the blocks, see the gardens, and the remains of the stone walls and rocks." Today, the National Park Service continues the work of Sue, Shi, and others by preserving the landscape and stories of Manzanar. The placement of a California Registered Historical Landmark plaque in 1973 ended a year of heated debate over the plaque's language. References to "concentration camps," "racism," and "exploitation" drew objections from the state, some local residents, and others. After lobbying by the Manzanar Committee and the Japanese American Citizens League, a compromise was reached. The Manzanar Pilgrimage, a return of former internees and others, became an annual event in 1971. Sponsored by the Manzanar Committee, a non-profit organization founded by Sue Kunitomi Embrey and Warren Furutami, the event features speeches, dancing, music, and memorial services. Manzanar National Historic Site provides for "the protection and interpretation of the historical, cultural, and natural resources associated with the relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II," while also interpreting Manzanar's other eras.
42. MANVC_090729_206.JPG: Remembering Manzanar: The first Manzanar Pilgrimage was conceived by Reverend Mayeda, who had been a Buddhist minister in camp. According to Nisei activist Sue Embrey, he suggested to his son and other UCLA students, "If you really want to start getting action and getting your parents to talk about the camps, why don't you have a pilgrimage up there?" On a cold December day in 1969, several hundred people attended the first formal Manzanar Pilgrimage. An 82-year-old former internee came from Chicago. A man who had once been a guard at Manzanar also attended. The success of the Pilgrimage led to other grassroots efforts, including Manzanar's designation as a state historic landmark. Pilgrimages and reunions also became regular events at several other camps.
43. MANVC_090729_211.JPG: Not everyone accepted the internment without protest. Three men and one woman, all born in American, legally challenged the government, eventually taking their cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their cases focused on curfews, exclusion orders, and the detention of loyal citizens. Gordon Hiribayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Minoru Yasui lost their Supreme Court cases. Mitsuye Endo won hers. In his 1944 dissent in Korematsu vs U.S., Justice Robert Jackson warned: "The Court for all time has validated the principle of racial discrimination" which then "lies about like a loaded weapon." For nearly forty years, the rulings against Korematsu, Hirabayshi, and Yasui remained unchallenged. However, in 1981, legal scholar Peter Irons discovered that government lawyers had suppressed key evidence. As a congressional commission (CWRIC) simultaneously conducted redress hearings across America, the time was right to re-open the cases. Fred Korematsu's conviction was reversed. Gordon Hirabayashi won on appeal. Minoru Yasui, however, passed away before his appeal was heard.
44. MANVC_090729_212.JPG: Mitsuye Endo did not seek fame. After Pearl Harbor, she was fired from her job with the state of California without cause. She went to camp without formal protest, but in 1942 agreed with lawyers to file a petition asking the government to explain why she was being held. "I was very shy," she later said, but agreed to be the test case "for the good of everybody." She succeeded. On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court handed down the decision that "restored to liberty" Mitsuye and approximately 70,000 others, and allowed 35,000 who had previously left camp to return to the West Coast. Gordon Hirabayashi refused to go to the Puyallup Assembly Center, and reported to the local FBI office instead. As a Quaker and conscientious objector, he explained that his reasons for resisting included his "Christian principles" and "duty to maintain the democratic standards for which this nation lives." Gordon was arrested and convicted of violating both curfew and evacuation orders. After two appeals, the Supreme Court heard his case, deciding that "the curfew order was an appropriate measure" during wartime, but declined to rule on the legality of the exclusion order. Fred Korematsu. In 1942, Fred Korematsu decided to remain with his Italian American girlfriend rather than go to Tenforan Assembly Center. He underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance, but within weeks he was arrested, charged with violating exclusion orders, and sent to Topaz War Relocation center with the rest of his family. In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction on the basis of military necessity. Dissenting Justice Frank Murphy, however, declared that the exclusion went beyond "constitutional power" and fell "into the ugly abyss of racism." Min Yasui. The second time Minoru Yasui turned himself in to the police for violating curfew orders, he succeeded at being arrested. He was an attorney and a reserve U.S. Army officer, but he had also worked at the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago. The outcome of Yasui's case was ambiguous: the district judge ruled that the curfew order was no longer a citizen, having renounced his citizenship by working at the Consulate. In 1944, Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, declaring that Minoru Yasui was a citizen all along, but that the curfew orders were actually constitutional.
45. MANVC_090729_217.JPG: Although some internees protested the exclusion by pursuing court cases, resisting the draft, or responding negatively to the loyalty questionnaire, the vast majority did not want to "make waves." As they had during their years in camp, many relied on a spirit of shikata ga nai, -- it cannot be helped -- to rebuild their lives after the war. In 1981, Michael Yoshii testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) that his family's time in camp was difficult "to discuss with my parents... Their words said one thing, while their hearts were holding something else deep inside." After listening to over 750 individual testimonies, the commission recommended that the U.S. government make monetary reparations and issue a formal letter of apology. Eight years later, the redress bill HR 442 -- numbered in honor of 442nd Regimental Combat Team -- became law.
46. MANVC_090729_218.JPG: President Ronald Reagan signed the redress bill on August 10, 1988. Each former internee alive on that day became eligible for a letter of apology and a one-time payment of $20,000 form the U.S. government.
47. MANVC_090729_224.JPG: The Best Kept Secret: As tension between Japan and the U.S. mounted during 1941, a few Army officers anticipated the need for skilled Japanese American linguists and interpreters. The top-secret Military Intelligence Service (MIS) school started with 60 students one month before Pearl Harbor. By the time it closed in 1946, 6,000 Nisei, including 300 women, had been trained. Nearly 4,000 members of the MIS served i combat areas in the Pacific before Japan surrendered. Their primary duties included interrogating Japanese prisoners of war, translating captured documents, and decoding intercepted messages. As MIS member Arthur Morimitsu recalled, "We also... volunteered for patrol duty with advanced units and brought down dead and wounded soldiers from the battlefields."
48. MANVC_090729_229.JPG: Go For Broke: Other American soldiers called it the "Purple Heart Battalion." By the time the 100th Infantry Battalion took its first break in March 1944, its initial corps of 1,432 had been reduced to 521. As Masato Nakagawa later admitted, "It was a high price to pay... to prove our loyalty." With fresh replacements, including Pfc. Sadao Munemori, the 100th Infantry Battalion soon pushed from the Anzio beachhead to Rome, where it joined the other Nisei unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in June 1944. After the combined 100th/442nd successfully fought through Belvedere, Luciana, and Livorno, Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, Commander of the Fifth Army, awarded the 100th Infantry Battalion a Presidential Unit Citation. "You are always thinking of your country before yourselves... The 34th Division is proud to you, the Fifth Army is proud of you, and the whole United States is proud of you."
49. MANVC_090729_230.JPG: Several factors led to the formation of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat team. The 100th Infantry Battalion from Hawaii, then trailing at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, impressed military leaders with their "Go For Broke" valor. Leaders of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) lobbied aggressively in Washington, D.C., arguing that the only way to change public opinion was to demonstrate that Nisei would die for their country. By January 1943, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson firmly backed the all-Nisei unit, stating, "Loyalty is a voice that must be heard."
50. MANVC_090729_235.JPG: By the time internees marked the 4th of July in 1944, farewell parties for soldiers leaving camp became almost commonplace. An Issei mother recalled how attitudes had changed: "At first when the boys left, their mothers wept with bitterness... They didn't think their sons should go. This week five have gone from our block... Wives and mothers are sorry... But now they really feel it is a man's duty to serve his country." Approximately 4,000 Japanese American men and women went into military service directly from War Relocation Centers, including 2,800 who were drafted. In November 1942, Karl Yoneda left Manzanar with twelve others to join the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). A few months later, Burns Arikawa volunteered for the 442nd from Manzanar, joining his brothers Frank and James in the service. In December 1943, Iris Watanabe left Granada to volunteer for the Woman's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). Kazuo Ono, an Issei from Minidoka, tried several times to join the Army, a goal he obtained in March 1945, after the Selected Service allowed voluntary induction of Issei. Together, they proved U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Ben Kuroki's words: "Under fire, a man's ancestry, what he did before the war... don't matter at all... whether you realize it all the time or not, you're living and proving democracy."
51. MANVC_090729_236.JPG: Sadao Munemori: Private First Class: The rocky hillside in Italy nicknamed "Georgia" was half a world away from San Fernando, California, where Sadao Munemori lived before the war. He volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) soon after Pearl Harbor, remembered his sister, so that his "older brother wouldn't be called." Sadao's visit to Manzanar in May 1943 was the first time he would see his family. One year later, Private First Class (Pfc.) Sadao Munemori, shipped out as part of the early wave of replacements for the hard-hitting all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion. Attached to Company A, Sadao fought in multiple battles up the boot of Italy, from the Anzio beachhead to the Arno River, and in the costly rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in France. The objective of Sadao's last battle was to overrun German fortifications on Mt. Folgorito, near Pisa, Italy. On April 5, 1945, his company first attacked "Georgia" peak at dawn. After his squad leader was wounded, Sadao assumed command and led a successful assault on two machine gun nests. Two weeks away from his 23rd birthday, Sadao threw himself on a German grenade, losing his life while saving two of his men. The war in Italy ended several weeks later, and in Germany the following month. Pfc. Sadao Munemori was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on March 7, 1946.
52. MANVC_090729_242.JPG: Freedom at Home: The Army's announcement in January 1944 that eligible Nisei males would be drafted directly from the camps brought immediate protests from internees. Led by Nisei Kiyoshi Okamoto, draft resisters at Heart Mountain organized as the Fair Play Committee (FPC), stating they would willingly serve their country once their rights as citizens were restored. "The Constitution... is not a mere scrap of paper," FPC spokesman Frank Emi wrote in response to a Heart Mountain Sentinel editorial calling the resisters "whimpering weaklings... afraid to prove themselves." Authorities branded Okamoto and fellow FPC leader Sam Horino "troublemakers" and sent them to Tule Lake Segregation Center. With Frank Emi and four other FPC leaders they were tried and sentenced to up to four years in prison. Their convictions on conspiracy charges were reversed on appeal in late 1945. Another 85 Heart Mountain resisters were arrested and tried in two separate mass trials. They were found guilty in violating the Selective Service Act and sentenced to up to three years in prison. President Harry S. Truman pardoned all wartime draft resisters in 1947, yet draft resistance remained a divisive issue in the Japanese American community for decades.
53. MANVC_090729_243.JPG: Segregated to Tule Lake: A fourth grade student explained why he had to leave Manzanar: "Teacher, my big brothers answered 'no' on the loyalty question so our family can go to the Tule Lake together and not be separated. So, I'm not an American any more." Despite its intended purpose, the loyalty questionnaire often had more to do with future family security than it did with past allegiances. By March 1944, the WRA had transferred 2,200 people from Manzanar to Tule Lake. People went for many different reasons. Some spouses, children, and siblings went along to keep their families together. Eldest sons usually felt obligated to help aging parents regain a foothold after the war, rather than risk their lives in battle. Some internees had properly and relatives back in Japan to consider. Others simply weren't ready or able to move to unfamiliar, potentially hostile places outside California.
54. MANVC_090729_248.JPG: Within months, most internees acquired additional furnishings to make their barrack apartments more habitable. Some built furniture from scrap wood, while others ordered from catalogs or had their possessions shipped from warehouses. In 1942, the WRA supplied plasterboard and linoleum that internee crews installed to seal floors and walls. The scarcity of goods make simple things precious. "To a friend who became engaged," wrote Noriko Bridges, "we gave nails -- many of them bent... snitched from our father's meager supply or found by sifting through the sand in the windbreak." The transformation of the apartments mirrored changes occurring outside. "When we entered camp it was a barren desert," recalled Tsuyako Shimizu. "When we left camp, it was a garden that had been built up without tools."
55. MANVC_090729_253.JPG: New Arrivals: Manzanar's wood and tarpaper barracks were no match for Owens Valley's wind, dust, and extreme temperatures. Congressman Leland Ford, visiting Manzanar in 1942, remarked, "On dusty days one might as well be outside." In addition to dealing with crowded conditions and a lack of privacy, internees also had to make do with the few belongings they brought with them. As Yuri Tateishi recalled, "What hurt most I think was seeing those hay mattresses... It was depressing, such a primitive feeling. We were given army blankets and army cots. Our family was large enough that we didn't have to share our barrack with another family, but all seven of us were in one room."
56. MANVC_090729_255.JPG: New Arrivals: Manzanar's wood and tarpaper barracks were no match for Owens Valley's wind, dust, and extreme temperatures. Congressman Leland Ford, visiting Manzanar in 1942, remarked, "On dusty days one might as well be outside." In addition to dealing with crowded conditions and a lack of privacy, internees also had to make do with the few belongings they brought with them. As Yuri Tateishi recalled, "What hurt most I think was seeing those hay mattresses... It was depressing, such a primitive feeling. We were given army blankets and army cots. Our family was large enough that we didn't have to share our barrack with another family, but all seven of us were in one room."
57. MANVC_090729_259.JPG: What did children dislike or like about Manzanar? Dust, duty, dusty. Terrible dust storms swept into Manzanar for hours at a time, even for days without let up. No escaping it. Dust blew into the barracks through cracks and opening in the floor and walls. Into our eyes, nose, lungs. Into our food. After things settled down, we formed clubs and sports teams, made new friends, and enjoyed organized activities which kept us busy. The food was pretty bad. Rice, potatoes, boiled vegetables, and canned meat. Breakfast was rubbery scrambled eggs and cooked cereal we called mush. The mess hall food was terrible and many of us got diarrhea. The best part was the beauty of the mountains and soaring red-tailed hawk that allowed us to dream of freedom. Could I bring my pet to Manzanar? The Army would not let you bring your pet to camp. Seven years old Kei Nomura wrote, "We left our dog at a friend's house. His name is Snooky. We will be glad to see our dog again." Kei was lucky because someone took care of his dog. Other people had to abandon their pets. You might have found a new pet at Manzanar like a lizard or mouse or stray cat or dog. Some pets are buried near the cemetery. Because you could only bring a few things to camp, you probably couldn't bring your toys, games, books, or bike. Parents started the Toy Loan Center. It was like a library of toys. The toys in this room are like the ones you might have borrowed from the Toy Loan Center.
58. MANVC_090729_261.JPG: What did children dislike or like about Manzanar? Dust, duty, dusty. Terrible dust storms swept into Manzanar for hours at a time, even for days without let up. No escaping it. Dust blew into the barracks through cracks and opening in the floor and walls. Into our eyes, nose, lungs. Into our food. After things settled down, we formed clubs and sports teams, made new friends, and enjoyed organized activities which kept us busy. The food was pretty bad. Rice, potatoes, boiled vegetables, and canned meat. Breakfast was rubbery scrambled eggs and cooked cereal we called mush. The mess hall food was terrible and many of us got diarrhea. The best part was the beauty of the mountains and soaring red-tailed hawk that allowed us to dream of freedom.
59. MANVC_090729_265.JPG: Could I bring my pet to Manzanar? The Army would not let you bring your pet to camp. Seven years old Kei Nomura wrote, "We left our dog at a friend's house. His name is Snooky. We will be glad to see our dog again." Kei was lucky because someone took care of his dog. Other people had to abandon their pets. You might have found a new pet at Manzanar like a lizard or mouse or stray cat or dog. Some pets are buried near the cemetery.
60. MANVC_090729_271.JPG: Because you could only bring a few things to camp, you probably couldn't bring your toys, games, books, or bike. Parents started the Toy Loan Center. It was like a library of toys. The toys in this room are like the ones you might have borrowed from the Toy Loan Center.
61. MANVC_090729_272.JPG: While Kuichiro Nishi was detained at Fort Missoula, Montana, his family disposed of his extensive nursery property. His son, Henry, remembered, "We just donated all of the nursery to the Veteran's Administration, which they used for landscaping." Soon after joining his family at Manzanar, Kuichiro volunteered to cultivate wild roses in one of the firebreaks. The WRA provided a variety of roses, and Kuichiro budded approximately 15,000 wild shoots. During the fall of 1942, the roses were transplanted to the firebreak between Blocks 33 and 34. Dozens of different species of flowers were also planted in this new garden, first called Rose Park, later renamed Pleasure Park, the Merritt Park. Kuichiro and his family returned to Los Angeles in October 1945. The original nursery was lost, but Kuichiro eventually established a small bonsai nursery.
62. MANVC_090729_277.JPG: Gardens: In October 1942, the Manzanar Free Press observed, "Six months ago, Manzanar was a barren uninhabited desert. Today, beautiful green lawns, picturesque gardens with miniature mountains, stone lanterns, bridges over ponds... attest to the Japanese people's traditional love of nature." Over four hundred landscape professionals came to Manzanar in 1942. In a matter of months, they transformed the bleak camp environment. Internees planted lawns, trees, and flowers near their barracks and created mess hall gardens to relieve the boredom of standing in line at mealtime. "It just gave you a good feeling. Even though were were confined, people cared about themselves and about their surroundings," recalled Arthur Ogami. Often the WRA supported "improvement" projects with funding, materials, and equipment. When Project Directory Roy Nash once allowed internees to use a WRA truck to gather Joshua trees near Death Valley, some Owens Valley residents protested the "waste" of fuel and rubber.
63. MANVC_090729_278.JPG: Stonemason of Manzanar: Before the war, master stonemason Ryozo Kado created elaborate shrines and grottos for the Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese. His trademark was creating "faux wood" with concrete. At Manzanar, Kado and his crew constructed some of the camp's most enduring structures, including the sentry posts, hospital garden, and cemetery monument. Each family in Manzanar contributed fifteen cents to buy cement for the monument. Louis Kado, a Manzanar High School student, assisted his father and recalled, "We ran out of daylight hours, so I held a lamp so my father could finish the cement work. People saw the light moving around the cemetery and thought it was a ghost."
64. MANVC_090729_280.JPG: Education: "I used to wonder how the children could get up and sing such patriotic songs. They would sing, 'I am an American' and all the songs we sang in our schools." -- Dorothy Cragen, former Inyou County superintendent of schools, 1973
65. MANVC_090729_284.JPG: The Education Department at Manzanar "started in the corner of one barrack in June, 1942," reported the Manzanar Free Press. Shortages of space, supplies, and teaching staff presented significant barriers to educating Manzanar's students. At first, ninth-grader Yuri Matsunaga recalled "sitting on the floor in a bare room without any desks or chairs." She was among more than 2,300 students relocated to Manzanar before the end of the 1942 school year. One year later, however, the Manzanar Free Press reported, "about 50 percent of the total community population is going to school." The elementary school enrolled 1,300; the secondary school 1,400; and the Adult Education program 2,050. An "Americanization" program began in May 1942, with adult English language, Democracy, and U.S. History classes taught by internees. By 1945, when Yuri graduated from High School in this auditorium, an accredited staff taught a standard curriculum in barracks classrooms.
66. MANVC_090729_285.JPG: Community Activities: "We imported much of America into the camps because, after all, we were Americans... I was learning, as best one could learn in Manzanar, what it meant to live in America. But I was also learning for sometimes bitter price one has to pay for it." -- John Tateshi, reflecting on his childhood in camp, 1979
67. MANVC_090729_290.JPG: Aksel Nielsen was hired by the WRA as the Community Activities supervisor two weeks after Manzanar opened. He recalled that "being separated from their 'busy American way of life' and confined in a one square mile camp made internees... desperate for something to do. Suddenly there was no stopping at the corner drug store for a coke or ice cream, no going to the beach for a swim, and no window shopping." Recreational activities at Manzanar included events supported by Neilsen's staff, as well as many others organized by internees to satisfy a variety of interests and hobbies. Athletic programs and victory gardens developed in the firebreaks while dances, arts and crafts classes, and clubs met in recreation buildings and mess halls. While a shortage of equipment and facilities hampered recreational efforts, Manzanar Cooperative Enterprises also subsidized cultural and athletic programs. Internees, often with WRA support, created baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts, and a makeshift golf course on oiled sand. Teams like the Terminal Island "Yogores" baseball team reflected the camaraderie among youth from their former communities. The Japanese martial arts of judo and kendo had a considerable following. The "Sierrra Stars" band, "Manzaknights" service club, and "Wingnuts" model airplane club were among numerous groups formed at Manzanar.
68. MANVC_090729_291.JPG: Manzanar and Owens Valley Communities: A cooperative relationship slowly developed between Owens Valley communities and Manzanar. Local residents attended concerts, exhibits, and other Manzanar events. Some worked in the camp as teachers, laborers, and administrators, including Project Director Ralph Merritt. Boys and Girls Clubs from the neighboring towns participated in activities with Manzanar youth, and Big Pine High School once competed against Manzanar's football team in camp. The Bishop School Board, however, cancelled a proposed basketball game, citing potential community protests. "We did our utmost to change the School Board's decision through a petition signed by the entire student body," apologized student body president Mickey Duffy in a letter to Manzanar students. Many internees participated in religious activities and worship. The Catholic St. Farncis Xavier mission and the Protestant Manzanar Christian Church first assembled in spring 1942. By that summer, a Buddhist Church was active. WRA efforts to discourage certain sects of Buddhism as "too-Japanese" backfired as attendance averages 2,000 people per week.
69. MANVC_090729_295.JPG: Family Life: The first morning at camp, Haruko Niwa looked out at the front entrance step, where her teenage son, Aki, was "crying with a drop of the tear like a marble." She knew "he was deeply hurt" and missed his friends and school in Westwood. Another mother, Yuri Tateishi, remembered the uncertainty she felt, "going into a camp with four children... You don't know what the education for the children will be or what type of housing or anything like that." With food, housing, health care, and a clothing allowance provided by the War Relocation Authority, family life continued under altered conditions in camp. Room assignments kept families together, but often required them to live with strangers to achieve a total of eight per room. Privacy was scarce. Rosie Maruki Kahuuchi, a teenager at Manzanar, found using the latrines and showers with no particularly "embarrassing humiliating and degrading." One hundred eighty-eight couples were married at Manzanar, and 541 babies were born.
70. MANVC_090729_297.JPG: The "Children's Village": Social workers Harry and Lillian Matsumoto managed the Shonien Japanese Children's Home in Los Angeles before the war. Initially, Lillian recalled, the Army "thought that the children could be dispersed like the rest of the people." She and her husband encouraged the U.S. Army to "build separate quarters" for orphans and the Army agreed to establish an orphanage at Manzanar. Orphans from three institutions -- Shonlen, the Salvation Army Japanese Children's Home in San Francisco, and Maryknoll Home for Japanese Children in Los Angeles -- formed the core of the "Children's Village." They were joined by children removed from foster homes and adoptive families; children separated from their parents due to FI arrests; and infants born to unwed mothers in War Relocation Centers. At a Children's Village reunion fifty years later, Janet Sachiko Sugimoto Packard reflected; "They were my only family. I never knew my father. I was so fortunate I had my first family."
71. MANVC_090729_309.JPG: Health Care: Ruby Watanabe arrived at Manzanar pregnant. She saw the doctors at the Block 7 hospital clinic, but she delivered her twin girls in the 250-bed hospital complex built by the WRA in July 1942. It was the largest hospital between Los Angeles and Reno, complete with a pharmacy, surgery, x-ray lab, dental clinic, and morgue. While the medical staff worked to provide good health care, living conditions were adverse to good health. Crowded barracks allowed disease to spread easily and internees had little control over their diet. The hospital responded by creating a preventative health care program that included inoculations, well-baby clinics, and food sanitation programs. While there was only one outbreak of contagious disease and minor food poisoning incidences, tuberculosis and diet related illnesses such as peptic ulcers and diarrhea remained a problem. One hundred forty-three internees died at Manzanar, including Ruby Watanabe and both her daughters.
72. MANVC_090729_314.JPG: Community Welfare: By summer 1942, the WRA estimated that nearly 200 families were in need of public assistance. Many had been left without financial support when their heads of household were interned in Department of Justice camps. The community welfare program addressed the families' housing, food, clothing, work, and health needs through clothing donations and financial grants. WRA and internee social workers also attempted to stabilize family life by mediating family quarrels and divorce cases, caring for the blind and infirm, and handling juvenile delinquency.
73. MANVC_090729_316.JPG: Employment: "Life was severely simple and as economical as a sixteen-dollar-a-month-wage scale would indicate. Mess hall meals cost an average of 12-1/2 cents; movies and the newspaper were free services from the Co-op; health services without cash gave security to the aged and ill; and the excellent schools prepared children for the eventual return to normal living in America." -- Project Director Ralph P. Merritt, 1944
74. MANVC_090729_319.JPG: George Izumi dreamed of being a baker, but job opportunities were limited for Japanese Americans before the war: "You were either going to be a gardener or you're going to work in a fruit stand," he later recalled. Shutaro Matsumura owned his own fruit stand, which he had to leave when he came to Manzanar. While George cleared sagebrush in camp, Shutaro worked stuffing mattresses. Within a few months, both worked on construction crews, then in agricultural operations. George later worked in a mess hall and Shutaro took a job as a policeman. George and Shutaro were among over 4,000 internees who were working in camp as clerks, chemists, accountants, nurses, doctors, teachers, fire fighters, repairmen, switchboard operators, and all of the other occupations needed to maintain a city of 10,000. They earned from $12 to $19 per month on a wage scale set low to insure internees would not earn more than an Army private's $21 monthly salary. After the war, Shutaro returned to a fruit stand, and George eventually established one of the largest retail bakeries in California.
75. MANVC_090729_325.JPG: Supporting the War Effort: Japanese Americans supported the war effort in several ways from behind barbed wire. In 1942, nearly 500 American citizens worked in Manzanar's camouflage net factory, producing 2,000-10,000 nets a month for the U.S. Army. Dozens of others worked on a research project to meet the nation's rubber shortage by extracting rubber from guayule, a desert shrub. Manzanar's internees, like many other Americans, planted victory gardens, purchased war bonds, recycled metal, and collected glycerin from laundry drains to be used in munitions manufacturing.
76. MANVC_090729_326.JPG: War Relocation Authority: "Self-governing is a process of growth from within, not the imposition of authority from without. It is a slow process based on bitter experience." -- Project Director Ralph P. Merritt, describing camp government, 1943 The War Relocation Authority assumed control of Manzanar on June 1, 1942 with a skeleton staff and the responsibility for caring for the basic needs of 10,000 people. Recruiting employees proved difficult. Defense work offered better pay, less isolation, and did not require living and working with the "Japanese." However, more than 200 Caucasians eventually came to work at Manzanar. Some came to support and serve the Japanese Americans in their difficult adjustment to camp life. Some came to make their contribution to the war effort. Some came only to collect a paycheck. Relationships between Japanese Americans and the WRA staff ranged from close friendship to indifference to hostility. Ralph Smeltzer, a conscientious objector, taught math to fulfill hill voluntary service. Arthur Williams, an outdoorsman drawn by the Owens Valley's recreational opportunities, was hired as a police captain and later promoted to Assistant Chief of Internal Security.
77. MANVC_090729_331.JPG: National WRA: Once the U.S. Army removed Japanese Americans from the exclusion zones, a civilian agency, the War Relocation Authority, was created to operate the relocation centers and provide for internees' basic needs. Milton Eisenhower, the WRA's first director, was troubled by the Internment of "innocent" Japanese Americans and resigned in June 1942. He advised his successor, Dillon S. Myer, to take the position "only if you can do the job and sleep at night." Myer remained in charge until the WRA was dissolved in 1946. Manzanar War Relocation Center had four project directors in its first eight months of operation, each with different management policies. In May 1942, Roy Nash permitted internees to recreate west of the camp. When Owens Valley residents protested this "lax security," Nash rescinded his permission. Ralph Merritt arrived in November 1942 and guided the camp for the next three years. An Owens Valley civic leader, Merritt visited Japan in 1924. His visit and contacts with Japanese allowed Merritt to later empathize with Manzanar's Japanese Americans.
78. MANVC_090729_332.JPG: While the Army manned the guard towers and oversaw external security, an internal police force maintained order within the camp, internee police, under the direction of Caucasian officers, dealt with crimes ranging from petty theft to a murder-suicide. A Judicial Commission composed of internees and administration staff heard the cases.
79. MANVC_090729_337.JPG: An internee-elected Block Leaders Council worked with the WRA to address issues of health, welfare, and education. A policy that prohibited non-citizens from being "Blockheads" was eventually rescinded and Issei, including Kiyoharu Anzai, the "Mayor of Manzanar," served in this advisory capacity.
80. MANVC_090729_344.JPG: Home Plate, c. 1943: Pieces of home plate from a baseball field located in the North Firebreak between Blocks 19 and 25.
81. MANVC_090729_348.JPG: Corner Stone, c. 1944: Original corner stone from the Manzanar auditorium, dedicated on February 12, 1944.
82. MANVC_090729_356.JPG: Mess Hall: "I did not like waiting in line to eat and I did not like the food. I hated canned green beans, spinach, pork and beans, squid tough as rubber... Many times I refused to take a bite, even though my mother would make me sit for an hour." -- Joyce Nakamura, recalling mealtime at Manzanar, 2000
83. MANVC_090729_357.JPG: Shiro Nomura remembered, "I awoke to the sharp clanging of bells... a large brake drum hung from the corner of each mess hall and the noisy clanging was the daily call to chow." Three times a day, internees lied up for meals served cafeteria-style. "Family meals soon became a forgotten practice for children ate with their playmates or tried different dining halls," recalled Kazayuki Yamamoto. While every chef had the same ingredients to work from, the quality of food varied greatly among mess halls with foods uncommon in the diet of most Japanese Americans. Wartime rationing further limited menu options. Eventually, the WRA became the nation's largest purchaser of rice, and by 1943, Manzanar's extensive agricultural operation produced thirty-two kinds of vegetables and fruits, pork chicken, eggs, and beef. Internees manufactured soy sauce, tofu, Japanese pickles, bean sprouts, miso, dehydrated vegetables, and maple syrup. Although WRA policy prohibited alcohol, same internees built makeshift stills to ferment rice and sugar into sake.
84. MANVC_090729_367.JPG: The Manzanar Riot: "Manzanar was a volcano about to erupt... Many people were filled with many hates about many things -- race hates, war hates, political hates, class hates... and just the common kind of hates we all know too well." -- Ralph Merritt, Project Director, December 24, 1942
85. MANVC_090729_368.JPG: A classmate recalled 17-year old James Ito as "a quiet boy who seldom went out at night." But, on the night of December 6, 1942, he joined several hundred others near the Manzanar police station. Inside, Harry Ueno was under arrest for beating Fred Tayama, a past chapter president of the Japanese American Citizen's League and a rumored FBI informant. Tensions and tempers were high. Eight months of confinement, grievances against the WRA and suspected informers, and rumors of black marketing of sugar and meat fueled the crowd's anger. The WRA called in the Military Police and 135 soldiers deployed in a line of skirmish, attempting unsuccessfully to disperse the crowd with tear gas. As the crowd scattered in chaos, someone pushed an unoccupied vehicle toward the soldiers. Two soldiers fired into the crowd, instantly killing James Ito. Jim Kanagawa, 21, died five days later. Ten others were injured. In the days that followed, 81 internees were removed from the camp, either for protection or punishment.
86. MANVC_090729_373.JPG: Military Police: Many of Manzanar's 100-plus military police had never before seen a "Japanese." According to Lieutenant Harvey Severson, they had been "trained to kill Japs," not guard them. Despite WRA objections, the Army constructed four guard towers in June 1942, and another four in November. By early 1944, the MP force had been reduced by nearly half. Although the guard towers were no longer staffed, search lights were turned on at night for the "comfort of mind" of local residents.
87. MANVC_090729_375.JPG: "In the eyes of the government and the American public we are all plain 'Japs.'" "If anyone, any Nisei, thinks he's an American I dare him to try to walk out of this prison. There is no place for us. It's a white man's country." "Observation will reveal the causes to be deeper, and the roots to be widespread." "The evacuees demanded that this person in jail be returned to the camp because he had done no wrong. As I understand it, there were several hundred who had gathered at the gate beside the building. The evacuees were getting very riotous; they were saying a lot of bad things about the government, about the camp administration, and against this Causasian warehouse supervisors, and they were getting very heated emotionally about the unfair arrest of this evacuee." "I looked around the apartment for anything I could use to defend myself. A baseball bat was the most lethal weapon I could find... I placed the bat under my pillow and then went to bed." "Prior to the firing, I and several others heard a sergeant going from soldier to soldier, telling them, 'Remember Pearl Harbor.' This to my judgment was nothing other than coaching the boys to shoot. Shortly after, the sergeant was again making the rounds and this time ordered the boys to don their gas masks. Many of us saw them putting them on. The crowd undoubtedly must have too because they moved back almost to the wall of the building."
88. MANVC_090729_394.JPG: 1942 Fire Engine: Manzanar's initial fire protection was limited to garden hoses, water buckets and shovels. This Ford arrived in July 1942, offering a pumping capacity of 500 gallons per minute. The Dodge fire engine arrived in April 1943, adding an additional 500 gallon capacity. The fire department was located one block north of here. The crew was headed by a Caucasian fire chief and three captains. Thirty Japanese American firemen split three eight-hour shifts. The crew doubled with the addition of volunteers. Between 1942 and 1945, the department responded to nearly 100 fired in mess halls, barracks, service buildings, grass and brush. On July 28, 1944, the camp's only large fire destroyed warehouses 33, 34, and 35. A strong south wind drove the flames toward Block 4 as internees and camp staff rushed to wet down their roofs. After the war, the truck was acquired by the Bishop Fire Department which expanded the bed and added the ladder. The National Park Service purchased it in the 1990s and now uses it for parades and events.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Manzanar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one of the smaller internment camps. The largest was the Tule Lake internment camp, located in northern California with a population of over 18,000 inmates. The smallest was Amanche, located southeastern Colorado, with over 7,000 inmates. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California's Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370 km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites.

The first Japanese Americans arrived at Manzanar in March of 1942, just one month after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, to build the camp their families would be staying in. Manzanar was in operation as an internment camp from 1942 until 1945. Since the last of those incarcerated left in 1945, former detainees and others have worked to protect Manzanar and to establish it as a National Historic Site to ensure that the history of the site, along with the stories of those who were incarcerated there, is recorded for current and future generations. The primary focus is the Japanese American incarceration era, as specified in the legislation that created the Manzanar National Historic Site. The site also interprets the former town of Manzanar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Owens Valley Paiute, and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens Valley.
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