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The Owens Valley, some 250 miles away, may be steeped in controversial Los Angeles history because of our water aqueduct, but it is a little less known for its role during World War II. The small town of Manzanar became one of the ten detainee military-style camps where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were sent. Another one was in Newell, California with the rest in other states. Locally, Santa Anita was an assembly site "where Japanese Americans were sent in preparation for eventual removal from the Pacific Coast," says the Japanese American National Museum.
Today, the site stands as a National Historic Site and was visited by LAist Featured Photos contributor David Kimbrough who shared these photos with us. It just so happens that the LA Times visited there, too, for a look back at how some of the internees spent their time.
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I've been meaning to go there. It's probably best to do it now, since the summer is really hot and dusty.
Same here, but probably won't make it this summer.
i went here as part of a school project a few years back. Eerie. Everything is bulldozed over. All that remains left are a few rocks from bonzai gardens that the inmates built.
It's also a deep drive. You drive through some weird fucking towns.
I've visited Manzanar several times while touring the Lone Pine area. The museum has quite an extensive collection of photos and personal items.
Summers are indeed hot but not unbearably so, thanks in part to the ever present desert wind. There are also a number of shady spots on the self-guided road tour through the site. I especially like the area near the old hospital garden
Also while visiting there, be sure to take a drive through the Alabama Hills' Movie Road (just outside Lone Pine) where many films have been shot, including the recent blockbuster Iron Man.
Another plus to visiting in the late spring and summer is that you can drive up Portal Road all the way to the Mt. Whitney's trailhead. The views from up there are quite remarkable.
I had a chilling experience my first time there returning from a Death Valley excursion in November 2007. I was in the cemetery kneeling before a baby's grave when a strong cold wind from out of nowhere came through and whipped a bunch of sand into my face. As quickly as it arrived it disappeared and all was still again.
Literally and figuratively the shameful place is both haunting and haunted.
The park itself is quite interesting all by itself. There is a very nice visitor center with an excellent set of displays and films. A guard tower and mess hall have been reconstructed and they are working to reconstruct an entire block of dormitories. The Park Service have excavated many of the buried features such a root cellars and water gardens built by the internees. So seeing the Park is worthwhile in its own right.
However the photos here are from this year's Manzanar Pilgrimage. Every year those who had been jailed up there and their friends and family return to remember those who were sent there, those who left, and those who remained. For over 25 years there were just a few religious leaders came every year to pray for those buried in the cemetery. However starting in 1969 a much larger pilgrimage movement was begun to draw attention to the injustice of the internment and the demand for redress and reparations.
This was the 40th anniversary of the Pilgrimage which has grown considerably since the early days with well over 1,000 people making the long journey to Manzanar from all over California. There were speeches, prayers, and music and more amidst the barbed wire, wildflowers, guard towers, and mountains.
While many Japanese Americans were in interment camps stateside, many of their young men were fighting in the Pacific and European theaters in the 442nd "Go for Broke" combat division and the 100th infantry division. The 100th and 442nd divisions were made up exclusively of Japanese American soldiers and were among the most highly decorated during WW2.
The Go for Broke Memorial can be viewed in Little Tokyo in downtown L.A. It is usually manned by one or two of the still surviving veterans from those units.
For more info;
http://www.goforbroke.org
The main text on the war memorial reads:
"Rising to the defense of their country, by the thousands they came — these young Japanese American soldiers from Hawaii, the States, America's concentration camps — to fight in Europe and in the Pacific during World War II. Looked upon with suspicion, set apart and deprived of their constitutional rights, they nevertheless remained steadfast and served with indomitable spirit and uncommon valor, for theirs was a fight to prove loyalty. This legacy will serve as a sobering reminder that never again shall any group be denied liberty and the rights of citizenship."
I've had the opportunity to spend time with some of these vets - there aren't many left. What's fascinating is that they harbor no bitterness. None. Their only concern is that it never happen again.
American citizens rounded-up and imprisoned only by virtue of their ancestry that chose to volunteer to fight for their country anyway?
The Japanese American WWII experience tells you all you need to know about how precarious your rights are. It's almost Orwellian, but it happened.
It must be a real honor to know them.
When ever I go by the memorial I make a point to shake their hands and thank them for their sacrifices.
Your points are well taken, one of the interesting elements of this year's pilgrimage was that many of the speakers point out the similarities between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attacks on 9/11 and how Arab and Muslim Americans were targets of suspicion, harassment, and surveillance and the Japanese Americans had been. A Muslim cleric read a prayer along with Shinto, Christian, and Buddhist clerics.
However I would note that many, if not most, of the 442 were draftees, not volunteers. In fact there were those who fought the draft. Upon internment, people had to fill out a questionnaire. Two questions raise considerable consternation.
Question #27 asked: "Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?"
Question #28 asked: "Will you swear unqualified allegiances to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or organization?"
Many refused to answer these questions and others answered No & No. This gave raise to the term "No No Boys". There were the members of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee who were arrested sentenced to prison for opposing the draft and loyalty oaths. Their convictions were later overturned. One of them, Frank Emi, was my wife's judo instructor at the Hollywood Dojo.
(The 100th Battalion in contrast was made up entirely of the Nisei members of the old Hawaii Territorial Guard and thus in the military before the war. They were the other half of the 100/442 RCT.)