The impacts of this trauma based on racial discrimination gave rise to a culture of silence which extended over several generations of Japanese Americans. In , then-U. President Ronald Reagan publicly apologized for the confinement of , Japanese Americans during World War II and authorized a payment to compensate survivors.
In , the Sansei community—a Japanese and English term used to designate the third generation of Japanese Americans— organized a pilgrimage from the city of Los Angeles to the former concentration camp at Manzanar. That event prompted the creation of the Manzanar Committee, which is tasked with arranging the pilgrimage on the last Saturday of April every year, which convenes thousands of people, including ex-prisoners who gather at the cemetery to commemorate their confinement.
The event also includes prayers, cultural activities and an interreligious service. Since , the Manzanar at Dusk program has been made part of the pilgrimage seeking to attract local residents, in particular, descendants of the Manzanar area residents who were displaced during the first half of the 20th Century. Since , the ceremonies have also attracted Muslim Americans looking to foster the protection of their civil rights, as distrust towards such community has been rising ever since the September 11 attacks.
Since its foundation, the Manzanar Committee has sought to recognize and protect the Manzanar site. In , the State of California declared the site a historical monument. Then, Manzanar was registered as a national historical monument and as a national historical site In recent years, an interpretative center was built in the former school auditorium, as well as a replica watch tower.
The National Park Service workers usually collect origami strings and personal objects which are placed on top of the obelisk situated in the cemetery. Today, the site offers materials, programs and visits for schools. After the end of World War II, several discussions and conflicts arose concerning the terms that should be used to refer to the Manzanar and other sites. Arriving at Manzanar. Robert A.
Nakamura Collection. Women walking through Manzanar. Yoshiko Sakurai Collection. Student group photo. Driving through Manzanar front gate. Internees attempted to make the best of a bad situation. The WRA formed an advisory council of internee-elected block managers. Internees established churches, temples, and boys and girls clubs.
They developed sports, music, dance, and other recreational programs; built gardens and ponds; and published a newspaper, the Manzanar Free Press. Most internees worked in the camp. They dug irrigation canals and ditches, tended acres of fruits and vegetables, and raised chickens, hogs, and cattle. They made clothes and furniture for themselves and camouflage netting and experimental rubber for the military.
They served as mess hall workers, doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, and teachers. Many pooled their resources and created a consumer cooperative that published the Manzanar Free Press and operated a general store, beauty parlor, barbershop, and bank. Church groups, service organizations, and some camp administrators helped find sponsors and jobs in the Midwest and the East.
From all 10 camps, 4, people received permission to attend college, and about 10, were allowed to leave temporarily to harvest sugar beets in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. A total of 11, Japanese Americans were processed through Manzanar. From a peak of 10, in September , the population dwindled to 6, by The last few hundred internees left in November , three months after the war ended.
Many of them had spent three-and-a-half years at Manzanar. The removal of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast was based on widespread distrust of their loyalty after Pearl Harbor. Yet, no Japanese Americans were charged with espionage.
We had dreaded the day when some family in Manzanar would receive the fateful telegram…. Cherry Park was developed when a nursery wholesaler donated 1, cherry and wisteria trees.
The South Parks were located outside the fenced area and opened in early under a permit system. Sports facilities included a judo building, football fields, baseball diamonds and tennis courts.
Equipment, toys and art supplies were donated and more were later purchased by the WRA. All internees, whether or not they were U. The oaths asked two central questions: Would you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States, and would you serve in the military of the United States? Eighty-six percent of the population answered the loyalty questionnaire positively and many of the younger people and those fluent in English were able to leave for jobs and schools in the Midwest and East.
But some 1, internees refused to answer or answered "no-no" and were transferred to Tule Lake in and As the war progressed, the government allowed Japanese Americans to join the military. One hundred seventy-four men from Manzanar were inducted directly into armed forces.
Their parents wore blue stars for sons in the military and gold ones for those who died in combat. On April 5, , Company A was assigned to take a key hill near Seravezza, Italy, where the Nazis had resisted Allied advance for five months. Munemori led the attack after his squad leader was killed.
When a grenade bounced into the hole he was hiding in with two of his men, he threw himself on it to smother the blast. Several renowned photographers, including Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, came to record life at Manzanar, but it was the work of year-old Toyo Miyatake that truly captured the camp experience.
Using a lens and film holder that he had smuggled into the camp, the professional photographer from Los Angeles secretly built a crude wooden box camera with the help of a carpenter friend. The camera looked like an unobtrusive lunch pail and he was able to get film from his supplier in Los Angeles.
The internees were forbidden to take photos in the camp, and Miyatake was caught by the camp police in early But Director Merritt allowed him to openly choose his subjects and work with a Caucasian staff member who would trip the shutter.
Restrictions were relaxed shortly thereafter, so Miyatake sent for his studio and darkroom equipment and opened a fully equipped photo studio that served the entire camp. A large concrete obelisk contains Japanese inscriptions on two sides. Manzanar was the sixth relocation center to close, and by December , it was completely dismantled except for a few buildings in the administration and staff housing area. Die Evergreen, LA Manzanar 1.
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