Manzanar

One observation tower is standing, but that one is a replica from 2005, too.

In the Californian Desert west from Sierra Nevada the summer temperatures can reach nightmarish heights. The shade temperature frequently rises over 40 centigrades (104 Fahrenheit) - but shade is nowhere to be found, with nothing but knee-high shrubs growing as far as the eye can see. Thankfully, our rental car was equipped with air conditioning and we did bring plenty of water to drink. In the middle of the desert, between the small towns of Lone Pine and Independence, not far from Death Valley National Park, lies perhaps the worst place in the desert: Manzanar.

During the Second World War more than 10000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully relocated from the Californian coast, most of them from Los Angeles and around, to "Manzanar War Relocation Center", a small square area in the middle of the desert, to cramped barracks behind barbed wire. All told, over 100000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were relocated to Manzanar and other camps like it. The majority were citizens of the United States. Not single one of them was ever prosecuted for co-operation with the enemy. Thousands of young Japanese Americans fought in the armed forces of USA at the same time as their families were effectively imprisoned in inhumane conditions under a merciless sun. A more detailed history of Manzanar can be found, for example, in Wikipedia.

The exhibition building, originally Manzanar school auditorium. On the foregroud a firetruck from 1940s.

In 1992 Manzanar was designated a National Historic Site, a preserved area administered by the Federal Government of the United States. It is run by National Park Service, which does an excellent job here, too. There is a very informative and emotional, yet dispassionate exhibition in the only building left from the relocation camp time. I remember particularly well an example of the way the grown-ups ruin everything. "White" students from the nearby Owens Valley school once wanted to play a friendly basketball game against Manzanar school team. Unfortunately, the Owens Valley school board vetoed this idea, even though every student in both schools signed an appeal for a permission to play!

A home plate from Manzanar baseball fiedl, c. 1943. I find it rather ironic that the residents in Manzanar were keen of the most Amreican of all sports.

Without downplaying the burden of those who had to live in Manzanar, it is important to understand that it never was a similar concentration camp as those that existed at the same time in for example Germany and Soviet Union for extermination of people that the authorities deemed undesirable. No one was deliberately killed in Manzanar, there were few instances of physical violence, and at least basic health care and nutrition needs were taken care of. This doesn't mean that what happened was right. Just because even more horrible atrocities were being committed elsewhere at the same time, doesn't mean that the relocation of Japanese-Americans wasn't downright criminal. In his apology to those relocated, President Reagan more or less agreed.

People of my generation may be familiar with the relocation of Japanese-Americans from the first Karate Kid movie. In what to me is the most powerful scene in the movie Mr. Miyagi, drunk, remembers his wife who died of child-birth in Manzanar. A clip of the scene below (starts at 2:48).

Pat Morita, who played Mr. Miyagi was born in Isleton California in 1932 and a US citizen. Nevertheless, he spent a part of his childhood in a relocation center in Gila River, Arizona. Another famous American of Japanese descent, George Takei, spent the years from 1942 to the end of the war in Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas and Tula Lake in California.

Manzanar is not a place to leave the visitor in high spirits. Because good food makes everything better, a decent remedy would be a visit to Lone Pine, about ten miles south of Manzanar. In the corner of Main Street and Mountain View Street the restaurant Bonanza has amazing guacamole and the best pico de gallo either of us has ever had.

We visited Manzanar on June 11th 2015.