Manzanar War Relocation Center / reflection

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Manzanar War Relocation Center / reflection
Manzanar War Relocation Center / reflection


This picture of the Manzanar Japanese Interment site has been previously posted on Ipernity but not on Flickr. In terms of my digital photography this photo is old (taken in the 1990’s), but more importantly it documents what I count as my introduction to the American experiences of the WWII Japanese Internment.

Pictured here are the gates to the Manazanar Internment Camp, taken at a time before the area came under the control of the U.S. National Park Service. At the time when this was taken, the site was fenced off and part of it was used as storage of Caltrans road equipment. The site’s previous use was not documented at the site at that time, you had to know to look for it.

That visit to the site was remarkable. When I pulled up to the entrance there were two older women standing at about this point and looking in. We got to talking and it turned out that they were sisters who had lived in the nearby towns of Lone Pine and Darwin when this was an internment camp. Their descriptions of the trains and buses bringing Japanese-Americans to the site, and from having worked at the site when it was active, gave a very personal picture of the camp that illustrated both the day-to-day routineness of life in the camp, and the emotions buried by that routineness.

I credit that experience of hearing their stores, and of seeing what was then a completely neglected site, with instigating my subsequent and ongoing efforts to find the various internment camps and related sites around the country, and to begin to understand the experiences of both the internees and the camp personnel. Understanding the Japanese Interment was also the beginning of my efforts to understand the discrimination experience of other Asians who were involved in the creation of modern California.

Other pictures of Manzanar on Flickr can be found by using the “Manzanar” tag.

Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works Some rights reserved
Taken on: April 5, 2024
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Sets appears in:   • California "Owens Valley"   
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