June 10, 2020
Manzanar
On February 19, 1942, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in Japanese Americans being forced to leave their homes on the coast and relocate to internment camps in the interior of the country. One of these camps was set up in the former orchards of Owens Vally at Manzanar(apple orchard in Spanish) on land leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 10,000 men, women and children were housed in tar paper covered communal buildings in the shadow of Mt. Williamson, California's second highest peak. Summers are hot and winters are cold with a persistent wind.
This was my second visit to Manzanar, my first visit being 7 years prior. This time, not much was open, but visitors were allowed to take the "auto tour" and stop to see sites in the former camp. I particularly wanted to revisit the cemetery with it's iconic monument with Mt. Williamson as a backdrop(my previous photo was captured with a low end point-and-shoot camera). Manzanar is a place to see where we as a country have taken the wrong path and to learn to not do that again.
Read MoreOn February 19, 1942, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in Japanese Americans being forced to leave their homes on the coast and relocate to internment camps in the interior of the country. One of these camps was set up in the former orchards of Owens Vally at Manzanar(apple orchard in Spanish) on land leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 10,000 men, women and children were housed in tar paper covered communal buildings in the shadow of Mt. Williamson, California's second highest peak. Summers are hot and winters are cold with a persistent wind.
This was my second visit to Manzanar, my first visit being 7 years prior. This time, not much was open, but visitors were allowed to take the "auto tour" and stop to see sites in the former camp. I particularly wanted to revisit the cemetery with it's iconic monument with Mt. Williamson as a backdrop(my previous photo was captured with a low end point-and-shoot camera). Manzanar is a place to see where we as a country have taken the wrong path and to learn to not do that again.
