Manzanar Portraits 1

MANZANAR RINGO-EN

All Manzanar photographs from the Ansel Adams Library of Congress Archives unless otherwise noted.
Text excerpts from "Manzanar" by John Armor and Peter Wright"

japanese america

Japanese Americans: 99 Nen no Ai
This is the story of a family of Japanese immigrants who crossed over to America 99 years ago, their strugges in America pre-, during, and post WWII. It is the story of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation Japanese Americans from both the American and Japanese perspectives. This is a story every American should see.

Portraits of Manzanar

Aiko Hamaguchi	Frank Horosawa	Catherine Yamaguchi
Youth Choir Practice		Kay Kageyama
*THE NISEI* Who were the people brought to Manzanar at gunpoint? They shared only one common characteristic: "a Japanese ancestor in any degree." Two-thirds were first-generation American citizens. They lived in American cities, attended American schools, and thought of themselves as Americans. That belief was sorely tested when, by order of President Roosevelt -- an order carried out by General John L. DeWitt, West Coast Commander, and his subordinates -- they were removed from their homes, schools, and businesses, and brought to Manzanar and nine other camps like it. The first-generation Japanese Americans were called, in Japanese, Nisei. A few were second-generation Americans, called Sansei. Neither they nor their parents had ever known any other life than their life in the United States. Almost a third of the prisoners were Japanese citizens, resident aliens by definition of the U.S. immigration law. They were called Issei. All of this group had lived in the United States at least eighteen years, since American borders were closed to Japanese immigrants in 1924. All had been specifically barred from applying for American citizenship. The right to become an American citizen was not allowed to the Japanese until 1952, when quotas were introduced. Because the Issei would have become American citizens, given the opportunity, the Issei and the Sansei are sometimes described generically as Nikkei.
Louise Nakamura	Frank Hirosama

Describing Manzanar and the others as "concentration camps" conjures horrible images of the ovens of Dachau under the Nazis, or the Soviet Gulag in Siberia. As bad as they were, the American concentration camps never approached the horrifying conditions of the camps in Europe. There were no gas chambers or medical "experiments" at Manzanar or the other American camps. There were no attempts to work prisoners to death.

In fact, the food and the medical care at Manzanar were better than adequate, in large measure because the Nisei were given the opportunity to provide for themselves.

There was one other difference separating the American concentration camps from the European camps. In most instances, families were kept together. The Nisei prized the institution of the family. It may be this difference, more than all others that allowed them to survive and prosper under very difficult circumstances.

Manzanar Song as Sung by Tom Paxton
This is a MUST WATCH Video

Manzanar
By Tom Russell
(Sung by Tom Paxton)

He said, My name is Nakashimau
I am a proud American.
I came here in '27,
From my homeland of Japan.
And I picked your grapes and oranges,
Saved some money, bought a store.
Until 1942,
Pearl Harbor, and the War.

Came the relocation orders,
They took our house, the store, the car,
And they drove us through the desert,
To a place called Manzanar.
A Spanish word for apple orchards,
Though we saw no apple trees.
Just the rows of prison barracks,
With the barbed wire boundaries.

Chorus:

And we dream of apple blossoms
Waving free beneath the stars,
Till we wake up in the desert,
The prisoners of Manzanar,
Manzanar.

Fifty years have all but vanished,
And now I am an old man.
But I don't regret the day
That I came here from Japan.
But on moonless winter nights,
I often wish upon a star,
That I'd forget the shame and sorrow,
That I felt at Manzanar.

Chorus

tak toyoshima cartoon

Secret Asian Man Manzanar Cartoon by Tak Toyoshima
[copyright Tak Toyoshima]

closing

id card

relocation

Manzanar Relocation Office

reception

Manzanar "Reception" Center


Luggage Trunk	Japanese Lantern

Internment Camp Paintings by Internees
Akio Ujihara Painting	Akio Ujihara Painting
Akio Ujihara Painting	Barracks Nameplate
Kango Takamura Painting	Kango Takamura Painting

short term leave

Japanese American Citizen's Short-Term Leave Authorizatiion

FDR and Japanese American Internment

	Ghosts of the Past 2 - Owens Valley Aqueduct & Cottonwood Sawmill
	Ghosts of the Past 3 - Bruce Morgan's '49ers
	20-Mule-Team History
	More Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp History
	Manzanar High School Portraits & History
	More Manzanar History & Manzanar Free Press

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This page was last updated on 11 October 2012