 MANZANAR RINGO-EN |
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Text excerpts from "Manzanar" by John Armor and Peter Wright" |
Portraits of Manzanar
 Michiko Sugawara |
 Mr. Matsumoto with the children |
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 Desk of Roy M. Takeno |
 Roy Takeno - Editor of the Manzanar "Free Press" |
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The numbers alone tell an important part of the internment story. Only 1,875 Nisei from Hawaii, each individually identified as a possible threat to the security of the United States, were interned. The rest of the 120,000 prisoners were from the mainland. Manzanar was the first of ten camps to open. The following list identifies all the camps, their first and last days of operation, and the maximum number of prisoners held at any time in each - and offers a stark picture of the Nisei's fate:
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 Tom Kobayashi |
 School girls |
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 Bert K. Namura |
 Corporal Jimmie Shohara |
 Kay Fukuda U.S. |
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Henry Murakami was a fisherman living on Terminal Island in Los Angeles. Like many Nisei fisherman, he was arrested and jailed, not merely interned. He lost three purse-sein nets valued at $22,000. His pregnant wife and four children had only forty-eight hours to prepare to go to Manzanar. "She couldn't carry anything except clothing... We had a three-bedroom house with a kitchen. My wife had to abandon everything...the furniture and all of our other furnishings, including a 1940 Plymouth...no one ever knew what happened to my property."
Yoshio Ekimoto was a Nisei, born in 1914. His family owned a forty-acre farming northern Los Angeles County. His parents had bought this farm in 1912, the year before California passed a law making it illegal for Japanese aliens to own land in the state.
Ekimoto was interned at Poston, Arizona, in May 1942. He was one of the few who was able to keep accurate records of his losses.
When he returned home in 1945, his farm had been completely mortgaged. He was forced to sell it to pay the mortgage. He had listed all the personal property he lost while he was interned, down to cameras, boxes of shotgun shells, and the attorney's fees he incurred (five dollars) in trying to avoid what inevitably happened to him and his family.
His total losses came to $23,824 in 1942 dollar, which represents nothing of the additional personal harm suffered by him and his family, including his wife's miscarriage as a result of the internment. He was paid a total of only $692 in compensation under the 1948 Evacuation Claims Act.
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| Hello I just visited your site and have a report
for you. The two barracks buildings from the Lone Pine airport are on the site at Manzanar. I am sure they represent only a dot of all the buildings that were once on that sloping land; however, they created a strong impact on me. I was born in 1942 and did not really know the FEAR of Japan as my elders did. I was influenced by the beautiful colors and designs of the Japanese artist and craftsmen, so much so that I continue to reproduce that idea in my own artwork on a regular basis.  On the first Sunday of May, I went with a group of artists to Manzanar. The group was originally formed by a man named Henry Fukahara who lives in Santa Monica and is now 95 years old. He was assigned to Manzanar as a young man and has gone back many times to paint the area. He is a watercolorist of great renown although he is now blinded by Macular Degeneration, such a sad thing. His friends and family want to continue this annual expedition as a tribute to Henry and all the people who once lived there. I visited the Visitors Center and thought it was very well done. The Rangers on duty recognized the pin I wore on my shirt as an "original" Takahashi bird pin, which it is, and I bought it from the artist herself many years ago. I looked up some names on the computer. Names of people that I know that were assigned to those barracks. It is an emotional thing to find their little names in the great big books. When I finally settled down to paint.those two barracks, the buildings kept "talking' to me. I knew that they were not finished and the looked askew and out of place where they were. I tried and tried to paint other things, trees and hills and snow peaks and rocks, but I finally took a few moments and slapped some paint on a page. Now, two weeks later, I find that that small sketch is the one I really wanted to do. Imagine that, four families of about four each lived in one of those barracks. How did they manage. The humiliation of the latrines and those lines. The crowded laundry rooms, and those lines; the towers and shame. I think those families endured as champions. I am a descendant of Norwegians and Germans and I wonder how THEY would have gotten along in the same situation? Probably not so well. I am going to try to send you a copy of my sketch..and encourage you to write more about this place and the people who were there. They are dying out and should be remembered as 110% Americans. Diane Tollefson - 2008 |
 Diane Tollefson Watercolor (copyright Diane Tollefson) |
 Takahashi Cactus Hummingbird Carved by Y. Takahashi Painted by Kiyoka Takahashi |
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Ghosts of the Past 3 - Bruce Morgan's '49ers | |
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20-Mule-Team History | |
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More Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp Images | |
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More Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp History |
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Manzanar High School Portraits & History |
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More Manzanar History & Manzanar Free Press |
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 Sign Guest Book |
 The Pigmy Packer |
 View Guest Book |
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This page was last updated on
14 June 2008