nameMANZANAR 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"

 
Portraits of Manzanar

 M. Sugawara
Michiko Sugawara

 Mr. Matsumoto
 
Mr. Matsumoto with the children

 desk
Desk of Roy M. Takeno

 Roy Takeno
Roy Takeno - Editor of the Manzanar "Free Press"

 The Nisei's Fate

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:

Gila River, Arizona
Granada, Colorado
Heart Mountain, Wyoming
Jerome, Arkansas
Manzanar, California
Minidoka, California
Poston, Arizona
Rohwer, Arkansas
Topaz, Utah
Tule Lake, California

Aug. '42 - Nov. '45
Sept. '42 - Oct. '45
Sept. '42 - Nov. '45
Nov. '42 - June '44
June '41 - Nov. '45
Sept. '42 - Oct. '45
June '42 - Nov. '45
Oct. '42 - Nov. '45
Oct. '42 - Oct. '45
June'42 - Mar. '46

13,400
7,600
11,100
8,600
10,200
9,990
18,000
8,500
8,300
18,800


Total

  

 
114,490


 T. Kobayashi
Tom Kobayashi

 school girls
School girls

B. Namura
Bert K. Namura

J. Shohara
Corporal Jimmie Shohara

K. Fukuda
Kay Fukuda U.S.


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.

 
 Ghosts of the Past 3 - Bruce Morgan's '49ers  

20-Mule-Team History  

 
 More Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp Images  
 

 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 23 August 2007