|
MANZANAR'S ADMINISTRATION
Project Director Ralph P. Merritt takes time between
office hours to catch up on correspondence with high government
officials in his office located in the east wing of the administration
building.
|
THE SPIRIT OF MANZANAR
As we turn the pages of this Pictorial of Manzanar,
we take pride in all that our community life has come to mean. In one
year's time there have sprung into being farms and workshops, homes and
schools, churches and gardens. Like the design woven into a beautiful
cloth, all these had a part in creating this new home of the people of
Manzanar from the raw lands of the desert.
But the triumph of Manzanar is not in the things that
have been created, it is in the spirit of the people who have been
tested by the winds of winter, by the heat of summer, by the loss of old
homes and by the uncertainties of the future. The people who have met
these tests and have conquered them are those who no longer have fear or
uncertainty. They can always win any fight against adversity and
uncertainty.
Manzanar has been a testing ground that has tried the
hearts and minds of all its people. Those who have lost heart are now
taking their places with a group that does not favor the American way of
fighting on against hardships in the hope of a happier future. They are
giving up and turning back to the land of their fathers.
But those who have met the test, who have won the
fight to make a happier home here, are now ready to go on to permanent
homes and to their full place in the American way of living.
When Manzanar is again a desert, it will be said that
here people of Japanese ancestry proved their pioneering spirit and from
here many thousands went out to join other pioneering people to build
better homes and a stronger America.
RALPH P. MERRITT,
Project Director.
|
Manzanar Steeped In Legends Now Home of
8,500
Mass evacuation program was conducted from early
March, 1942 and led to the establishment of Manzanar as first of the 10
relocation centers.
The site chosen was on the grounds of an old
abandoned apple orchard in Owens Valley on the eastern foothills of the
Sierra Nevada range, close to the famed peak of Whitney named after
Josiah Dwight Whitney, pioneer chief of the California State Geological
Survey. This region includes the highest and lowest points on the
continent; Mt. Whitney with an elevation of 14,496 feet and Death
Valley, about 100 miles southeast, 279 feet below sea level.
Locale of this project was the original hunting
grounds of the Paiute and Shoshone Indian tribes and is steeped in
legends and historic lores of many famous characters of early pioneer
days. John C. Fremont, Jededia Smith, and Joseph P. Walker all passed
through this part in the middle of the 19th century.
Eleven miles to the south is Lone Pine, deriving its
name from a towering black pine tree which stood on the mesa a short way
from Lone Pine Creek. Near the town, at the base of Mt. Whitney, rise
the Alabama Hills, named after the confederate naval raider of the Civil
War. Said to be among the oldest rock formations on this continent, the
hills, with their clefts and pinnacles, offered almost impenetrable
hiding places for the hostile Indians menacing the early settlers.
Six miles north of Manzanar lies the town of
Independence, county seat of Inyo county. It was founded during the
Civil War as a base camp for a cavalry regiment fighting the Paiutes on
warpath.
The heights on the eastern flank of the 12-mile wide
valley are almost as lofty as the Sierra Nevada. These are the White
Mountains, to which the Indians gave the name Inyo which is applied to
all this region, the significance being, as nearly as can be surmised,
"the dwelling place of a great spirit."
Bordering the valley on the west looms the Sierra
Nevada. Six years ago, under the same shadow of these
mountains—James Hilton's film epic, "Lost Horizon" was made. Then
"Shangri-La" was imaginably depicted as a true Haven of Rest, set aside
from the realistic world. Now the same location serves as a temporary
home for over 8,738 west coast Japanese residents.
|
|
Fiscal Department
One of the important departments to the residents,
the budget and finance division is responsible for taking care of all
budgetary and fiscal matters, which include the cash allowances, and for
figuring all monetary matters.
The budget and finance department takes care of
bookkeeping and accounting, auditing, cost accounting, preparation of
payrolls, and timekeeping. Approximately $105,000 is issued monthly to
residents by this department.
Headed by R. C. Boczkiewicz, finance officer, the
appointed personnel staff includes Joseph W. Carney, auditor, Margaret
Leibovitz, audit clerk; Herbert E. Norton, cost accountant; Clyde R.
Berriman, junior cost accountant; George R. Weber, fiscal accountant;
Roland J. Sanger, junior fiscal accountant; and Illiene H. Hetzel,
payroll clerk.
Legal Services
Located in the administration building, the office of
Project Attorney, handles all legal matters for the center. Legal
services for the administration are rendered by Project Attorney Robert
B. Throckmorton whereas services for the evacuees are rendered by the
Legal Aid Section under Director Henry Tsurutani.
Legal services performed for the administration
include the furnishing of legal advice and services to the project
director and his staff members.
Services rendered by the legal aid section include
such matters as insurance, divorces, guardianship, law suits, leases,
contracts, wills, powers of attorney, notarization, income tax and other
legal documents.
Under the management of Project Attorney J. Benson
Saks, who recently replaced Robert B. Throckmorton, the staff includes
Director of Legal Aid Henry J. Tsurutani, Supervising Clerk Howard
Yoshio Marumoto, and Chief Law Clerk Sumitaka Uchimura.
|
|
|
Difficult Problems Met By Administrative Staff
Launched as a reception center under Wartime Civilian
Control Authority and headed by Clayton Triggs, the task of creating a
center for 10,000 orphans of war, housing and feeding them was handed to
Roy Nash and the War Relocation Authority in June, 1942.
The fact that the center is functioning smoothly is a
credit to the administrative staff and its sincere efforts to help the
residents.
Ralph P. Merritt arrived last November to become the
director.
Assisting Project Director Merritt, is Robert L.
Brown, assistant project director, Edwin H. Hooper, senior
administrative officer, and Mrs. Lucy Adams, assistant project director
in charge of community management.
Reports Office
The Office of Reports functions as a two way
information service. Supervising the work of the editorial staffs of the
English and Japanese sections of the Manzanar Free Press is one of the
tasks of this office. This office also channels information to the
project administration and to the WRA headquarters through the weekly,
monthly, and quarterly reports, plus literature of all types published
by the various departments. The project administration and through it
the WRA headquarters pass on instructions and policy statements to the
people through the Reports Office.
A third but not by any means the least important
function of this office exists. This departments acts as the public
relations office for the project. In this phase of its task the office
strives to maintain good relationships with the communities neighboring
the project.
The following are the staff members: Assistant Project
Director Robert L. Brown, interim reports officer; Roy M. Takeno, in
charge of Office of Reports; Sue Kunitomi, managing editor of the Free
Press; Ted Kukumoto, chairman of the Japanese section; Fumi Fukushima,
mimeograph head; and Yuichi Hirata, manager of the business
department.
With the lush foliage of Baird's Creek in the
background and the wind blown summer clouds above, Alyce and Yuichi
Hirata stand together on a bridge of logs. This area has been designated
as an area for recreational use.
|
Memories of Manzanar
Impressions of Manzanar most likely to wander through
our memories after this is all over:
The blue-purple haze veiled over the Inyo mountains
moments before sunrise, eye-catching to those hardy few early
risers—. The hush of summer's eveningtide after the sun dips behind
the Sierra; and the arched panoply of the rugged blue-black etched by
the craggy mountain ranges against the sky, a veritable back drop for an
impressionistic stage drama—. The bracing effect of black coffee in
No. 26 mess hall on a Sunday morning after a hilarious night
before—. Sudden murmuring and scuffing over the sand as people
leave the open-air movie theater, scattering in all directions and
raising a cloud of dust—. Men, women and children lining up
patiently to the grimly closed door of mess halls, minutes before meal
time—. The hourly change of classes in block 7, sending swarms of
chattering and laughing pupils to their next class rooms—. The
chattering of elderly isseis as they reminisce over the carefree,
robust, adventurous, early years in America—.
Gateway to freedom: Police station where many time a
week throngs of not-so-lucky residents bid "goodbyes" to enviably
dressed-up evacuees—. Reveille and taps sounding off regularly from
the 319th M. P. post—. The dry, musty air in a room in Block 16
during an "unusual" afternoon's dust storm—. In bed after the
storm, after the windows stop rattling, after the wind stops moaning,
with the windows open and the cool night air softly billowing across
your face—.
|
