Interesting/unusual facts

Manzanar's "Children's Village" was home to 101 children during the war. It was the only camp to have an orphanage.

Manzanar is one of the most well documented camps due to the efforts of Toyo Miyatake, a professional photographer interned at the camp. Miyatake illegally smuggled a camera lens into camp to document conditions. He was later allowed to open a photo studio and took over 1,000 documentary images of Manzanar. Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange also photographed Manzanar.

Manzanar was the site of a guayule plantation and laboratory where internees successfully conducted scientific experiments to extract a rubber substitute from the guayule plant.

The "Manzanar Riot" took place on December 6, 1942. A group of internees gathered to protest the jailing of Harry Ueno, whom the Administration accused of beating another internee who was suspected of being an "imu" (informer). Two young men were killed and nine were injured when the Military Police fired into the crowd.

Gardens at Manzanar were extensive and elaborate. Many included ponds and large granite boulders from the nearby Sierra Nevada.

Land ownership
Eight hundred fourteen acres are managed by the National Park Service, including the residential area, cemetery, Military Police Compound, and chicken ranch. The remainder is managed by the L.A. Department of Water and Power and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Special Designations
California Registered Historic Landmark, January 1972.
National Register of Historic Places, July 1979.
National Historic Landmark, February 1985.
National Historic Site, March 1992.

Preservation and Interpretive Efforts
Manzanar National Historic Site was established in 1992 as a unit of the National Park Service.

Adaptive restoration of the historic Manzanar High School Auditorium is underway. The building will serve as an interpretive center and the park's headquarters, scheduled to open in fall, 2003. Design and production of interpretive exhibits and 15 minute introductory film are also in progress. You're invited to the Grand Opening on April 24, 2004!

A Former Manzanar mess hall was returned to the site from Bishop, CA (42miles north) in December 2002. Reconstruction of Guard Tower #8 is in progress.

Park Rangers offer guided tours of the site in the summer months; a self-guided auto tour brochure is available at any time. The Eastern California Museum in Independence, CA exhibits Manzanar artifacts and photographs.

Park Rangers continue to conduct oral histories related to all ten camps as well as local history.

The park is working with volunteer and youth groups to remove debris from the historic orchards and clear historic foundations and ponds.

Other projects to be completed in the future include expansion of the site's volunteer and education programs, additional archeological surveys, the reconstruction or restoration of two barracks and internee-built gardens and ponds. Wayside exhibit panels will be developed at key outdoor locations to help visitors understand the site and its stories.

Public access to the site today
Manzanar National Historic Site is open to the public all year. It is located on the west side of Highway 395 between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence, CA 225 miles north of L.A.

Local Resources
Manzanar National Historic Site 661 N. Edwards St., P.O. Box 426, Independence, CA 93526. Tel: 760-878-2932. Fax: 760-878-2949. E-mail: Manz_Superintendent@nps.gov.

Eastern California Museum of Inyo County: 155 Grant Street, P.O. Box 206, Independence, CA 93526. Tel: 760-878-0258. E-mail: ecmuseum@qnet.com

Manzanar Committee: 1566 Curran Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Tel: 323-662-5102. E-mail: sueke@msn.com.

Selected Books
Adams, Ansel. Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese Americans, Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California. New York: U.S. Camera, 1944. Reprinted Bishop: Spotted Dog Press, 2001.

Garrett, Jessie A., and Ronald C. Larson. Camp and Community: Manzanar and the Owens Valley. Fullerton: California State University, Fullerton Oral History Project, 1977.

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Farewell to Manzanar. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Reprinted New York: Doubleday, 1974.

Manzanar Committee. Reflections in Three Self-Guided Tours of Manzanar. Los Angeles: Manzanar Committee, 1998.

Unrau, Harlan D. The Evacuation and Relocation of Persons of Japanese Ancestry during World War II: A Historical Study of the Manzanar War Relocation Center. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1996. Full text available online at www.nps.gov/manz/hrs/hrs.htm.

Websites
www.nps.gov/manz
The official website of Manzanar National Historic Site. It includes links to a number of NPS publications and reports on the camps, information on current projects, and a "virtual tour" of Manzanar today. Look for further expansion of the site in the coming months.

www.manzanarcommittee.org
The Manzanar Committee website, includes links, photos, and information about the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, held on the Last Saturday of April each year.