• Mt. Williamson and cemetery monument

    Manzanar

    National Historic Site California

For Teachers

Manzanar provides a variety of educational resources for teachers and students, both on and off-site. Besides our ranger-led programs, this website offers many additional teaching and learning tools.

Featured Pages

Plan Your Visit
Ranger led programs can be arranged by reservation. Depending on your length of visit a program may be a fifteen minute introduction to the site, to an in-depth tour of Manzanar lasting about ninety minutes. Please call our reservation line at (760) 878-2194, ext. 3333. You may download the Group Reservation Request and fax it to (760) 878-2949. more...

Curriculum Materials
The Manzanar Educator Resources collection includes
• 42 standards-based lessons that connect 4th, 10th and 11th grade classrooms to the
history of Japanese American Internment.
• The lesson plans challenge students to connect to the past, apply knowledge of the
present and promote awareness of the future. The lessons are available online for
free. more...

Virtual Museum
The Virtual Museum showcases over 200 objects, historic photographs, paintings and documents that reflect life at Manzanar. The Virtual Museum also contains lesson plans that utilizes items from the Manzanar museum collection. Explore the Virtual Museum.

Junior Ranger
The Junior Ranger program connects children of all ages to the layers of history at Manzanar. The workbook engages children through a scavenger hunt, word search, mapping and writing activities. Become a Junior Ranger.

Our Partners
Our partners include organizations associated with the confinement of Japanese Americans and their experiences, as well as Local History and National Park Sites.
Please click here for the list of partners.

Contact us
Manzanar National Historic Site
Education Coordinator
760-878-2194 ext. 3314

 
9th grade class at Jerome
Mrs. Ziegler oversees her 9th grade class at the internment camp in Jerome, Arkansas. Manzanar and Jerome were two of the ten internment camps that held Japanese Americans during World War II. Classrooms were typically set up in military style barracks.
Photo by Tom Parker. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
 
 

Did You Know?

Window sign in Oakland, California. Photo by Dorothea Lange.

Two thirds of the Japanese Americans interned at Manzanar were American citizens. Most others would have become citizens if it were legally possible.