Last updated: March 16, 2021
Place
First Street, Manzanar
Manzanar Free Press
Quick Facts
Location:
Historic Entrance, Manzanar
Amenities
3 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Wheelchair Accessible
Standing at this location in 1942, you would have been at the nerve center of camp life: First Street. Supply trucks and automobiles rumbled by on this thoroughfare, where the lines between camp life and the world outside seemed to intersect. The street always bustled with activity, as incarcerees and administrators worked together to transact the business of camp.
White buildings on the street’s south side included the War Relocation Authority (WRA) offices and staff housing as well as the Town Hall, where elected block leaders met weekly. At the main post office, 1,500 letters arrived each day to be delivered to barracks addresses. On the north side of the street, black tar-papered barracks housed the police station, Manzanar Free Press newspaper office, and other camp functions and services. Wooden signs identifying each swayed outside in the Owens Valley wind.
A typical morning on First Street saw secretary Mary Kageyama walking to her job at the Public Works office and Jack Takayanagi signing up for a softball league at the Community Activities office. Marian Fujimoto checked the job board for employment opportunities out of camp, while WRA staff children Art Williams and Fred Causey waited near the sentry post to catch the school bus to Independence.
Manzanar Free Press reporter Sue Kunitomi enjoyed walking around camp to find out what was going on. “They had set up a co-operative,” she recalled. “It included beauty and barber shops, a shoe repair shop, dry goods store, and what we called the canteens—like a little grocery store.” The stores were located all over camp but were administered by the Manzanar Cooperative Enterprises here on First Street. Catalog companies like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward also did brisk mail-order business in camp.