Last updated: December 21, 2022
Place
Legacy of the Manzanar Cemetery
NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
western portion of Manzanar
Amenities
2 listed
Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
“America is strong as it makes amends for the wrongs it has committed . . . we will always remember Manzanar because of that.”
Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Over the years, the cemetery monument has become as icon, inspiring a grass-roots movement to preserve Manzanar and remember the sacrifices of 120,313 Japanese Americans confined by their own government.
Buddhist minister Sentoku Mayeda and Christian minister Shoichi Wakahiro first returned here on Memorial Day 1946. For the next 30 years, they made “pilgrimages” to honor Manzanar’s dead.
Amid the 1960s civil rights struggles, younger Japanese Americans spoke out, shattering their elders’ silence and shame about the camps. On a cold December day in 1969, 150 people journeyed here on the first organized pilgrimage. An annual event ever since, the Manzanar Pilgrimage attracts hundreds of people of all ages from diverse backgrounds. On the last Saturday of April, they gather at the Manzanar Cemetery for a day of remembrance with speeches, a memorial service, and a traditional ondo dance.
Visiting the cemetery anytime can be a personal pilgrimage—of reflection, worship, remembrance, or protest. Some people leave offerings—coins, personal mementos, paper cranes, water and sake, and religious items—as outward expressions of the ongoing, unspoken conversations about America’s past and its future.
Sue Kunitomi Embrey, 1923-2006
Sue Kunitomi arrived at Manzanar in May 1942, at age 19. In camp, she served as a teacher’s aid, wove camouflage nets to support the war effort, and worked as a reporter and then managing editor of the Manzanar Free Press.
Years later Sue Kunitomi Embrey was among the first of her generation to speak out about the camps. As the driving force behind the Manzanar Committee, she organized the Manzanar Pilgrimage for 37 years and worked tirelessly to ensure that this site and its stories would be preserved to protect the human and civil rights of all. Today, Sue’s legacy endures in the ongoing work of informing and inspiring future generations.
To hear Sue Kunitomi Embrey speak about Manzanar Pilgrimages, click here.
To hear Reverend Paul Nakamura speak about Manzanar Pilgrimages, click here.
Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Over the years, the cemetery monument has become as icon, inspiring a grass-roots movement to preserve Manzanar and remember the sacrifices of 120,313 Japanese Americans confined by their own government.
Buddhist minister Sentoku Mayeda and Christian minister Shoichi Wakahiro first returned here on Memorial Day 1946. For the next 30 years, they made “pilgrimages” to honor Manzanar’s dead.
Amid the 1960s civil rights struggles, younger Japanese Americans spoke out, shattering their elders’ silence and shame about the camps. On a cold December day in 1969, 150 people journeyed here on the first organized pilgrimage. An annual event ever since, the Manzanar Pilgrimage attracts hundreds of people of all ages from diverse backgrounds. On the last Saturday of April, they gather at the Manzanar Cemetery for a day of remembrance with speeches, a memorial service, and a traditional ondo dance.
Visiting the cemetery anytime can be a personal pilgrimage—of reflection, worship, remembrance, or protest. Some people leave offerings—coins, personal mementos, paper cranes, water and sake, and religious items—as outward expressions of the ongoing, unspoken conversations about America’s past and its future.
Sue Kunitomi Embrey, 1923-2006
Sue Kunitomi arrived at Manzanar in May 1942, at age 19. In camp, she served as a teacher’s aid, wove camouflage nets to support the war effort, and worked as a reporter and then managing editor of the Manzanar Free Press.
Years later Sue Kunitomi Embrey was among the first of her generation to speak out about the camps. As the driving force behind the Manzanar Committee, she organized the Manzanar Pilgrimage for 37 years and worked tirelessly to ensure that this site and its stories would be preserved to protect the human and civil rights of all. Today, Sue’s legacy endures in the ongoing work of informing and inspiring future generations.
To hear Sue Kunitomi Embrey speak about Manzanar Pilgrimages, click here.
To hear Reverend Paul Nakamura speak about Manzanar Pilgrimages, click here.