Manzanar: Block 14, Barrack 8

The Izuno Family were eventually able to make their barrack room more comfortable.

Ansel Adams, Library of Congress

Quick Facts

Location:

northeast corner of Block 14

Amenities

5 listed

Accessible Rooms, Audio Description, Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible

“That’s What You Call Survival”

Beginning in the summer of 1942, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) hired Japanese American crews to install linoleum floors and hang sheetrock on walls and ceilings. But other promised improvements never appeared. People who could afford it bought items from catalogs or had belongings delivered from storage. Some people built furniture from scrap wood, nails, and cement that they “borrowed for the duration.”

“I really don't know where my dad got this lumber, but somehow he was able to make a long table, like a dining room table,” Mary Suzuki Ichino recalled. “They were pretty clever I thought. You know, that's what you call survival.”

Although the barracks improved, life for many became more challenging in 1943. The government forced everyone 17 and older to answer what came to be called the Loyalty Questionnaire. Authorities planned to use peoples’ answers to draft young Japanese American men into the army, clear some people for resettlement in the Midwest or East Coast, and to identify those to be segregated into a high security camp.

As soon as Japanese Americans came to Manzanar, they started organizing a school system. “The first Manzanar Schools bring back memory of aching backs and muscles. There wasn’t any chairs to sit on and we had to sit on the floor and read & write,” Henry Nakano wrote in 1943. “Now Manzanar High School is well organized and is a place where we can get an education.”