War Relocation Authority: A Community Apart

Photo of the administrative building by WRA teacher Martha Shoaf

Martha Shoaf Collection, Manzanar Museum Collection

Quick Facts

Location:

southeast corner of Manzanar

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

“We lived inside the fence, with nothing to separate us from the Japanese, but did not often mingle. I felt comfortable in my little part of the camp, but not in theirs. It was like there was a force field separating us. It was not there to see, but it could be felt.”
Arthur Loren Williams

War Relocation Authority workers and their families – more than 400 people – lived within the same barbed wire fence that confined 11,000 Japanese Americans. But those government workers enjoyed higher pay, better apartments, and freedom.

What was it like to live here?

“When people are thrown together day after day and at the end of the working hours still find themselves in each other’s presence, there is no way, short of a deep and lasting coma, for them to ignore their fellow man,” Manzanar music teacher Lou Frizzell wrote. “In time, this constant awareness makes everyone decide that everyone else is a little peculiar, and I suppose everyone is.”

Children of the staff “were all in the same boat,” according to Art Williams, whose father was assistant police chief. “There was no ‘new kid on the block’ barrier to penetrate. Everyone lived in similar housing.” Older WRA kids road a school bus six miles north to Independence, while many younger ones attended school in Manzanar.

Some WRA staff and Japanese Americans established close working relationships and even friendships. Staff attended churches and funerals, and enjoyed sporting events, movie nights, and “Symphony Under the Stars” in the firebreaks.

What became of the buildings?

The WRA structures were built to a higher standard than the barracks that Japanese Americans lived in. Until the early 1950s, the apartments were rented to locals to help alleviate the post-war housing shortage. The buildings were later sold and moved to local communities, where many remain.