Manzanar National Historic Site preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States. The site was identified by the National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California’s Owens Valley, approximately 230 miles north of Los Angeles.
About Manzanar in brief
More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. Manzanar National Historic Site preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States. The site was identified by the National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California’s Owens Valley, approximately 230 miles north of Los Angeles. The area was first inhabited by Native Americans nearly 10,000 years ago, and settled by the Owens Valley Paiute in the mid-19th century. In 1913, Los Angeles pumped ground water and drained all surface water, diverting all of it into its aqueduct. Without water for irrigation, the holdout ranchers were forced off their ranches and out of their communities; that included the town ofManzanar, which was abandoned by 1929. By 1920, the town had more than 25 homes, a two-room school, a town hall, and a general store. The town’s population was approaching 200, and by August 1911, the company built an irrigation system over an area of 1,000 acres and planted about 20,000 fruit trees. In March 1942, the U.S. Army leased 6,200 acres of land from the City of L.A. for the Manzanare War Relocation Center. Initially, it was a temporary center known as Owens Valley Reception Center from March 21, 1942 to May 31, 1942. Over 110,000 in total were incarcerated in the ten concentration camps located far inland and away from the coast of the California coast.
Since the last of those incarcerated left in 1945, former detainees and others have worked to protect the site and to establish it as a National historic site. The primary focus is the Japanese American incarceration era, as specified in the legislation that created the ManZanar National Historical Site. The site also interprets the former town of Manzansar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Paiute, and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens valley. It was established to ensure that the history of the site, along with the stories of those who were incarcerated there, is recorded for current and future generations. The first of the 10 concentration camps to be established and began accepting detainees in March 1942 was the first one to be named Manzannar. The second was the Manzennar War Rel relocation center, which began accepting detainees in May 1942 and accepted detainees from May 1942 to November 1945. The third was the Owens Valley Reception Center, which accepted detainees in June 1942 and opened its doors in July 1942. The fourth and final concentration camp to be built in September 1942 was the Manzann War Relocation Center, which housed detainees from September 1942 to December 1943. The last concentration camp was Manzan Camp 1, which opened in November 1943.
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This page is based on the article Manzanar published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
