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Humor as always dominated my website. But not this time. On this excursion the Magic Raven traveled to the Manzanar National Historic Site near Lone PineCalifornia. Manzanar represents one of the lowest points in American history. For those of you who may not be familiar with this location you have to travel back in time to World War Two. On December 7th 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and we were instantly at war. Soon, we had declared war on Germany and Italy. There were approximately 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese decent living in the United States at that time and for some reason, perhaps panic, perhaps fear mixed in with a little racism, the leadership of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided American citizens of Japanese decent represented a clear and present danger to this county. It was okay to be a German American, or an Italian American but it was not okay to be a Japanese American. Go figure! The government answer: Relocation camps. They were called relocation camps but there were really internment camps... prisons. Every Japanese American; men, woman and children were ordered to abandon their homes and businesses and report to the closest relocation camp. A total of 11,070 people were housed in Manzanar from September of 1942 to November of 1945. The tragedy of this whole episode was that most of these people were loyal American citizens ready to go to war for this county just like German Americans and Italian Americans. Eventually Japanese soldiers were allowed to enlist and fight in World War Two and did so bravely and with honor. Nevertheless, their families had to remain in "relocation camps." Most Japanese who lived in Southern California were ordered to Manzanar, a camp about 180 miles north of Los Angeles on Highway 395, about half way between Lone Pine and Independence. In 1964, President Ronald Reagan publicly apologized to Japanese Americans and this site has fittingly been made into a National Historic site. It is managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Next time you're on your way to Mammoth to go skiing or fishing on the Eastern slopes of the Sierras, stop by Manzanar.
Like most of us on our way to Mammoth to go skiing I usually whiz by this land mark without a thought. Last week I took the time to stop .
The last remaining barracks that once housed the displaced Japanese-Americans during World War Two, stand as a stark reminder of mans inhumanity to man.
Inside the museum I was overwhelmed by photographs and displays depicting a people making a life for themselves in spite of the humiliating circumstances.
"Block 25?" What kind of a relocation camp uses terms like... Block 25. This sounds like prison terminology to me. I wonder what the families of ..."Block 25," did to pass the time while others took over their homes and businesses.
