While in Owens Valley, we stopped at Manzanar Retention Center. This was one of the Japanese Internment camps during WWII. You can see that the Government picked the "middle of nowhere" to place the Japanese...this area is literally a desert in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas outside Yosemite National Park.
The original guard station is still on the highway outside the fences of Manzanar.
This is the only remaining original building (other than the guard station and guard tower). It was the cafeteria, gymnasium and public hall all-in-one.
I wish I could have taken more photos of Manzanar, but my camera did not produce good lighting inside the exhibit. It was haunting to see the photos of the one-room cabins that served as homes for over 125,000 Japanese. The Japanese who were targeted for internment were either immigrants born originally in Japan who had immigrated to America but had not become citizens yet (thereby officially renouncing their Japanese citizenship and loyalty to the Emperor) or who were 1st generation American citizens born to such Japanese immigrants. Several of these internment camps were established throughout the United States during World War II, but all were located in areas similar to Owens Valley - hard to get to, hard to get out of, rough environment, virtually alone.
The Manzanar exhibits told stories of how the constant wind in the Owens Valley either blew sand into the cabins during the summer or snow and ice during the winter. The winds never stop blowing through the valley. The Japanese did their best to create lovely gardens and make their sparse cabins comely with handmade draperies and tablecloths. When the war ended, the Government paid each Japanese internee $25 cash and gave them a one-way bus ticket to whereever they wanted to go. Most returned to their old homes to find they were gone (sold to others) and their businesses were closed.
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