43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, 2012 Manzanar At Dusk Program – April 28, 2012: Bus Transportation Available From Los Angeles

To download a printable flyer,
click on the image above.

LOS ANGELES — The 43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, is scheduled for 12:00 PM PDT on Saturday, April 28, 2012, at the Manzanar National Historic Site, located on US Highway 395 in California’s Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence, approximately 230 miles north of Los Angeles.

Each year, over 1,000 people from diverse backgrounds, including students, teachers, community members, clergy and former incarcerees attend the Pilgrimage, which commemorates the unjust incarceration of over 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry in ten American concentration camps, which were located in the most desolate, isolated regions of the United States. Manzanar was the first of these camps to be established.

This year, the Pilgrimage will commemorate the 70th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the mass roundup and unjust incarceration of West Coast Japanese Americans during World War II. The event will also commemorate the 20th anniversity of the establishment of the Manzanar National Historic Site, which was authorized by legislation signed by President George H.W. Bush on March 3, 1992. Read more of this post

Professor Emeritus Art Hansen To Present Guest Lectures At Manzanar NHS, February 18-19, 2012

To download a printable flyer,
click on the image above.
(requires Adobe Reader to view/print).

The following is a press release from the National Park Service.


MANZANAR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, NEAR INDEPENDENCE, CA — Dr. Art Hansen, Professor Emeritus of History and Asian American Studies at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), will speak at Manzanar National Historic Site over Presidents Day weekend in honor of the Day of Remembrance.

The annual Day of Remembrance observance commemorates the impact of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which, on February 19, 1942 authorized the forced removal of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast. Read more of this post

Public Input Sought On Development Of Block 14 At Manzanar National Historic Site

To download a printable copy of Manzanar National Historic Site’s
Block 14 Draft Master Plan, click on the image above
(requires Adobe Reader to view/print).

The following is a press release from the National Park Service.


MANZANAR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, NEAR INDEPENDENCE, CA — Seventy years after the Federal government constructed Manzanar War Relocation Center, it is working to help visitors understand what life was like for 11,070 Japanese Americans confined at the site between 1942 and 1945. A key step in that process is refining plans for a “demonstration block” at Block 14 to illustrate daily life in camp. Read more of this post

Community Members Invited to Join Manzanar Volunteer Day – March 3, 2012

To download a printable flyer,
click on the image above.

The following is a press release from the National Park Service.


To honor its 20th Anniversary as a National Historic Site, Manzanar is hosting its Fourth Annual Volunteer Day on Saturday, March 3, 2012, from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM.

Owens Valley residents, their families, friends, and others are invited to join the Manzanar staff in an outdoor work project followed by a catered lunch and program presented by Archeologist Jeff Burton.

The Volunteer Day work project involves clearing a section of the historic Chicken Ranch to preserve this rarely seen section of the site. Read more of this post

National Defense Authorization Act: Nikkei Community Must Redouble Efforts To Defend Constitutional Rights

Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey, shown here during the
42nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage
on April 30, 2011.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

by Bruce Embrey

LOS ANGELES — President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 31, 2011, allowing indefinite detention without charge or trial to be codified into law. As a result, Americans citizens and others could be subjected to imprisonment without ever being charged or convicted of a crime. This provision of the NDAA denigrates the very foundations of this country, and undermines the Bill of Rights. Without question, it threatens the very foundation of our democracy.

Seventy years ago, 110,000 members of the Japanese American (Nikkei) community, our families and friends, were subjected to imprisonment without ever being charged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed Executive Order 9066. The Nikkei community was denied habeas corpus, rounded up by the United States military and incarcerated behind barbed wire in desolate places.

Indeed, indefinite detention is an indelible part of our experience. In this sense, the Nikkei community is part of the democratic conscience of the United States. Read more of this post

43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, 2012 Manzanar At Dusk Program To Be Held On April 28, 2012

UPDATED INFORMATION at: 43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, 2012 Manzanar At Dusk Program – April 28, 2012: Bus Transportation Available From Los Angeles.

A portion of the crowd attending the 42nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage
on April 30, 2011, at the Manzanar National Historic Site.
The cemetery monument is featured in the background.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

LOS ANGELES — The 43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, is scheduled for 12:00 PM PDT on Saturday, April 28, 2012, at the Manzanar National Historic Site, located on US Highway 395 in California’s Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence, approximately 230 miles north of Los Angeles.

Each year, hundreds of students, teachers, community members, clergy and former incarcerees attend the Pilgrimage. Planning is underway for the afternoon event, as well as for the Manzanar At Dusk program, scheduled from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM that same evening at the Lone Pine High School gymnasium, located at 538 South Main Street (US Highway 395), in Lone Pine, nine miles south of the Manzanar National Historic Site, across the street from McDonald’s. Read more of this post

Dancing With Grace – Gracious And Graceful

Editor’s Note: The following piece by Jenni Kuida, a tribute to former Manzanar Committee member Grace Harada, was originally published in January 2002, in the Rafu Shimpo, and on her family’s web site. She posted a link to her story on Facebook on January 18, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Harada’s passing. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to publish it here as well.


Former Manzanar Committee member Grace Harada (center), shown here with Jenni Kuida (left) and
Sue Kunitomi Embrey (right), who passed away in 2006.
Photo: Jenni Kuida

You might not have ever met Grace Harada. But if you’ve been to an Obon at Senshin Buddhist Temple or the Manzanar Pilgrimage in the last thirty years, chances are, you have surely seen her. She was the petite Nisei woman dancing Bon Odori in the inner circle, leading Sansei like me, trying to follow along in the outer circle. I would always seek her out when stumbling through the moves, because I knew that if I followed her, I’d be ok.

Sadly, she passed away on January 18 at age 76. Only one week earlier, she suffered from a massive stroke and slipped into a coma. Just like that. At the memorial service for Grace at Senshin Buddhist Temple, Reverend Mas Kodani spoke fondly of Grace, using the words “gracious” and “graceful” to describe Grace. He talked about how Grace loved to dance. She lived her life doing what she loved to do. She found true joy in dancing, and in teaching dance to others. Read more of this post

Japanese Americans Respond To New York Times Review Of Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center

Manzanar Committee member Kanji Sahara (left), shown here during
the 2011 Manzanar At Dusk program on April 30, 2011.
Photo: James To

Editor’s Note: On December 9, 2011, the New York Times published a review of the new museum at the Heart Mountain National Historic Landmark, which opened on August 20, 2011. But it was clear that the author failed to do thorough research. In fact, he was careless, sloppy, and as a journalist, his work was shoddy, at best. As a result, the story ended up perpetuating the falsehoods that many continue to believe about the Japanese American Incarceration experience, giving the reader the idea that the incarceration was somewhat justified. Read more of this post

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