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

February 6, 2012 Leave a Comment

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

Filed under Manzanar, News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Manzanar Committee Statement On The Passing Of Civil Rights Champion Gordon K. Hirabayashi

January 4, 2012 2 Comments

Gordon K. Hirabayashi.
Photo: University of Alberta, Edmonton

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, 93, a hero in the Japanese American community, who died on January 2, 2012, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

A native of Auburn, Washington (just northeast of Tacoma), Hirabayashi defied Executive Order 9066, the United States Government’s decree on February 19, 1942, that resulted in the mass roundup and incarceration of over 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry in American concentration camps during World War II.

Indeed, Hirabayashi, along with Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui, chose to defy the government’s orders, and filed a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the incarceration. The case eventually made it to the United States Supreme Court. Read more of this post

Filed under News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

December 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

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

Filed under Manzanar, News, Commentary Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Manzanar Committee: Answering Questions From Schools

December 16, 2011 3 Comments

Manzanar Committee member Joyce Okazaki was a child when she was incarcerated at Manzanar, shown here in this famous photo by renowned photographer Ansel Adams.

Editor’s Note: On occasion, the Manzanar Committee receives questions about Manzanar, along with the Japanese American Incarceration experience, from students and teachers from all levels, from K-12 schools, and from colleges and universities across the United States and even from other countries.

The Manzanar Committee encourages those with questions to feel free to contact us. We don’t always have the answers, but if we don’t, we can usually put people in touch with those who do.

Manzanar Committee member Joyce Okazaki, who was incarcerated at Manzanar as a child, answered some questions sent to us by Terry Healy, who teaches a sixth grade class at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Manhattan, Kansas.

by Joyce Okazaki

I was sent with my family to Manzanar, California, and arrived there on April 2, 1942. I was a second grader, and when I left in August, 1944, I finished fifth grade. I had a difficult adjustment to regular school, but did not suffer any discrimination from people in Chicago, Illinois. Read more of this post

Filed under Manzanar Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Euphemistic Terms Used To Describe WWII Incarceration Of Japanese Americans Targeted At JANM Event

September 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

by Joyce Okazaki

Mako Nakagawa of Seattle, Washington, headlined
an event at the Japanese American National Museum
on August 27, 2011, where she called for the use of accurate, non-euphemistic language to describe the
World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Photo: Mako Nakagawa

LOS ANGELES — Mako Nakagawa of Seattle, the primary author of the Power Of Words resolution that called for use of accurate, non-euphemistic language to be used to describe the wartime experience of Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents, along with the camps used to incarcerate them, spoke at an event entitled, Let’s Get It Right! Replacing World War II Euphemistic Language: The Retelling of the Nikkei Incarceration Experience, sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) on August 27.

The event, which was presented in collaboration with The George and Sakaye Aratani Endowed Chair, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, discussed the “…need to replace government created euphemisms of World War II with more accurate terminology.” Read more of this post

Filed under Manzanar, News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

42nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage: The Passage of Time

August 13, 2011 9 Comments

Editor’s Note: UCLA Nikkei Student Union and UCLA Kyodo Taiko member Yoshimi Kawashima participated in her second Manzanar Pilgrimage this past April, at the 42nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. She shares her thoughts about her experiences with us below.

Yoshimi Kawashima
Photo: Gann Matsuda

by Yoshimi Kawashima

The dust stirred gently in the opaque light of the rising sun, drifting along the near empty road. Eyes still drowsy from the four-hour trip, mind still struggling to awake from rising with the dawn light, we finally reached the parking lot which would lead to the Manzanar National Historic Site—my second time at the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since my freshman year at UCLA.

When I went to my first Manzanar Pilgrimage in April 2009, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I was only newly exposed to the history of Japanese American Internment, and now, physically stepping into the forlorn desert they had once been forced to call home brought forth mixed emotions.

What does it mean to be a (Japanese) American of this generation? Read more of this post

Filed under Commentary, Manzanar, Manzanar At Dusk, Manzanar Pilgrimage, News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yosh Kuromiya: Random Thoughts On Being Nisei During World War II

May 19, 2011 3 Comments

Born in Sierra Madre, California in April 1923, Yosh Kuromiya and his family moved to Monrovia, where he attended grammar school, junior high and high school. He was attending Pasadena Junior College as an art major when his family was forced out of their homes and imprisoned, like other Americans of Japanese ancestry, during World War II. His family was first sent to the assembly center at the Pomona Fairgrounds, before they were imprisoned at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming.

Draft resister Yosh Kuromiya (seated, center) was a member of the “Poster Shop Gang,” designing and printing posters at the Heart Mountain concentration camp, one of ten such camps where Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly imprisoned during World War II.
Photo: Kuromiya Family Collection

Kuromiya became one of 63 members of the Fair Play Committee, a group of Heart Mountain prisoners who resisted the draft in protest of the government’s denial of their civil rights. Along with other Fair Play Committee members, Kuromiya, then 21 years old, was arrested, tried and convicted of draft evasion.

Kuromiya was sentenced to three years in federal prison. He was released on parole after two years, and was pardoned by President Harry S. Truman in late 1947.

A retired landscape architect, Kuromiya resides in Alhambra, California with his wife, Irene. Today, he often speaks to groups and organizations about his experiences during World War II, and especially about his experience as a draft resister.

Below is the text of a speech he gave to the Greater Los Angeles Singles Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League on May 13, 2011.

Good evening and happy Friday the 13th! If you haven’t already had your share of misfortune today, maybe you are about to, but I hope not.

I would like to thank you all, for having me here tonight. However, I must warn you that I am neither a historian, a professor, a scholar, nor even a speaker. My exposure to history is that I’ve been around for 88 years, but never seemed to make a difference. I’ve professed a few ideas during those years but never received an encouraging response, much less a degree. Read more of this post

Filed under Commentary, Other Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Swept Away: A Personal Reflection On The Manzanar National Historic Site

November 24, 2010 1 Comment

Editor’s Note: The following is a personal reflection by Jason Honeycutt, who visited the Manzanar National Historic Site in May, 2010.

CANOGA PARK, CA — On the almost five-hour drive north on US Highway 395 to Mammoth Mountain, I had driven by it over twenty times, always curious what it was. It looked like a prison of some sort.

Replica of one of the eight guardtowers at the Manzanar National Historic Site.
Photo: Jason Honeycutt

Last spring, I found out what “it” was.

Heading north, a friend on our snowboard trip mentioned that it was the “Manzanar Relocation Center.” Over twenty times passing it, I wondered how many others made the same mistake, not knowing what was right in front of our eyes for so long.

I grew up in the rural Midwest, and in American History class, you heard whispers about concentration camps for the “Japanese” during World War II, with no real distinction made between prisoners of war and American citizens. Of course, it was a footnote to the story of how America was helping Europe to be free, to be liberated of Nazi Germany discriminating against people based on their heritage.

Why wasn’t the history of these imprisoned Americans in our history books more clearly? Maybe, like it was swept under the rug after the war’s end, certain people wanted to sweep it under history’s rug by not talking about some of the skeletons in our closet. Read more of this post

Filed under Commentary Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 328 other followers