Official Web site of the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969.
LOS ANGELES — The Manzanar Committee wishes to express its deepest sympathies to the family of Professor Emeritus of Education and former Director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC), Don T. Nakanishi, 66, who died on March 21. Nakanishi was born and raised in East Los Angeles where he attended Roosevelt High School.... Continue Reading →
We’re catching up on posting long overdue video... Video from the 2014 and 2015 Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar At Dusk programs are now available in full 1080p high definition. The 2014 (45th Annual) Manzanar Pilgrimage featured performances by UCLA Kyodo Taiko, presentation of the 2014 Sue Kunitomi Embrey Award to former Manzanar incarceree Mas Okui... Continue Reading →
It took time and a good deal of work, but we’ve finally converted video shot on tape that wasn’t in the greatest condition, so we can finally bring you video from the 1993 Manzanar Pilgrimage, the 2009 Manzanar Pilgrimage, and the 2009 Manzanar At Dusk program. The 1993 Manzanar Pilgrimage took place one year after... Continue Reading →
by Emily Zamora On April 2, 1942, Joyce Okazaki, then seven years old, arrived at the Manzanar camp with her family, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. It was night, and there were no outside lights. Feeling scared, her family clung to one another as they made their way to what would... Continue Reading →
by Susan Muto Knight Among the many remarkable stories that have arisen from those who were incarcerated at Manzanar, the experiences of Takio “Tak” and Masako Muto (we called her, “Ma”) are among them. The photo at right is from their wedding in Los Angeles, taken just before World War II, a time that would... Continue Reading →
by Rena Ogino The 46th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 25, 2015, was my third Pilgrimage and my first with the UCSD Nikkei Student Union as a second year student. As a shin-Nisei (second generation Japanese American, the children of recent Japanese immigrants), I initially felt like a black sheep amongst Japanese American youth that... Continue Reading →
The following was originally published in the June 2, 2015 edition of the Inyo Register. It is reprinted here with permission. by Jon Klusmire Special to the Inyo Register INDEPENDENCE, CA — A personal approach that tapped into a shared history of past battles and victories was credited with delaying for a decade the industrial... Continue Reading →
The following is a poem written by Mary Langer Thompson that originally appeared in “The Word,” Volume 3, 2008, a California Lutheran University publication. Let orchards stand for fallen, swept away apples in abarren square. Barbed wired, piercing. Let the apple crate stand for desks where poets harvested poems,where a soldier’s mother read the telegram.... Continue Reading →
Kelsey Nakamura, President of the UCSD Nikkei Student Union, participated in her first Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar At Dusk program on April 25, 2015. She shared her perspectives with us here. This was my first year attending the Manzanar Pilgrimage and I didn’t know what to expect. I was swamped with school work, midterms, and... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee 