Official Web site of the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969.
The following is an official statement of the Manzanar Committee. At the end of World War II, our community was at a crossroads. Faced with the monumental task of rebuilding lives after the so-called “resettlement,” Japanese Americans had to navigate relating to a country that had just locked them away for no other reason than... Continue Reading →
LOS ANGELES — On November 1, the Manzanar Committee and the Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument (VJAMM) Committee announced that the First Annual Arnold Maeda Manzanar Pilgrimage Grant is now available. Two college students will be selected to work with the Manzanar Committee to help plan and produce the 52nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, to be... Continue Reading →
The Manzanar Committee Student Awards Program recognizes students who demonstrate an understanding of the guiding principles of civil rights and social justice through their projects. We are proud to announce the winners of our Fifth Annual Student Awards Program. We particularly want to commend all our student participants, their families, and their hard-working teachers for... Continue Reading →
Voting Rights: A Cornerstone of Our Democracy Voting is central to our democracy. The ability to have a voice in choosing who represents us, who makes decisions that impact our lives, our families, and communities, is a cornerstone of our democracy. Voting is key to the realization of the promise of the Constitution of the... Continue Reading →
The following is being reprinted from the August 26, 1942 edition of the Manzanar Free Press (camp newspaper). The sending of over two thousand absentee ballots to Japanese evacuee citizens in assembly and relocation centers has brought divergent views, mostly critical, in the metropolitan newspapers of Los Angeles. The majority of the people interviewed by... Continue Reading →
The following was originally published in the printed program for the 49th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 28, 2018. by Jim Matsuoka In 1942, we were thought to be unassimilable and a threat to American society. Time and historical fact has shown otherwise, but we know the consequences of being seen as a statistical mass of... Continue Reading →
The following was published in the printed program for the 44th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage (2013). It was reprinted from the article, “The Great Unknown & the Unknown Great: African American Attorney was Defender of Japanese Americans During World War II,” Nichi Bei Times Weekly, June 7, 2007. by Greg Robinson Hugh MacBeth, Sr. (pictured above),... Continue Reading →
by Glen Kitayama I met Lane back in 1989, when I was a young graduate student at UCLA, working with NCRR (at the time, the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations; now Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress) and researching the Redress Movement. At the time, Lane was a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As... Continue Reading →
Democracy is a fragile concept. Only as good as the people who practice it. — Sue Kunitomi Embrey LOS ANGELES — The Manzanar Committee condemns the Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) move to send federal agents into major cities around the country. It is a blatant attack on the movement for... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee 