Official Web site of the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969 and the more recent Manzanar At Dusk program
The following is the text of one of the speeches delivered during the 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 27, 2019. by Lauren Matsumoto Hello everyone and good afternoon. My name is Lauren Matsumoto. I am the co-President of UC San Diego Nikkei Student Union and one of the student organizers for this year’s Manzanar... Continue Reading →
The following was published in the printed program for the 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 27, 2019. by Bruce Embrey In 1969, a small group of students and a handful of Nisei (second generation Japanese Americans; the children of immigrants) who lived behind barbed wire, journeyed to Manzanar to search for answers about their history.... Continue Reading →
by Bruce Embrey Last year, George Takei was appalled at what was happening on our southern border. He wrote: “...Unless we act now, we will have failed to learn at all from our past mistakes. Once again, we are flinging ourselves into a world of camps and fences and racist imagery—and lies just big enough... Continue Reading →
by Bruce Embrey I’ve been wondering what drove more than 2,000 people to this year’s Manzanar Pilgrimage. Why did they endure the blazing sun and the blistering heat to listen to speeches and taiko drums? Why did they come to pray at the Soul Consoling Tower so far from home? To be sure, it had... Continue Reading →
The 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage has come and gone. It was certainly a big one, both in numbers, with at least 2,500 in attendance, and in significance. After all, we commemorated the first organized Manzanar Pilgrimage 50 years ago (December 27, 1969). We had some of the people who participated and/organized that first Pilgrimage in... Continue Reading →
PILGRIMAGE: Bus transportation available from Downtown Los Angeles and Gardena LOS ANGELES — UCLA Kyodo Taiko will perform at the 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, sponsored by the Manzanar Committee, Saturday, April 27, 2019, starting at 11:30 AM PDT, at the Manzanar National Historic Site, located on U.S. Highway 395 in California’s Owens Valley, between the... Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: The following is the final installment in our series of reflection pieces written by our students who visited the Manzanar National Historic Site back in November 2018, part of a two-day, interactive, intensive, placed-based learning experience about Japanese American Incarceration. To learn more about this critical educational project targeting college students, please check... Continue Reading →
Shortly after the 49th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 28, 2018, we published photographs from that event and the 2018 Manzanar At Dusk program that same evening. But here is our official photo essay from the Pilgrimage featuring photographs by professional photographers Geri Ferguson and Mark Kirchner. They have been shooting photos at Manzanar for... Continue Reading →
During a recent solo trip to the Manzanar National Historic Site in which I spent about 14 hours over roughly two days exploring the site by car and foot, it dawned on me that it was the first time that I was exploring the site in such a detailed fashion or spending as much time... Continue Reading →
