LOS ANGELES — On June 25, the Manzanar Committee, sponsors of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969 and the more recent Manzanar At Dusk program for the last 21 years, denounced the policies and actions by President Donald Trump and his administration that have either separated children of immigrants entering the United States from their... Continue Reading →
Some Thoughts About NCRR’s Impact As They Publish a New Book About Their History
As the movement for redress and reparations for the more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated or otherwise forcibly removed from the West Coast during World War II began to gain steam in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, different views on how to win redress emerged. Some might say that... Continue Reading →
Exploring Manzanar: Then and Now
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 →
Keeping Japanese American Incarceree Stories Alive – Pilot Project A Huge Success
by Jason Fujii and Wendi Yamashita Last summer, the Manzanar Committee, in partnership with National Park Service staff at Manzanar National Historic Site, launched a new project, Keeping Japanese American Incarceration Stories Alive, to take college-age youth to the Manzanar National Historic Site for an intensive, place-based learning experience about the unjust incarceration of Japanese... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee Calls On Modoc County To Cease Efforts To Build Perimeter Fence At Tulelake Airport
LOS ANGELES — on September 30, the Manzanar Committee reiterated its opposition to Modoc County, California’s proposed construction of a perimeter fence at the Tulelake Municipal Airport, which would deny access to much of the site of the former Tule Lake Segregation Center. As noted in our original statement in July 2012, the fence would... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee Statement on Racism, Xenophobia, and Terrorism In Charlottesville, Virginia
LOS ANGELES — On August 12, the Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar At Dusk programs, repudiated the violence, fueled by racism and xenophobia, that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier today, not to mention President Donald Trump’s failure to condemn those who were ultimately responsible for the violence and terrorism that... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee Presents 2nd Annual Student Awards – Photos
GARDENA, CA — On May 20, the Manzanar Committee presented its Second Annual Student Awards to 15 students during a celebration at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute in Gardena, California. The Student Awards Program is a creative works program in which K-12 students may submit essays, short stories, poetry, works of art, including drawings,... Continue Reading →
Manzanar Committee Statement On The Passing of UCLA Professor Don T. Nakanishi
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 →
Manzanar Guayule Rubber Project Has Enduring Impact – Photos
GARDENA, CA — During World War II, while incarcerated behind barbed wire at Manzanar, a handful of Japanese Americans— Dr. Morganlander Shimpe Nishimura, a nuclear physicist from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Kenji Nozaki, a chemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Masuo Kodani, cytologist from UC Berkeley, Frank Hirasawa, organic chemist,... Continue Reading →
