Official Web site of the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969.
LOS ANGELES — On November 18, the Manzanar Committee repudiated statements by David Bowers, Mayor, Roanoke, Virginia, in which he used the unjust incarceration of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry as justification for his demand that Syrian refugees be denied asylum in the Roanoke area. In an official statement, Bowers said, “I’m reminded that... 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 →
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 →
LOS ANGELES — In a joint statement on August 3, the Manzanar Committee and the Owens Valley Committee (OVC) announced that two industrial-scale solar energy projects that would have had adverse impacts on California’s Owens Valley and the Manzanar National Historic Site have been delayed indefinitely. On March 12, 2015, the Los Angeles Department of... Continue Reading →
LOS ANGELES — On July 23, the Manzanar Committee denounced remarks by retired United States Army General and former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark, who called for the incarceration of “disloyal Americans” in camps eerily similar to the American concentration camps in which over 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly incarcerated during World War... 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 →
LOS ANGELES — On June 26, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell, et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al., that laws restricting marriage to a union between a man and a woman, as well as laws preventing states from recognizing same sex marriages performed in other states, are... 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 →
Manzanar Committee 