Manzanar National Historic Site, near Lone Pine, CA

 Manzanar National Historic Site commemorates the internment of over 110,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII.  Manzanar was one of ten internment sites.  There is a lot to see here and it is a good place to visit in person to get a sense of the harsh weather and isolation.  Even today, this is a remote area.  The day we visited, it was cold with a strong wind that is common here.  It is also very hot in the summer.  There is a museum and short video that presents many aspects of the internment experience from the bad food, lack of privacy, poor medical care and profound sense of loss and confusion.  When the internment of over, people were sent away with $25 and a bus ticket.  People had lost jobs, businesses, professions, farm land and more.  The most touching aspect, to me, was how hard people worked to create a community for themselves.  Internees set up gardens, cultivated small farms to add fresh fruits and vegetables to their diet, set up activities for children and tried to create a sense of normalcy, despite being surrounded by barbed wire.  The prison tower still stands at the site.

There is a set of barracks still standing and open.  There is a short driving tour and the location of the barracks blocks is marked.  At the rear, with a backdrop of the Sierra Nevadas, is a cemetery marker for the people, including children, who died while interned.

There is a store with books about the Japanese-American experience and history of the period.  There is ample parking.  The Google maps directions led us to the original entrance to the camp, which is not correct.  Follow the sign on Hwy. 395 to enter where the museum is located.  The site is about a 10-minute drive north of the town of Lone Pine, which has restaurants and coffee shops.

This is an important site for all Americans to visit and marks a really sad part of our history.  No one interned was ever accused of a crime, yet they lost everything.  Ronald Reagan signed an act paying detention survivors reparations.