Jax Stumpes: 2023 Road Trip: Manzanar National Historic Site (5/20/2023)

Saturday, May 20, 2023

2023 Road Trip: Manzanar National Historic Site (5/20/2023)

Saturday, May 20, 2023 (continued)

The Manzanar National Historic Site (1992) is actually another stop on the Civil Rights Trail.

In 1942, the United States government ordered more than 110,000 men, women, and children to leave their homes and detained them in remote, military-style camps. Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of ten camps where the US government incarcerated Japanese immigrants ineligible for citizenship and Japanese American citizens during World War II.

Entrance sign and replica guard tower at Manzanar
(a Roadside America attraction)

The Manzanar National Historic Site Visitor Center was
located in the former Auditorium/Community Center (1944)

The cornerstone for the Auditorium, and
multiple strings of origami cranes, which,
according to legend, if one is able to fold
1,000 paper cranes, his wish will be granted

Reconstructed Manzanar Fire Station (1942)

Reconstructed barracks building; there
were 14 barracks buildings in each of 36 blocks

Recreation of life in the barracks, with a Go game in
progress on the leftmost "nightstand"

There was essentially no privacy in the barracks; note
the baby crib against the back wall near the heating unit

Row after row of about 500 barracks
once filled the square-mile property (KSS)

A replica Women's Latrine (there was also a
Men's Latrine in each block)

The women's Latrine had ten flush toilets

The shower room had seven showerheads

Four sets of hot and cold faucets over a metal trough sink

Reconstructed Mess Hall and Kitchen

Washing hands was a requirement for all

Peek into the kitchen

Dining on picnic tables

The second reconstructed barracks

This recreation showcased a barracks with linoleum
flooring and sheetrock on walls and ceiling, an
improvement that was promised for all the
barracks, but was never realized

Some families were able to afford bringing
furniture, and others made their own furniture

Clay-like soil was trucked into the camp from the Owens River
for use on the surface of the basketball and tennis courts

There were basketballs available,
so Kent took a few shots

Site of a baseball field

Looking towards a Japanese garden that probably
once featured a rock garden with a pond (KSS)

Ruins of the Hospital Administration Building

Looking towards the Children's Village, the orphanage

The obelisk in the cemetery was a joint project of
the Buddhist and Christian churches

Several graves remain in the cemetery

Headstone for Baby Jerry Ogata

Much of Manzanar is overgrown with
Artemisia tridentata/Big Sagebrush

The sentry houses at the main entrance are original
buildings (1942, by Japanese stone mason Ryozo Kado);
in the foreground is the Manzanar Internal Police post,
and behind it is the Military Police post

We continued driving north on US-395.

Mammoth Mountain Store Beanie in
Big Pine, CA, changes its look each year:
this is the 2022-2023 version

Tamiko tries tossing a coin into the mouth
of the Bronze Bear Outpost bear (KSS)

If the coin lands in the bear's mouth, it will slide out
and drop into the the hollow stump or bucket below,
and you will have your wish granted; we ended up
placing the coins directly in the bear's mouth and
they did land in the stump (coverd by wire mesh)

The mystical sight of a pale green steaming Mono Lake, a saline lake
with a unique ecosystem with brine shrimp and alkali flies,
which sustain millions of migratory birds each year