The Japanese Cemetery at the Manzanar Relocation Camp
Inyo County, California
At the beginning of the Second World War American citizens of Japanese ancestry throughout the Pacific coast states (but not Hawaii) were forced to report to "relocation centers". One of the best known was at Manzanar, a small former army base north of Lone Pine in Owens Valley. Releases from the camps began almost immediately -- young men were needed as interpreters for the war in the Pacific, and many of the women eventually secured employment in mid-continent locations such as Chicago. By the end of the war the camps consisted mostly of the elderly and the very young.
The old barracks have disappeared and the roads and paths have faded back into the desert. A Japanese-style entrance building is visible from Highway 395 and a few people stop. A mile further back is the tiny cemetery, with a handful of graves and an impressive obelisk inscribed with Japanese characters. The National Park Service now has responsibility for the property and, hopefully, will clean it up and provide interpretive exhibits or a museum.
This image is dedicated to my mother-in-law, Grace (Eto) Shibata, who never should have been here.