Manzanar National Historic Site, near Independence, California, marks the site of Manzanar War Relocation Center. The center was the first of 10 internment camps where people of Japanese ancestry were confined from 1942 to 1945. Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 caused the United States to enter World War II (1939-1945). United States military leaders feared that people of Japanese ancestry were a threat to national security. There was little evidence to support such fears, however.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order authorized military commanders to designate military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” The military removed more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and southern Arizona, and confined them in detention camps. Those imprisoned included more than 70,000 U.S. citizens.
From June 1, 1942, to Nov. 21, 1945, about 10,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese aliens from the West Coast were confined at Manzanar. The camp covered 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers). It was surrounded by barbed wire. Military police in eight guard towers and at the entrance station kept watch over the camp.
An interpretive center at the site has exhibits on the historical background of the relocation order. Also, visitors can follow a 3-mile (5-kilometer) automobile tour of the camp. Points of interest include guard posts, the camp auditorium, and the camp cemetery. The United States Congress authorized the land as a historic site in 1992.
See also Asian Americans (World War II and Japanese Americans) .
