The forced removal and internment of more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the west coast of the United States during World War II constitutes a dark chapter in American history. More than 65,000 were Nisei (second generation), American born, American educated and American in heart and mind. No charges were filed, no hearing held, only the vague term, "military necessity" was used and it was to destroy the social, economic and cultural lives of a population which had been in existence in the United States for more than 50 years.

To understand this event and its causes, we need to review the history of the Japanese immigrant group, called the Issei. Beginning early in the 1880s many young men were recruited from Southern Japan to work on the sugar plantations of the territory of Hawaii. While many returned home, others stayed and a large group moved to mainland USA. There, they worked the agricultural fields of California, Washington, Oregon, and toiled on the railroads and mines in other western states. Soon, a "picture bride" custom became popular and the men called for brides from their home townships or counties to make permanent residency in their newly adopted land.

While all immigrant groups, whether European or Asian, suffered greatly upon their arrival in America attempting to adapt to a hostile and alien land, every European group, regardless of their national origin had the right of naturalization. They were able to enter the American mainstream because of that fact and fight for their rights no matter how hard their daily living. The Japanese immigrants faced legal discrimination which prohibited aliens "ineligible for citizenship" from owning and leasing land.

This exclusion movement was not the first in the U.S. In 1790, Congress enacted the first naturalization act which restricted naturalization to an alien who was a "free white person." Additional laws enacted during the 19th century included this racial condition. In 1870 Congress gave the right of naturalization to former slaves, making aliens of African birth and persons of African descent eligible. Being neither white nor black, Japanese immigrants were classified as "aliens ineligible for citizenship."

The Japanese government, concerned more with diplomacy, did not often back their citizens abroad against the anti-Japanese expulsion movement. This ambivalent policy led many Japanese immigrants to consider themselves "an abandoned people" and to believe that they would have to fend for themselves in a hostile land. While many families had gained a place in their adopted land, west coast states were still fiercely anti-Japanese. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the start of WWII was the impetus to put into effect the "final solution " to the "Japanese Problem."

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, persuaded by his military commanders, issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War and designated military commanders to prescribe military areas and to exclude "any and all persons" from these areas. However, General John L. DeWitt, Western Defense Commander in San Francisco, issued an Order on March 2, 1942 to remove all persons of Japanese ancestry (defined as individuals with as little as one-thirty-second Japanese blood) away from the Western portion of Washington, Oregon and California and the southern part of Arizona.

On March 21, 1942 the first volunteer contingent was moved from Los Angeles to the Manzanar Assembly Center in Owens Valley, in the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada. Prior to this, a 30-day voluntary movement was authorized but many voluntary evacuees faced vigorous anti-Japanese sentiment, and the movement was stopped. All evacuation procedures were then controlled by the U.S. Army. By August of 1942, more than 120,000 persons had been removed from their West Coast homes. First the evacuees were sent to "assembly centers" such as Santa Anita and Tanforan racetracks in California, then later to more permanent "relocation centers" in Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Arkansas, Colorado, and Idaho.

Life in the camps was primitive. Manzanar consisted of 36 blocks within a confined area of one mile square, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by eight guard towers, one at each corner and four others at midway points of the camp. Each guard tower was staffed by a U.S. soldier with a machine gun. The first year was spent adjusting to their new environment and its population which, through its collective strength and resourcefulness, built a city of 10,000 people, a microcosm of an American city very much like the ones they had left behind.

I arrived in Manzanar with my family on May 9, 1942. My sister-in-law and I volunteered to assist the Maryknoll Sisters to organize classrooms for the students who had nowhere to go. A few weeks later, the camouflage net factory was completed by the U.S. Army and I worked at making camouflage nets hoping to do my share for the war effort. As young men and women began to leave on temporary furlough to help save the sugar beet crop, I got a job with the Manzanar Free Press as a reporter and later as Managing Editor. The paper was financed by the Manzanar Cooperatives, which operated a canteen, barber shop, shoe repair shop and a beauty shop. We received a $3.50 clothing allowance per month. Those who worked were paid between $8.00 and $19.00 per month for unskilled and professional labor respectively.

I left Manzanar on October 6, 1943 after signing a loyalty oath, being finger-printed, photographed and cleared by the FBI. I relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, hoping to enroll at the University of Wisconsin. Unable to enter the University, I went to work and a year later, moved to Chicago to join my brothers who had relocated there.

After decades of silence, the second and third generations began a campaign to educate themselves and the general public about what happened during World War II. In 1969, student and community activists organized their first Pilgrimage to Manzanar. Since 1971, the Manzanar Committee has mounted an annual Pilgrimage in April to commemorate the 1942-45 years. By 1980, the National Coalition for Redress Reparations had formed focusing on grass-roots support for Congressional legislation for redress and an apology from the U.S. government. The Japanese American Citizens League opted for a Presidential Commission to investigate the internment and the National Council for Japanese American Redress filed a class action suit which made its way to the Supreme Court.

The result was the passage of a bill granting $20,000.00 to each surviving internee and a formal apology which was signed by President Ronald Reagan. More than 70,000 of the survivors located by the Justice Department received their checks and apology. The Office of Redress is still searching for several hundred other eligible individuals. A Civil Rights Educational Fund has been established to encourage research and educational outreach and distribute information about the internment to the general public.

Manzanar was established as a National Historic Site on February 19, 1992 when the House of Representatives passed HR 102-248 by a roll-call vote of 400 to 13. The designated site encompasses 500 acres which is currently owned by the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles. HR 3006, passed this last July 31st, authorizes the release of Bureau of Land Management land to exchange for the Manzanar land and adds 300 acres to the site. Archeological teams found numerous artifacts, not only of the camp era, but relics of the Paiute-Shoshone Indians dating back to 600 AD and the white pioneer settlement which flourished during the early 1900s.

A General Management Plan has been completed and will be available in the Fall for public comment and input. For a free copy, write to Supt. Ross Hopkins, Manzanar National Historic Site, P.O. Box 426, Independence, CA 93526. The 15-year plan calls for the use of a historic auditorium for a Visitors Interpretive Center, photographic exhibits, foot trails, and renovation of some gardens built by the internees. The auditorium ownership was recently passed to the National Park Service from Inyo County which had used the facility for storing highway equipment.

How much of the area can be developed depends on Congressional allocation of a budget which has been severely cut in the last 2 years. An 11-member Advisory Commission, appointed by Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, has been working closely with Superintendent Hopkins (the only staff person) to preserve and develop the Manzanar National Historic Site. We ask for your support to make the park operational.