Displaying results 1 to 34 - 34
Date Created: Mar-42
Description: Taken in San Francisco, CA. "A large sign reading "I am an American" placed in the window of a store, at 13th and Franklin streets, on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast...
Date Created: 26-Apr-05
Description: This winter suit was knitted for one of the 541 babies born at Manzanar. There were 188 couples who married in camp.
Date Created: May-42
Description: Taken in Lone Pine, CA. "A group arriving by train from Elk Grove and boarding a bus for Manzanar, a War Relocation Authority center where evacuees of Japanese ancestry from certain West Coast area[s], will stay for the duration of the war."
Date Created: c. 1943-1944
Description: Internees reused wood from fruit and packing crates to build furniture. To provide work opportunities for those with manual skills, the War Relocation Authority [WRA] established both a clothing and furniture factory. A homemaking and building class created a model apartment in Block 7 as part of a...
Date Created: 1909
Description: This plate provides evidence of the ranches and orchards that dominated the Manzanar landscape before World War II. It connects us to the families who carved out a living in this harsh, yet abundant landscape.
Date Created: 1880-1935
Description: Cattle and sheep were predominant in the Owens Valley in the 1860s as ranchers found a temporary market to supply miners and prospectors. This calf weaner prohibited a maturing calf from nursing. The design allowed the calf to eat and drink when its head was tipped down, but the wire muzzle slipped...
![Camera [replica]-57513](http://www.nationalportal.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/collectionThumb/manzanar_national_historic_site/images/MANZ_3331.jpg)
Date Created: c. 1980
Description: Toyo Miyatake was a successful commercial photographer in Los Angeles before the World War II. When war broke out, Japanese Americans were banned from having cameras. Miyatake smuggled a lens and film holder into Manzanar and constructed a makeshift camera to look like a lunch box. Eventually,...
Date Created: 8-May-42
Description: Taken in Hayward, CA. "Evacuees of Japanese ancestry about ready to board the bus to an Assembly Center. An official of WCCA Control Station is checking registration numbers. Social worker in the background is assisting in the evacuation." By U.S. Government order, many like the Mochida...
Date Created: 1928
Description: The top of this coffee can carries these embossed words, "Maxwell House Coffee/100% Pure/Good to the Last Drop," and an image of an inverted coffee cup.
Date Created: 2-Apr-42
Description: "Construction begins at Manzanar, now a War Relocation Authority Center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry, in Owens Valley, flanked by the High Sierras and Mt. Whitney, loftiest peak in the United States." In his 1942 caption, photographer Clem Albers made the common mistake of confusing...
Description: People were not allowed to bring their pets to camp. A few were smuggled in. Later, some local people dumped puppies and kittens along the highway, providing domestic pets in camp. Today a pet cemetery remains at Manzanar. Dogs had special significance for internees born in 1898, 1910, 1922, and...
Date Created: 6-Apr-42
Description: Taken in San Francisco, CA. "An early comer arrives with personal effects at 2020 Van Ness Avenue as part of the contingent of 664 residents of Japanese ancestry, first to be evacuated from San Francisco on April 6, 1942. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the...
Date Created: 1-Apr-42
Description: "Evacuees of Japanese ancestry arrive here by train and await buses for Manzanar, now a War Relocation Authority center." Shi Nomura later recalled that it was a welcome relief to arrive at the Lone Pine train station after an all-day train trip from Los Angeles. Shades had been drawn the...
Date Created: 1-Apr-42
Description: "Evacuees of Japanese ancestry arrive here by train and await buses for Manzanar, now a War Relocation Authority center." Shi Nomura later recalled that it was a welcome relief to arrive at the Lone Pine train station after an all-day train trip from Los Angeles. Shades had been drawn the...
Date Created: 11-Apr-42
Description: Taken in San Francisco, CA. "On a brick wall beside air raid shelter poster, exclusion orders were posted at First and Front Streets directing removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from the first San Francisco section to be affected by evacuation. The order was issued April 1, 1942, by...
Date Created: 25-Apr-42
Description: Evacuees who were forced to leave their homes following the passage of the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1942.
Description: This horsehoe provides evidence of the ranches and orchards that dominated the Manzanar landscape before World War II.
Description: This letter opener was a souvenir from Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley was first legally protected in 1864, and officially made a National Park in 1890. The completion of the Tioga Road in 1915 provided Owens Valley residents a shorter route to visit Yosemite during the summer months.
Date Created: 1919-1940s
Description: This socket wrench lid provides evidence of the ranches and orchards that dominated the Manzanar landscape before World War II. It connects us to the families who carved out a living in this harsh, yet abundant landscape.
Date Created: Sep-43
Description: From the outset of its publication, many Issei internees complained that the Manzanar Free Press was irrelevant to them since they could not read English. In July, 1942 a Japanese language edition was created with but had to pass a board of censors and could only carry translations of the English...
Date Created: 1-Apr-42
Description: Taken while arriving at the Lone Pine train station. "Mother and child evacuees of Japanese descent on train en route to War Relocation Authority center at Manzanar, CA." Shi Nomura later recalled that it was a welcome relief to arrive at the Lone Pine train station after an all-day train...
Description: Petroleum discovered in Titusville, PA in 1859 provided Americans with a new supply of lamp oil that was cheaper and more abundant than whale oil. In 1905, during the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct through the Owens Valley, the city of Los Angeles built its first power plant 15 miles north of...
Date Created: 18-Apr-05
Description: Surplus World War I Navy pea coats were distributed to Manzanar internees who tailored them to fit men, women, and children. This coat belonged to Jim Makino who later joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Description: This form letter notified the Matsumura family that they were permitted to live anywhere in the United States and that reloaction centers would close by January 3, 1946. In stating why he was going to relocate, Shutaro Matsumura observed, “Concentration camp life is an abnormal wartime manner of...
Date Created: 28-Apr-05
Description: The Manzanar Cooperative Enterprises operated a canteen and a general store which sold a variety of items, including toiletries, such as this razor.
Date Created: 22-Oct-45
Description: Document that outlines Mr. and Mrs. Matsumura's arrangements for leaving Manzanar.
![Sandals [geta]-57512](http://www.nationalportal.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/collectionThumb/manzanar_national_historic_site/images/MANZ_4124.jpg){kind=small}
Date Created: c. 1943
Description: Geta, traditional Japanese footware, were made in camp. A cross between a clog and a sandal, the raised base kept the feet off the ground. At Manzanar, geta were commonly used to go from the barracks to the latrine buildings which might be several hundred feet away.
Description: When Manzanar first opened in March 1942, internees used standard metal military mess kits. Later, dishes including Tepco china were provided to feed up to 10,000 people. Many dishes were tossed in the landfill after the war. This sauceboat carries the following lettering: "U.S.Q.M.C. Smerango...
Date Created: 6-Apr-42
Description: Letter from Ruth Brockhouse of Emerson Junior High School to the Honda family. Personal relationships, as well as economic livelihoods were impacted by the removal of Japanese Americans. Rose Honda had turned 13 and entered 7th grade at Emerson Junior High in West Los Angeles when she received the...
Description: One of the ironies of camp life is illustrated by the popularity of war toys.
Date Created: 1944
Description: Shutaro Matsumura, a 54-year-old Issei assessed Manzanar a year after it opened: “Camp life is creating people with lazy habits, people without initiative or incentive. Working conditions are not strict and favor indolent and slovenly work.” During his three and a half years at Manzanar, Matsumura...
Date Created: 1940s
Description: This vase may have contained fresh flowers as gardens were abundant around the barracks and classes were taught in the art of making silk and paper flowers.
Date Created: 1940s
Description: This jacket was hand-made by Yayako Nishioka in Manzanar for Anna Sugimoto. Many pieces of clothing were hand-made in camp, whether sewn, knitted or crocheted. Some women brought their own sewing machines. It was eventually determined that the need for clothing warranted a clothing factory. A wide...
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