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Manzanar

Phil Chu
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Phil Chu
Making software since the 80s

On my way back from Lake Tahoe last week, I decided to take the scenic route down 395, not realizing one of the sights is Manzanar, probably the most well-known internment camp where Japanese-Americans were relocated in World War II. You can’t miss it — the guard towers are easily visible from the highway.

I’ve been to the Japanese-American museums in LA and Portland, but it’s one thing to see an exhibit on the internment and another to actually see where it happened and stand there in the heat and dust (and it’s still early summer), surrounded by barbed wire, and think about all the families that were removed from their homes and imprisoned here because of their ancestry.

Most of the buildings are gone.

But there are remnants of the park.

And the cemetery.

There’s even a pet cemetery.

The park rangers there told me some people drive by every day and have never stopped. By all means, stop and look.