Driving north on U.S. Highway 395 can be a hauntingly lonelyexperience. Of the three highways that run north-south throughCalifornia, Highway 395 is by far the least known and the leastattractive.
WhileHighway 1 boasts picturesque views and Interstate 5 showcases thetrappings of civilization at regular intervals, Highway 395 offersisolation. Ringed by the Sierra Nevadas to the west and theWhite-Inyo Range to the east, Highway 395 carves a lonely path up theeastern side of the Golden State.
Two-hundred miles north of Los Angeles — amid the desert scruband between gas station pull-outs — lies a neglected historicallandmark. It’s difficult to find despite the off-yellow marker placedon the side of the highway denoting its location. Aside from themarker, little else has been done to commemorate its significance.The desert looks the same here as it does everywhere else along the395 — devoid of human activity. The mountains are just as imposing,maybe even more, for this site lies at the foot of Mount Williamson,the second highest peak in the Sierra Nevadas at more than 14,000feet.
It is the site of one of America’s greatest lapses of civilliberties in the 20th century. Although many people may not know ofits existence, almost all Japanese-Americans are familiar with itssignificance.
It was the site of America’s largest Japanese internment campduring World War II. In Spanish, its name means apple orchard.
We know it as Manzanar.
Anti-Japanese hysteria escalated in the months following theattack on Pearl Harbor. California, a longtime advocate of racialbias against Asian peoples, led the way in fanning the flames ofreputed Japanese subversiveness. California Gov. Culbert Olsondemanded action. California’s Attorney General, Earl Warren (laterChief Justice Warren), suggested that because authorities hadn’tuncovered any Japanese subversive activity, this only proved that itexisted.
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed ExecutiveOrder 9066. Coupled with Executive Order 9102, it empowered federalauthorities to round up 70,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese descent(called Nisei) and 42,000 Japanese resident aliens (Issei) and shipthem off to 10 concentration camps located in desolate areas of thewestern United States.
Although the internment camps were a far cry from the Germanconcentration camps (the American goal was to detain, notexterminate), they still represent an abasement of the Americanideals of freedom and equality.
U.S. citizens of German and Italian descent were not rounded up.
Neither were Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii because it wasbelieved that their removal would have disrupted the economy.
Recently, the United States has begun to own up to this shamefulwartime decision. A 1982 investigative commission concluded that theinternment was not justified by any military necessity. A federalcourt found in 1986 that the U.S. federal government had lied to theSupreme Court during the war about the necessity of the camps. In1988, Congress voted to apologize to all of the Nisei and Issei andauthorized a payment of $20,000 to each of the 60,000 survivinginternees.
Addressing past wrongs is commendable, but America should do moreto make up for lamentable policies of the past.
In March 1992, Congress established the Manzanar National HistoricSite. Believed to be the best preserved of the 10 internment camps,Manzanar has a state of California historical marker, a nationallandmark plaque and a Blue Star Memorial Highway marker at theoriginal relocation center entrance.
It sounds impressive until you visit the place.
Manzanar is in serious disrepair.
Other than a broken down rock sentry house near the front gate,Manzanar is absolutely devoid of buildings. The camp consists solelyof meandering trails that have no beginning or end. The inside of theabandoned sentry house is often littered with broken glass and reeksof urine. While the commemorative plaque forthrightly explains thecamp’s history and hopes to serve as a reminder against war hysteria,it too has been desecrated and vandalized.
Manzanar is considered the best-preserved camp because thefoundations of the original buildings are still in place. They arestill there, but they haven’t been worked on.
No renovation has taken place despite its recent landmark status.The only thing that has been maintained is a small Japanese cemetery,funded by private sources, that lies west of the camp.
It is America’s responsibility to restore the camp or, at the veryleast, to maintain the present grounds. This isn’t a matter ofpolitical correctness — it’s an issue of being morally correct.America dedicates large memorials and grandiose monuments to sitesthat glorify the nation, but, all too often, the places where badthings happen are neglected. Because they are neglected, they aresoon forgotten, and it creates what historian James Loewen has termed”a landscape of denial.” By choosing not to recognize our failures,we allow for the possibility of repeating them in the future.
Restoring Manzanar will not only prevent people from forgettingabout the forced captivity of U.S. citizens based solely on theirrace, it will also demonstrate America’s commitment to confront itspast. Every country has made regrettable decisions during itshistory. America is no different. But America’s greatness lies, inpart, in its ability to publicly recognize and learn from its pastmistakes in the name of equality.
The public apology and remuneration was a good start.
Now lets finish the job.
–Michael Graffman is a graduate student in the historydepartment. Send e-mail to daletter2000@hotmail.com.
–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec.
