Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 8 (continued)
Manzanar Relocation Center

Central Fenced Area
Entrance and Administrative Areas

Figure 8.17. Entrance to the Manzanar Relocation Center today.

Two paved roads run east-west from U.S. Highway 395 into the relocation center. Between these roads are two evacuee-constructed buildings, a sentry post and a police post, and a low rock-encircled earthen mound with wooden posts remaining from the relocation center entrance sign (Figure 8.17). There are rock alignments along the outside edges of the roads and rock-outlined parking spaces along the north road between the sentry post and the police post.

The sentry post is a 13-foot-by-14-foot one-room rock and concrete building (Figure 8.18). Across the road north and south of the sentry post along the perimeter there are short sections of rock and concrete walls. Decorative concrete tree stumps that were on both sides of the sentry post have been removed, and are now located at a house in the town of Independence. Located west of the sentry post, the police post is an 8-foot-by-10-foot one-room rock and concrete building (Figure 8.19). The sentry post and police post both have pagoda-style wood shake roofs and simulated wood concrete lintels over the doors and windows. North of the police post is the 20-foot-by-100-foot concrete slab of the police station (Figure 8.20).

Southwest of the entrance the administration office building location is outlined by an L-shaped rock alignment. Within the rock alignment there are four concrete footing blocks and a small concrete foundation that apparently once held a safe. On the building exterior on the north side there are two circular planters and a sidewalk incorporating a diamond-shaped planter with a metal flagpole base (Figure 8.21).

Southwest of the administration building there is a 30-foot-diameter rock and concrete planter within a traffic circle (Figure 8.22). It has many inscriptions listing Japanese American names, hometowns, and dates (Figure 8.23). A 40-inch-by-60-inch concrete slab located west of the traffic circle is divided into six panels; two are inscribed with the name "Kubota" and one has a "4/1/42" date (Figure 8.24). Remains at the staff mess hall consist of concrete footing blocks and a concrete slab with a few inscribed Japanese characters. The only remains at the town hall building and the post office are landscaping features: both have rock alignments at their north end and the town hall building has a concrete sidewalk.

The most prominent feature remaining in the staff housing area is a concrete slab patio and 3-foot to 6-foot-high wall of granite boulders and concrete at the director's residence (Figure 8.25). Also at the director's residence there are three concrete entryways, a small slab for a water heater, some concrete footing blocks, and a rock-outlined asphalt parking area. Remains of the staff apartment and dormitory buildings include concrete walkways and steps (Figure 8.26), small concrete slabs for water heaters (Figure 8.27), and a few concrete footing blocks. At one building location there is a concrete and rock pedestal, 30 inches high with a simulated wood grain top, that may have once held a sign (Figure 8.28). At another building location there is a 2-1/2-feet-to-5-feet high concrete and rock wall enclosing a concrete slab patio (Figure 8.29). Remains of the evacuee-built laundry room in the staff housing area consist of a 16-foot-by-20-foot concrete slab with a central floor drain.

Other remains in the administration and staff housing areas include a concrete slab and brick-lined hole (possibly a pit barbecue), a clothesline pole base, rock alignments bordering roads, parking areas, and buildings, remnants of asphalt roads and parking areas and gravel walkways, intact manholes, concrete and rock ditches, and storm drains. Remains of a staff victory garden are located between the staff housing area and the perimeter fence.

West of the administration and staff housing area are the foundations of the service station and gasoline pump (Figure 8.30). Nearby, the motor pool office location is indicated by concrete stoops on the north and west sides of an apparent 20-foot-by-50-foot building pad and a surrounding rock alignment. An inscription and a hand and a foot print are on the west entry slab. A pipe flush to the ground centered between two tall poles is likely the remains of an entrance gate to the motor pool parking area.

Figure 8.30. Concrete island from gasoline pump.

Figure 8.31. Concrete slab foundation of automotive services garage.

Remains in the garage block include the automotive repair shop foundation and the automotive service garage foundation (Figure 8.31). Two parallel 20-foot-by-100-foot foundations are from the refrigerated warehouse. Both are perimeter foundations into which a concrete slab was later poured. The refrigeration equipment was apparently at the north end of each slab, where there is a waste pipe, two other pipes, a floor drain, and a remnant dividing wall. In the south-central portion of the block there is a 6-foot-by-10-foot concrete slab with the center portion broken out. Its central location suggests it may have been a latrine. Other features include three concentrations of rocks and boulders, two manholes, and a few concrete footing blocks at the locations of two other buildings.

Remains in the two warehouse blocks include a 20-foot-by-100-foot concrete floor of five contiguous 20-foot-by-20-foot slabs. There is a mostly buried concrete driveway on the south end. One or more concrete footing blocks remain at nineteen of the other warehouses. Two latrine concrete slabs, ne in each warehouse block, are 16 feet by 27 feet, divided into two rooms. Other features noted in the warehouse blocks include three asphalt driveways, some indistinct rock alignments, and two manholes. Southwest of the warehouses, where there were additional garages, there are three 20-foot-by-100-foot structure pads, each indicated by a leveled area with concrete footing blocks along one side, and one mostly buried 20-foot-by-100-foot concrete slab.

Photo Album

Continued

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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