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

Outlying Area
Other Features

Figure 8.114. Evacuee-built oven 1/4 mile south of the central area.

Remains at the evacuee parks south of the central area include two concrete ovens. One, 4 feet by 6 feet, is within a small, now roofless, one-room concrete and rock structure about 1/4 mile south of the central area (Figure 8.114). The oven, proportionally too large for the structure, was built by evacuees. The building itself is from a historical ranch that was in use from around the turn of the century until the mid-1930s. The other oven, of concrete and rock, was built by the evacuees within a two-room adobe-mortared rock building at an abandoned ranch 1 mile south of the central area. It is 5 feet by 7 feet in size with a 6-foot-high chimney.

There are some inscriptions carved into the clapboard siding of the Lone Pine train station (Figure 8.115). Six evacuees worked at the train station unloading materials destined for the relocation center. Only two of six known inscriptions (Garrett and Larson 1977) remain; others were stolen by removing the clapboard sometime in 1992, just after the depot was no longer watched by a caretaker (Bill Michael, personal communication, 1993).

A World War II-era airport was located just across U.S. Highway 395 from the relocation center central area. Built for the Army in 1941 for bomber pilot training, testing experimental aircraft, and aircraft emergencies, it apparently was never used by the relocation center. There are many features remaining at the airport including a powerhouse, a hangar foundation, a storage building foundation, an aircraft parking area, a wind-T support, two 5,000-foot-long asphalt-paved runways forming an X, a taxiway, and a small trash dump (Figure 8.116).

Figure 8.115. Inscription in the clapboard of the Lone Pine train station.

Figure 8.116. Oblique aerial view of the Manzanar airport today.

Figure 8.117. Barracks buildings at the Willow Motel in Lone Pine.

At least fourteen relocation center buildings are still in the nearby towns of Independence and Lone Pine where they were moved after Manzanar closed. The condition of the moved structures is highly variable, but many still retain substantial architectural integrity. They include barracks, staff apartments, and the missing south wing of the auditorium (now the Lone Pine American Legion Hall). The Willow Motel in Lone Pine is made of three barracks buildings (Figure 8.117). Also in Independence are the decorative concrete gate posts originally at the relocation center entrance.

Continued

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