MANZANAR Historic Resource Study/Special History Study

MANZANAR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1992-PRESENT

The 23rd annual Manzanar Pilgrimage was held on April 25, 1992, with more than 2,000 persons in attendance in the cemetery area at the recently-designated National Historic Site. The event, including ceremonies and a picnic, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the initiation of the government's evacuation and relocation program, as well as the Congressional designation of Manzanar as a National Historic Site. Participants in the ceremonies included William Penn Mott, Director of the National Park Service, Inyo County supervisors, Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley, Los Angeles City Council members Ruth Galanter and Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles School Board President Warren Furutani, and Manzanar Committee members Sue Kunitomi Embrey and Rose Ochi, as well as Christian and Buddhist ministers, Obon dancers, and Taiko drummers. [75]

The establishing legislation provided that the National Park Service would prepare a General Management Plan for the site within three years. Accordingly, a planning team headed by team captain Dan Olson, a senior planner in the Pacific/Great Basin System Support Office in San Francisco, began work in April 1993. The planning team was assisted by a seven-member volunteer team of Japanese American landscape architects organized under the auspices of the American Society of Landscape Architects and Ross R. Hopkins, the first superintendent of the national historic site.

Appointments to the Manzanar National Historic Site Advisory Commission were made on October 28, 1993, pursuant to the site's establishing legislation. The eleven members of the commission were:

William Michael, Acting Chairperson
Ronald Izumita
Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Mas Okui
Keith Bright
Glenn Singley
Richard Steward
Vernon Miller
Gann Matsuda
Rose Ochi
Martha Davis

The commission held its first meeting on April 28, 1995, in the Board of Supervisor's Chambers at the County of Inyo Administrative Center, Independence. [76]

Scoping for the Manzanar General Management Plan was initiated with a Federal Register notice on April 23, 1993, and continued until June 30, 1993. Three public scoping meetings were held (one in Independence and two in Los Angeles) and comments were provided in 27 letters and in petitions signed by 275 individuals. The petitions asked that the site accurately reflect the experiences of the Japanese Americans confined in the war relocation centers.

The draft General Management Plan was mailed to nearly 30 agencies and organizations and several hundred interested individuals on February 7, 1996, with a comment closing date of May 3, 1996. Availability of the draft document was formally announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register on February 20. News releases announcing the availability of the document and schedule of public meetings were distributed widely in the Owens Valley and regional media.

Four public meetings on the draft plan and accompanying environmental impact statement were conducted March 12-16, 1996. Sites for the meetings included the California communities of Bishop, Independence, Gardena, and Los Angeles. The four public meetings were attended by 178 persons, 43 of whom made comments for the record. A total of 194 written communications on the draft were received during the comment period. These communications included two petitions, 135 copies of a form letter, and 57 individually prepared letters.

Comment on the General Management Plan was highly polarized with most reviewers opting for a proposal that would provide long-term protection of resources and a range of facilities and services for a more meaningful and educational experience for visitors to the national historic site, with an expanded boundary. A significant, although smaller, number of comments, however, questioned the authorization of the site as a unit of the National Park System or urged that the site be operated as economically as possible with American Indian and pioneer history given coverage equivalent to the World War II relocation camp period.

In response to the comments submitted during the planning process, the National Park Service developed a final General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Manzanar which will be published in late 1996. The General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement presents a proposal and two alternatives (no-action and minimum requirements) for the management, utilization, and development of the national historic site. The proposed action would provide staffing and resource management to protect the site's historic and prehistoric features. Features of significance include those associated with the World War II relocation center, centuries of occupation by American Indian cultures, and ranching and agricultural activities.

Under the proposed action, the national historic site would be managed as a cultural landscape based on the World War II relocation center period. The gridwork of the center's road system would be rehabilitated, some areas of dense tree growth would be thinned or cleared, the camp's perimeter fence would be reconstructed, and some of the evacuee-constructed rock gardens and ponds would be rehabilitated. Historically significant orchards and ornamental plants from both the agricultural and World War II eras would be retained and managed as landscape features. A barracks and a guard tower would be reconstructed to enhance interpretation of the relocation center experience.

The plan calls for expanding the current authorized boundary of the national historic site to include approximately 800 acres. The expanded boundary, for which legislation is pending, would encompass historic resources associated with the relocation center and other historic eras at the site.

Visitors would be served by converting the extant relocation center auditorium into an interpretive center and visitor contact facility. Barracks blocks and significant structures throughout the site would be marked to demonstrate the relocation center layout. A shuttle system would provide visitor access and interpretive tours during periods of high public visitation. National Park Service support would be provided for the annual Manzanar pilgrimage, which would continue to occur in the vicinity of the cemetery.

The no-action alternative would continue the current minimal National Park Service capability at the site, consisting of one staff person, to promote resource protection and visitor services on a voluntary basis. Cultural resource quality would continue to decline as a result of the natural forces of erosion and weathering as well as vandalism.

The minimum requirements alternative would be similar to the proposed action in providing resource management and protection and restoration of essential elements of the cultural landscape. The auditorium would be converted to an interpretive center, and wayside exhibits would be provided at outlying areas. This alternative, however, would not include boundary expansion, a shuttle system, or reconstruction of barracks or guard tower structures.

Several alternatives were discussed during the planning process, but were rejected for various reasons. The concept of calling for major boundary expansion was rejected because this would be beyond the scope of legislative intent and because public ownership of surrounding lands may make it possible to protect the historic scene and significant extant resources through cooperative efforts . Extensive reconstruction of relocation center structures was rejected because of adverse visual impacts, high costs, and conflicts with National Park Service historic preservation policy Use of portions of the site for recreation and campgrounds was rejected because such activities would conflict with the primary historical purpose of the site. A proposal for erection of a large ceramic mural, memorializing the panorama of Japanese American history. was rejected because of conflicts with the site's purpose as well as adverse visual quality impacts. [77]