Name/Title
DocumentEntry/Object ID
1994.80.189.33Description
Handwritten document containing excerpts from Our World 1943-1944 (the Manzanar High School yearbook) and the Manzanar Free Press, September 1943.
Then...
We take pride in all that our community life has come to mean. It its growth, Manzanar has become a combination of all the worthwhile elements of modern city life while maintaining its rural location. In one year's time there have sprung into being farms, workshops, schools, churches, and gardens which plays an important part in creating this new home of the people of Manzanar from the raw lands of the desert. Its foundation in an abandoned apple and pear orchard, Manzanar has become one of the largest cities in the valley. Approximately 10,000 residents were housed in the 36 blocks of barracks covering nearly one square mile. The triumph of Manzanar is not in the things that have been created, it is in the spirit of the self-sacrificing and determined people who have been tested by the winds of winter, by the heat of summer, by the loss of their homes and by the uncertainties of the future. Those who have met the test and have won the fight to make a happier home here can always win any fight against adversity and uncertainty. When Manzanar is again a desert, it will be said here people of Japanese ancestry proved their pioneering spirit and from here many thousands went out to join other pioneering people to build better homes and a stronger America. --Ralph P. Merritt, Project DirectorCollection
Shiro and Mary Nomura Collection