Manzanar National Historic Site

Walk Review

• Cassie and I walked from the visitor center to the cemetery and back.

• The walk cuts through the middle of Manzanar, instead of the driving path, with sticks to the perimeter. Though, if you want to see the reconstructed barracks and playground, it is basically on the same path as the auto tour.

• There were an absurd number of portable toilets available at the cemetery.

• There were many people at the visitor center as there was a book signing happening while we visited. At the cemetery though, it was pretty empty.

• The path is totally flat and the walk is easy. It is pretty exposed though, so I would recommend a hat and slathering on sunblock.

What I Learned

• The last time I had come here, everything was closed due to COVID. This time, I was able to walk through all the exhibits and learn more about what exactly had happened here. For some reason, the thing that made me choke up was the replica poster instructing all people of Japanese ancestry to report to a staging area to be forcibly relocated to one of these camps. It was just so unfair and so official.

• It was great to see that the exhibits included the protests that occurred after 9/11 when the U.S. Government instituted a program to register all males 16 years and older from 25 mostly Muslim countries. History repeats itself and we must not ignore hateful actions that are wrong because it only affects a small minority. It was wrong in 1941 and it was wrong in 2001.

What Happened?

2.5 miles, 57 mins, 129 ft of ascent

Cassie had never been to Manzanar, so we stopped by to learn about a darker part of U.S. history that isn’t talked about much.

We spent a long time in the visitor center before marching out on the trail to the cemetery and back. While the conditions were beautiful—with the majestic sierras clearly showing why they were named that—we also remembered how cold it was in the morning and how these barracks were constructed in such a way where wind and dust easily made their way into them.

This isn’t a happy place, but I do think it is important that we have places like this to remind us that we must be ever vigilant if we are to avoid making mistakes like this in the future.

After we made our way back to the parking lot, we cooked a delicious lunch, and headed to a mine that neither of us had been to before.