Manzanar War Relocation Center

Manzanar War Relocation Center, originally uploaded by rob-gizzy.

After driving through Death Valley we stopped at Manzanar, here is some additional information of the Historic Site:

During WWII, 120,000 Japanese Americans were transported to different 'War Relocation Centers" due to fear of espionage by Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. Manzanar was one of these "centers" (read: camps) which held 10,000 people against their will. No Japanese American was ever charged with espionage. It was only in 1988 (a mere 43 years later) that an official apology was given by President Reagan a payment was made of $20,000 to those who were detained. The strange thing is, they had schools - and graduation, baseball, cheerleaders - basically everything you expect from an American school. The only difference was they were surrounded by barbed wire and couldn't get out.