11/02/2026
History isn’t just something we read about — it’s a reminder of the mistakes we’ve made. Along Highway 395, about 200 miles from Los Angeles (and roughly 300 from Sacramento), sit the remains of one of those mistakes. It’s deceptively — almost intentionally — easy to miss, marked by only a single modest sign before the freeway exit.
The Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of two Japanese American incarceration (concentration) camps in California (ten nationwide) during World War II. Though considered one of the smaller sites, Manzanar still held more than 10,000 Japanese Americans at its peak. Within its barbed-wire boundaries stood a jail, schoolhouses, a baseball field, housing blocks, a hospital, and multiple guard towers.
When the camp closed in 1945, it faded quickly and quietly into the landscape, leaving behind concrete foundations, two guard posts, an auditorium, and a cemetery. Today, a handful of reconstructed buildings — created by the National Park Service — stand as a reminder of this darker chapter in our history, urging us to learn, reflect, and say with conviction: Never again.
