LOS ANGELES, CA – The 37th annual Pilgrimage to Manzanar will be held on Saturday, April 29, 2006, the Manzanar Committee announced this week. This year’s program, with the theme “Footsteps in the Hallway: The Effect of Internment on America’s Youth,” will focus on the effect of internment on America’s schools and their students.

Individuals of non-Japanese descent who were from schools where Japanese American students left for internment are encouraged to submit a written account of their experience during that time to the Manzanar Committee, to be possibly shared at this year’s Pilgrimage. Submissions may to emailed to manzcomm@yahoo.com or mailed to the Manzanar Committee at P.O. Box 862368, Los Angeles, CA 90086. Please include contact information where the former student may be reached.

Manzanar is located approximately 200 miles north of Los Angeles on Highway 395. During World War II, it was a U.S. Government-run internment camp for 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. Eighty percent of the internees came from Los Angeles County.

Congress established Manzanar as a National Historic Site on February 19, 1992, the 50th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to remove 110,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast, two-thirds of whom were American citizens. Manzanar is now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, which has been restoring and maintaining the site since it was transferred in 1997 from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power, to the Department of the Interior.

The Manzanar Committee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that depends on community support to hold its yearly Pilgrimage. More information can be found at http://www.manzanarcommittee.org or by emailing manzcomm@yahoo.com or calling (626) 278-9944.