Licensing

Manzanar 2009

Every year the UCLA Nikkei Student Union goes to Manzanar, one of the two concentration camp sites in California. This year NSU decided to make 1000 cranes to contribute to Manzanar in memory of those who were interned there. Before I went on this pilgrimage I never realized the scale of Japanese Americans who lived in California, or the experiences of those who had been interned.

Manzanar is located in the Owens Valley and was one of 10 relocation sites during World War II. One of the most memorable parts of this pilgrimage was "Manzanar at Dusk," where we would get in small groups to have the opportunity to hear directly about the experiences of former internees first-hand, to share their experiences and feelings about what they learned, and talk about the relevance of what happened at Manzanar to their own lives.