While driving north in the Owens Valley to my starting place at June Lake, I decided to stop where the Japanese stopped during WWII. Manzanar, just north of Lone Pine is where they were hauled and deposited for the war’s duration. Today I toured the remains of their internment camp and tried to relate to how an innocent prisoner feels.
Not much is left of Manzanar. A few rocks from their gardens, a few foundations of their crowded block houses. A few trees were there before Manzanar, and a few have returned. It’s a lovely place today, peaceful, a place to set up camp and ponder the world before humans arrived.
Only the rocks remain from their gardens, placed as if they had always been there. The plants set in proportion to nature, perhaps in proportion to the mountains that stand behind—these are gone. The trees that must have been there, as trees are in every Japanese garden, trees pruned for exactly pleasant appeal—only the native cottonwoods remain. And the paths, designed for arriving at small viewing places, where the visitor is encouraged to stop and take in the wholeness of the garden around—these you can see in some places, but the wholeness is gone.
The Guard Tower is probably reconstructed; it is the same, says the same even without the “Americans” perched there to prevent any escape.
A storm come over the mountains today, bringing lightning and rain over Manzanar, like exploding bombs of war and the flash of gunfire.
Mt. Whitney from nearby Lone Pine
The pictures of Mt Whitney and the Sierra range are spectacular. How we miss those 395 drives each summer heading to the take off point for the next backpack. So many great memories.
ReplyDeleteWe stopped at Manzanar this last time we drove up there. The national park department did a good thing to set it aside for visits. Our Quaker Uncle Herbert made countless trips there during the war years to help those interned.
Voyager Carol
Dramatic and wonderful photos... you are off into another world again... we missed you at the red round table, but you were here... with your smiling words to us... thank you for visiting Manzanar... the desertion of it the scattered garden stone arrangements that we know artists now fill with the life of the imagination... It is just that imagination that turns the deserted place into an oasis that gives us poets and artists the power and insight to transform life with wonder, even in the worst of circumstances...
ReplyDeleteYes, Carol, The Sierras remain beautiful, as they were before Manzanar, and were during it. I wonder if the captives there looked to the hills for strength.
ReplyDeleteKathabela, I can almost see the elegant and well-proportioned Japanese gardens where only those stones remain. I can almost feel the spirit of coming in touch with beauty that their imaginations put into form even while in captivity. The sense of freedom it might have brought.
Already you are sending beautiful photos. You are so fortunate to have the clouds and the perfect lighting for these spectacular pics!! Been to Manzanar on many past trips to Mammoth. Many losses for those Japanese Americans. We continue to live in a world full of fear and paranoia depending on who we are at war with. Sad that liberty and justice is not for all........until proven guilty. Justice comes, but a little too late to be realized.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing about the fear based conservative mentality is how things like this can happen and be accepted as "normal," only to have regrets later. Why is it that we must endure backward behavior generation after generation? And then someday people will all say how unevolved we were in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about progressives through the centuries who already knew what we know, but no one would listen to them. Their names are forgotten, but the warmongers are remembered.
Steven, you have come to the right person. I have all the answers for your questions and quandaries.
ReplyDelete1. Go to the wilderness for six days where there are no Manzanars and no warmongers.
2. Go to the hottest place you can find and bake there until all such notions are boiled out of you.
3. Go to Pakistan and try to tell kids there that peaceful settlements really are better in spite of their teachings.
Gail, I wish to say that I find little justice anywhere. There is only love and hate and greed and giving.
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI love that you went to Manzanar, and I have been reading your other blog posts as well. I have been having a hard time logging in as myself and then trying to write a comment. I think I now figured it out. Good luck on your big adventure, I look forward to hearing about it on the other side.
All the best,
Michael