The Manzanar National Historic Site, in Independence, California, is located east of Sequoia National Park, approximately two hours south of Mammoth Mountain on US Highway 395. Mazanar was the largest of ten camps in the United States used by the government in 1942 for the relocation of Japanese American citizens and Japanese resident aliens. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, more than 120,000 men, women and children were forced to leave their homes and were interned in remote, military camps around the country. About 10,000 Japanese Americans were sent to the beautiful but desolate California wilderness of Manzanar. The 6,200 acre camp is the only relocation center that's been preserved and developed for visitors and serves as a reminder of a bleak period in the history of civil liberties in the U.S. For years after WW II, Manzanar was a barren stretch of dessert marked with a small monument, a few graves and a dirt road. A visitor's center was built to chronicle the Japanese American experience with exhibits, photographs and an extensive library. The Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center is housed in a former camp auditorium built by internees in 1944. One of the few remaining buildings on the site, the auditorium is now an 8,000 square foot museum where the history of the camp can be been preserved for future generations. There are two movie theaters featuring documentary films narrated by former camp residents, guards and government workers. A Japanese garden built by internees managed to survive to this day and is one of the most often visited areas on the site. An original guard tower stands at the entryway, but most of the camp's living barracks, schools, and mess halls were dismantled, carted away and sold in the 1950s. Two of 800 original building are in various stages of restoration by the National Park Service.
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