Church Record Sunday: Manzanar

Catholic Church, Manzanar by Ansel Adams. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/anseladams/aamsp.html

Today is the 70th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of Japanese American citizens. These American citizens were interned in camps across the West. One of these camps, Manzanar, located in the Eastern Sierra region of California near the city of Independence is now a National Historical Site.

For this Church Record Sunday, I am focusing on Manzanar because my book Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra has a chapter devoted to it, so I have a little more knowledge about it than the other camps. I had the opportunity to research the cemetery at Manzanar as well as meet several of the staff  who work at the site.

To learn more about the churches at Manzanar you can search the finding aid for the Manzanar collection at UCLA available online at  Online Archive of California. This finding aid also includes links to the Manzanar newspaper.

Celebrated photographer Ansel Adams in one of the photographers who took photos of Manzanar and those interned there. His collection is available online at the American Memory portion of the  Library of Congress website. This collection includes a photo of the Catholic church house at Manzanar (shown above) and the Buddhist church house.

For another depiction of  Christian religious life at Manzanar see this  short 3 minute film clip .  Books about Manzanar can be found on WorldCat.