- State: CA
- NPCA Region: Pacific
- Est. Date: 1992
Air Quality Conditions
View the Polluted Parks ReportVisibility
Unsatisfactory
Health
Significant Concern
Nature
Significant Concern
Climate Change Threats
Manzanar preserves one of the sites where the U.S. government incarcerated innocent civilians during World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, giving U.S. armed forces broad powers to incarcerate anyone in the name of military defense. The government overwhelmingly used this power to imprison Japanese and Japanese Americans for having “foreign enemy ancestry.” Ultimately, the military kept 120,000 people under armed guard, mostly in isolated areas of the West, forcing them to leave their homes, businesses, possessions and normal lives behind for the duration of the war. Visitors to Manzanar today can imagine what life was like behind the barbed wire fences of an incarceration camp during this dark period of America’s history.
More about Manzanar
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Read more about Reflecting on the Past
Video Reflecting on the Past As NPCA celebrates our 99th birthday this month, we've been looking back at the role we've played in preserving some of America's most important places.
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Read more about A Glimpse into a Dark Part of America’s History
Blog Post A Glimpse into a Dark Part of America’s History A traveling park lover takes his mom into a windy desert landscape to try to imagine what life was like behind the barbed wire fences of a war relocation center more than 70 years ago.
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Read more about Sand & Castles
Magazine Article Sand & Castles Death Valley comes to life in the middle of a California winter.
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Read more about The Legacy of Fred Korematsu
Blog Post The Legacy of Fred Korematsu He fought against his forced imprisonment, all the way to the Supreme Court. Today, the National Park Service helps interpret the dark history behind World War II incarceration camps.
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Read more about The Art of Gaman
Magazine Article The Art of Gaman Bearing the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.
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