The Region - News from April 28, 1986

Three hundred people gathered in the wind-swept high desert, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, to remember the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans at Manzanar, the site of the first of 10 relocation camps that were set up in the West. The 17th annual pilgrimage up U.S. 395 drew a mix of people, mostly Japanese-Americans, but also a group of teachers who went to learn about the camp that once held 10,000 people. In a simple ceremony, a bronze plaque designating the lonely spot beneath the snow-capped eastern Sierra as a national historic landmark was unveiled on a boulder at the entrance to the camp, of which only an auditorium and a graveyard remain. The plaque simply states: “This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.” There were also speeches, a pot-luck lunch and a Buddhist and Christian religious service.