Manzanar

I noted with great interest and happiness the fine and thoughtful efforts of a group of Boy Scouts (Troop 99 of the Las Colinas District of the Western Area Council in Northridge), led by prospective Eagle Scout John Cox, his parents, and National Park Service employees and others to repair and clear Manzanar Relocation Center, including the two guardhouses, during the Memorial Day holiday (May 25).

I wish to add my thanks and appreciation for their project in maintaining the remnants of the center for the future. Manzanar once housed approximately 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, young and old, men, women, children and babies within one square mile in Owens Valley.

I entered Manzanar Center on March 21, 1942, with Dr. James M. Goto and Fumiko Gohata, a nurse, to establish the medical and health services. We three were probably the first persons of Japanese ancestry to set foot in Manzanar to prepare for the flood of evacuees.

My duties and responsibilities were as the administrator of the 250-bed medical and health facility.

While the hardships, suffering, heartaches and loss of property, professions, farming equipment and homes devastated the economic foundation of our lives, all of us were at that time and always have been loyal to the United States. We still love our country, perhaps more so than before, for long ago we have all forgiven those who caused this upheaval during World War II. We have tried to re-establish our lives since.

FRANK F. CHUMAN

Los Angeles

The writer is author of “The Bamboo People: The History of Japanese Americans From 1868 to 1976. “