Manzanar National Historic Site Patch

Fear and prejudice reared their ugly heads in America after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Located in California’s remote, wind-swept Owens Valley, Manzanar was one of 10 U.S. concentration camps where more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated by a government that believed they posed a wartime threat. The once-sprawling facility’s remnant and replica structures and an excellent visitor center offer insights into a time when America wrongfully imprisoned its own.