WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- [Narrator] It would be
so hard to go back home

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after everything happened and try

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to just live your life normally.

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I think that's partially why my family

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just chose not to really talk about it.

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They just wanted to
leave it all in the past.

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(emotional music)

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- During World War II
Manzanar was an American

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incarceration camp in which
Japanese Americans were

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held against their will in
the name of national security.

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- I want to go to Manzanar
because I don't think

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I know my own history that well.

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Both of my grandparents were held

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in camps when they were children.

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- My family didn't really
talk about it growing up.

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Whenever I'd ask about
it like my grandparents

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were too young to remember
and they said that

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they never talked about
it with their parents.

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- My family was actually not in the camps.

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It was more like just remember,
this is also something

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that happened here in
California which I am born

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and raised in California.

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- I want to come out of this you know

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more knowledgeable but also
I want to come out of this

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with a greater understanding
of what happened.

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I want to understand what it felt like

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and understand what
they had to go through.

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- Something like the story of the camps,

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like visiting the camps, being there,

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talking to people about
it like amongst ourselves

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as Japanese Americans,
understanding our own story,

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is so key 'cause we're
not going to be able

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to move forward if we don't
know where we came from.

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- When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,

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our west coast became a
potential combat zone.

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Living in that zone are
more than 100,000 persons

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of Japanese ancestry.

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Military authorities therefore determined

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that all of them, citizens and aliens

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alike would have to move.

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The evacuees cooperated wholeheartedly.

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The many loyal among
them felt that this was

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a sacrifice they could make

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in behalf of America's war effort.

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(gentle guitar music)

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- The air felt clean, but also like

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you're in the middle of nowhere.

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Like almost like placelessness.

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- It's very hot.
- It's a little hot.

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All things considered here.

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- This amazing amazing
ranger comes to meet us,

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and she ushers us over to the barracks.

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- A lot of Manzanar is gone, so most of

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the original buildings are gone.

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Manzanar wouldn't even
be here for us to visit

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if it weren't for the
efforts of Japanese Americans

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who made the pilgrimage back to the site

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and then who successfully
lobbied the government

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to preserve it.

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- These barracks have been
rebuilt in the same spot

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that the ones were during World War II.

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The barracks here were
100 feet by 20 feet.

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When you got here.

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- Their immediate reaction
is this is too nice.

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- There's just like bunch of Japanese

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slash Japanese Americans that were

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squished into a very small space.

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I can't imagine.

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- Not comfortable.

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When they came here,
how long were they told

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they were going to be staying?

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- That must be tough to not be able

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to tell your kids how long
they have to expect to stay.

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- I just kept thinking
about the first night.

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Imagine the first night
walking into this barrack.

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Imagine the first night with your suitcase

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just like unpacked at
the foot of your bed,

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unsure how long you're gonna be there.

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- We went outside, and
while we were on the grounds

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we did notice that there
were like basketball courts.

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- This basketball court has been redone,

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but it is historically correct.

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- Seeing the basketball hoops there

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just proves that despite all the injustice

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and things that were
being placed upon them,

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they didn't let it break their spirit.

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Ball was still life, which
is like super dope to me.

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- We went into the visitor's center

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and that was really fascinating obviously

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seeing like all the
propaganda from the time.

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- It was from a nationally
syndicated columnist

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who said "herd 'em up, pack 'em off

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"and give 'em the inside
room in the Badlands.

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"Let 'em be pinched, hurt,
hungry and dead up against it.

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"Personally I hate the Japanese,

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"and that goes for all of 'em."

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- The ranger took out these family records

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for those of us who had families
that were put in the camps.

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- [Woman] Oh that's so cool.

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- This list where the family's from,

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part of California, and this list

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where they're heading to where after

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they leave camp, where they're going.

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And if you look at, this is all my family.

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Chicago, Illinois, Chicago,
Illinois, Chicago Illinois.

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I mean they made it there
because that's where I'm from.

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- Seeing it on paper and
seeing like the actual record,

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like that's like a piece of my family's

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history right there you know?

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Like an artifact.

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- Sean, I found both your
grandparents block addresses

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which if we want to try and go see them,

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I would probably have
better luck than you did.

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- [Woman] So block five is?

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- Is the one where Paul was, yeah.

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- [Woman] And Paul is Sean,
Paul is your grandfather?

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(emotional music)

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This is where my grandpa's barrack was.

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So yeah.

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- [Woman] And now you're here.

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- Now I'm here.

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- They hadn't excavated the
site, so our park ranger

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told us that the plate had probably been

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at that barrack site for over 70 years.

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- We're gonna put it back.

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- [Patricia] Yes.

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The morning before we went to Manzanar

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was the first time that my
grandfather forgot my name,

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and so to be at Manzanar the next day

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and to see his barrack, I think for me

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it was like survivors of the camps

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can't be the only ones telling the story

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because they're fading,
but for us to make sure

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that the lessons continue, we have to keep

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going back to the camps whether
literally or figuratively,

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'cause there's so much to learn.

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- It looks like...

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- This is definitely, I told
you it was a sewer pipe!

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- 'Cause the diameter's
too big, so water coming in

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has to be in pressure, so
you get those smaller lines.

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- I am probably holding a sewage pipe.

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(gentle guitar music)

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- We went to the cemetery,
and that was just

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very like peaceful and serene.

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- It's just covered in these
like colorful origami cranes,

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and there is this like windstorm blowing

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and it was like blowing the cranes.

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- The whole thing in general was actually

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a lot more emotional for me
than I thought it would be.

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I thought I would see it, you know,

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from like a historical perspective.

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I didn't expect it to
affect me like it did.

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- When you learn something about a tragedy

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the next step is sort of like

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oh, what work can be done in order

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to apply the lessons from camp?

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- And there's like this real danger

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that this same rhetoric
is going to get out there

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and that people are going to be

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arbitrarily sent off for no reason.

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- Just imagine someone just telling you

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to pack your bag and leave right now.

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- And it's nobody's duty
to read every textbook

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and take every Asian
American studies course

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and learn everything, just showing up

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it's not like saving the world,

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but I think that it's, by knowing more

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and by learning more
and by gaining knowledge

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and building a perspective,
we're ultimately

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contributing to a larger consciousness.

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(gentle guitar music)