drove yesterday to the pilgrimage at manzanar. quick summary for those that don't know about this place. during world war 2, america locked up people of japanese descent in most states. they rounded them up into camps. manzanar was one of those camps. others were placed there too but mostly japanese-americans. (there were non-japanese-americans there as well as japanese-latin americans from various countries.) there has been a pilgrimage to visit the site for 40 years now. since 9/11, muslim attendees have greatly increased. in fact, when 9/11 happened, that's the first thing i thought of and prayed that america would not repeat history and lock people up en masse for simply being of a certain background.

black and white makes it feel like you were there when it happened

i didn't do the actual driving. i offered. i went with 2 others. we're all japanese-americans, but of different generations. i don't believe that any of us have relatives that were interned. for 2 of us, it's because our families came to america many years after that happened. so we on one hand feel a connection but on the other hand can't relate to the internment camps as we have no personal ties.

ireitou cenotaph

manzanar is desolate. nearby is a small town. the camp site has very little there. they've had to rebuild a building so you can get a sense of what it was like and they want to rebuild more. there is a museum and store. the museum is pretty good, at least much better than i expected it to be. i can't imagine being forced to live there for 3 years. it was cold. usually it's hot but it's also known for being cold. in the distance were beautiful mountains. really fucking gorgeous snow-capped mountains. it made me want to go camping and hiking and all that. i can't imagine living in a desolate place, dusty, your life taken away, and nature in the distance looking so beautiful and teasing you. again, i had a great time taking photos in black and white as it erases the notion of time, erases the notion of the present. it puts things in the past. it also removes the beauty of color and makes you appreciate the beauty of light and shadow.

guns at the guard towers pointed inside the camp

we spent a long time at manzanar. much more than i thought we would. we even stayed for the after dark program at the local high school. it kind of sucked. we had to break into groups and my group really sucked. these were led by ucla students and i have to say that the last time i was at a japanese-american event, the ucla student asked the dumbest question. i'm really starting to wonder about ucla students. after that, we went home. the drive is like 3.5 hours. nearby on the map i could see there was a lake but in person it just seemed like some stephen king mystery fog emanating in the distance with no sign of actual water. that was my day yesterday. today is still unknown.