188th at Desert Rock, Nevada / Manzanar Relocation Center
One last mention of the 188th Regiment/11th Airborne Division at Desert Rock – at least for now…. 🙂
I located this newsletter from the National Association of Atomic Veterans, Inc., published in 2013. It might better answer many of the questions some of the readers had from the previous posts.
Click to access 2013_03_NAAV_Newsletter.pdf
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Manzanar Relocation Center – east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Manzanar covered an impressive 540 acres of land in Owens Valley. Yet the desert was not a welcome home for most of the camp’s internees. The arid landscape made for blistering hot summers and harsh, cold winters.
While some large-scale farming helped keep the concentration camp self-sufficient, most of the internees were forced to hold industrial jobs at the camp’s garment and mattress factories. Wages for their work often topped out at less than 20 dollars a month.
Though it was surrounded by barbed wire and a series of guard towers, Manzanar comprised a variety of buildings, including churches, shops, a hospital, a post office, and an auditorium for schooling. Men and women shared bathrooms and bathing facilities, and living assignments were frequently random, meaning that a woman might be assigned to live with a man other than her husband. All in all, mess halls and residences were crowded and sparse.
Manzanar and the other internment camps closed after World War II, but many of the internees had nowhere to go. While the economic impact of their imprisonment was devastating, the social and cultural implications were likewise detrimental.
It wasn’t until 1988 that the U.S. federal government provided redress to these citizens, and offered each survivor $20,000. In 1992, Manzanar Relocation Center was declared a National Historic Site. President Bush offered a formal apology the following year.
During the camp’s four years of existence, photographers were invited there to capture what daily life was like for the relocated citizens. Famed photographer Ansel Adams was one of just a few individuals to photograph the internees, though censorship no-doubt shaped his photos. Still, the images above provide a small glimpse at what life was like in the concentration camps.
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Military Humor –
Click on images to enlarge.
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Farewell Salutes –
Emery Arsenault – Dennisport, CT; US Army, WWII, PTO
James Ayala (100) – Ellsworth, KS; US Army, WWII, ETO, tank gunner, 2 Bronze Stars
Lawrence Bunts – Nampa, ID; USMC, WWII, PTO
James J. Cansler – Bolivar, MO; US Army, WWII, ETO, Co. C/1/28/8th Infantry Division, KIA (Germany)
Gordon Duggan Sr. – Enfield, CT; US Coast Guard, WWII, USS Glendale
John “Red” Gartner – Omaha, NE; US Navy, WWII, CBI, submarine tender USS Beaver
William Myers – Munday, TX; US Army, WWII, ETO,23rd HQ “Ghost Army”
Joseph Pelliccio – Bayonne, NJ; US Navy, WWII, USS Iowa / Korea, USS New Jersey
Charles “John Boy” Smith – Auckland, NZ; RNZ Air Force & Navy, # 4312868
Rosalind P. Walter – NYC, NY; Civilian, Corsair aircraft riveter.
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Posted on March 9, 2020, in Home Front, Post WWII, Uncategorized, WWII and tagged 11th airborne, 188th Regiment, 1940's, Airborne, Army, History, Home Front, Manzanar, Military, Military History, nostalgia, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 100 Comments.
The past will never be forgotten gp, as long as those who remember are still alive, some great yet sad memories must be still haunting many families history to this day.
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I’m sure it must be. I’ve often wondered if their children were affected by the radiation that hit their fathers.
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My goodness! Those troops were there an hour after the blast? Knowing now how serious it really was, made this sad to watch. Thank you, GP.
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Yes, I can’t imagine what they were thinking.
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Exactly!
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It’s a humbling thing to visit Manzanar, which I’ve done more than once, both in freezing cold and broiling summer heat. A genuinely harsh environment, set against a stunningly beautiful view of the Sierras. The drive up US Route 395 through the Owens Valley is one of the most memorable trips one can make in the U.S. One should stop at Manzanar, even if only for a few minutes, and bring to mind what happened there.
Two miles from me here, south of Los Angeles, are nature preserves with trails that overlook the Pacific, out toward Santa Catalina Island. Before the war, those lands were family farms, almost all owned by Americans of Japanese descent. Lands seized by the U.S., citizens sent to Manzanar and other camps. Manzanar’s essentially the only one of the camp sites you can tour.
One can draw one’s own conclusion as one stands there, but it’s worth thinking about. Thanks, GP. Carry on.
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Thank you for relating your experience out there. I appreciate you taking the time.
I am unable to open the link you enclosed though.
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GP, I don’t think WordPress likes links within comments. No worries. Just take care of everyone there, and we’ll go on. Always happy to hear from you.
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Be safe.
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Gen. Swift sure looked a little gimpy getting off that transport! 🙂
This is the very first time I watched the entire newsreel of this event. I had only seen snippets (and of those, many times over) from this newsreel and was fascinated by the preparations and logistics. I wonder if any of those participants showed signs of radiation exposure later in their lives.
As you know, all of my Hiroshima cousins were exposed to the blast in ’45 and all had been soaked in black rain; when you see the troops seven miles away in the newsreel and while this blast was many times larger, my cousins were all within a mile of the blast albeit somewhat shielded by Mt. Suzugamine.
It was peculiar to me listening to the narrator describe the conditions at Manzanar considering part of my family were “incarcerated” there. I noticed your mentioning Ansel Adams. There was a first generation photographer there called Toyo Miyatake who had a photo studio in Los Angeles before Pearl Harbor. Toyo was the man who brought in a camera lens then secretly built camera around it with scrap wood from when the barracks were built. He secretly took photos but since he was friends with Ansel Adams, Adams convinced the camp commandant to allow him to take photos openly later on.
Toyo’s grandson, Alan Miyatake, took my first two (ahem) wedding photos as well as my oldest daughter’s wedding. https://p47koji.com/2013/01/28/the-photographer-for-my-daughters-wedding/
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Thanks for the info here and for the reminder. It was great seeing your family pictures again. If you had told me before that Miyatake was friends with Adams, I’m afraid I’d forgotten. So thank you for that as well! You’ve always been a great friend, Koji.
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Looking at Adams’s photos, I couldn’t get over the contrast between the beautiful land and the activities taking place there. I’m glad that the place has been preserved, and that it can help us hold on to pieces of our history many would rather erase.
And did I enjoy that Redneck poster? Why, of course I did!
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You know how to make me smile, Linda!
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Hey I love this face it looks funny
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I found the article very interesting but I do think that talk of “concentration camps” and “survivors” is very misleading.
The Americans were well known among German military POWs for the civilised POW camps that they ran, and such people would not have had it in them to run a real concentration camp like Belsen or Dachau.
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The main thing is with the Japanese, they were American citizens; they had their homes and property taken from them and then released without so much as an apology.
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Calling them concentration camps is accurate, though. Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, was quoted in the Washington Evening Star on September 23, 1946 saying, “As a member of President Roosevelt’s administration, I saw the United States Army give way to mass hysteria over the Japanese…Crowded into cars like cattle, these hapless people were hurried away to hastily constructed and thoroughly inadequate concentration camps, with soldiers with nervous muskets on guard, in the great American desert. We gave the fancy name of ‘relocation centers’ to these dust bowls, but they were concentration camps nonetheless.”
Definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concentration%20camp
Interesting article on the word choice: https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2012/02/10/146691773/euphemisms-concentration-camps-and-the-japanese-internment
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Two crazy things the US did to Americans in the desert during the 40s…
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That’s why I paired the two sections on one post. Thanks.
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I definitely see why you posted it one post
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Thank you, GP! Great to know, all these things. Best wishes, Michael
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Much appreciated, Michael!!
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Thank you, my friend. Have a secure stay, away from the viruses. Michael
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I’m trying!! With the chaos my sinuses cause though, I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell if I ever have it!! 🙂
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I am sorry for this, GP. You will overcome. Best wishes, Michael
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I’m not sure how, but I have been a survivor.
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I know it is controversial and I won’t offer an opinion, but the first thing that came to my mind as I read the account of the camp was the plight of the migrants on the Mexican border and how the children and the parents are sometimes separated.
“……..a woman might be assigned to live with a man other than her husband…..”
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The illegal Mexicans have swarmed to the border on their own, the Japanese-American citizens did not ask for this.
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I wasn’t actually offering an opinion. It is just that that is what came to my mind.
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Understood.
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The government’s treatment of the people involved in these tests is very disturbing to me.
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It is to everyone, but back then they didn’t know as much as we do now. Actually, we are aware now Because of the tests from back then.
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I visited the Manzanar site many times when I went fishing in the Sierras as a young man. As sad as it was, I personally don’t see that we had much of a choice so many years ago. Remember times have changed and back then we had no real way to vet “Good Japanese” from “Bad Japanese.” In any event, we cannot revise history to make us feel good.
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No, there is no revising or erasing of history – I wish a lot of people bent on altering the Civil War would get that!!
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Amen!
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Reblogged this on John Cowgill's Literature Site.
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Much appreciated, John.
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I enjoy the stories.
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I’m very happy you do!
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Definitely worth a visit, G. They have done a good job with the museum in capturing a feel for the times. –Curt
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Thanks for the input, Curt. I’ll keep it in mind.
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Oh well. Aside from being in the harsh environment of desert the mountain backdrop is beautiful. Abseil Adams truly was an artist.
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I agree. This is a beautiful country, despite what we do to it.
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No idea how autocorrect made abseil out of Ansel
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No problem, I knew who you meant.
This is the one with a problem…..
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I just read the memoir “Farewell to Manzanar” not long ago, it was very good. I recommend it if you haven’t read it already! 🙂
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Yes, I have. It’s very moving (to say the least). Thanks for bringing it up though, the other readers should include it for themselves.
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I think there was a TV show or movie made of it? I haven’t managed to see that but wouldn’t mind giving it a look see! Plus a number of videos on YouTube.
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There was a TV movie made back in the 1970’s called “Farewell to Manzanar”.
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Thank you for adding “Rosie” to the farewell salutes.
I’m so amazed by, and I so admire, the women of her generation. They deserve to be honored and remembered.
(((HUGS)))
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Yes, they do. I find it very hard to believe we could have won without them!!
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Reblogged this on Dave Loves History.
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Much appreciated, Dave.
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I had no idea Ansel Adams did any kind of military life photography. How sad for the folks that had to live there and that it took so long to re re-compensated so little.
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I was surprised by The photos being from Adams myself. FDR’s Executive Order was illegal, but powerful friends and politics can be a huge influence on a decision – only innocent people paid a hefty price.
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A picture worth a thousand words. Those Ansel Adams photos show how extensive the place was and looked sustainable with farming and community life. With coronavirus running wild, maybe we need something like that to contain the disease.
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You never know, Rose.
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A ton of information, GP. Thanks for the slide show and the photos. The newsletter was informative.
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Thank you for reading it, John. A few words from them covers a whole lot.
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So true, GP
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I like the Warning sign
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You and me both, Henry!! haha I’m tired of people spending their days (and internet space) doing nothing but complaining.
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That was interesting.
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Thank you, Jacqui.
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Mankind really has become too clever for its own good
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True. My old stand-by line is coming in handy more and more: “Some people become far more educated than their intelligence.”
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Indeed
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The late Southern comedian Jerry Clower used a line similar to that. 👍
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He was a smart man! 🙂 I know I get strange looks sometimes when I say it, I wonder how many of his audience actually ‘got’ what he meant by it……..
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Sad but significant moments in our history. As we all know, everything was not peaches and cream during World War II; part of the condition of being “human,” I guess.
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As horrible as it might have been, I still hear people say it was the best time of their lives.
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I love your toons for this post👍😁
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Privates love to make cartoons about their sergeants – can you tell? lol
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It reminded me of the choice comments my husband and his fellow Navy buddies had to make about some of their Chief Petty Officers.
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I’ll bet I’d get a kick out of them too!! 🙂
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Yes, although some were kinda mean.
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The guys get “tough love” so that survive whatever is thrown at them – it sure doesn’t make them ready for Sgt. Congeniality awards. 🙂
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Their only way to get back at authority that belittles then haha!
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The Sgt.’s either toughen them up or they won’t survive!!
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True that!
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Redneck territory doesn’t sound as bad as atomic veterans. 🙏🤕
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haha, There isn’t any way I would want to be an atomic veteran!!
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🙏🤕
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I have done a couple projects for the NPS at Manzanar and Minidoka. It’s so important that we remember what our government did to it’s own citizens.
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FDR was influenced by his friends in CA who wanted the farm land, his executive order was totally illegal.
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Interesting info in the newsletter and I enjoyed reading about Manzanar. Funny that the Americans of Japanese descent in Hawaii were not forced to move but those on the West Coast were shipped off to internment camps and their property bought up at discount rates by neighbors.
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HI started to incarcerate, but they realized half the population would be in camps if they did. They chose to make the camps and bases more secure.
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PS. a lot of the Japanese relocation in CA was political and merely for controlling the property rights.
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I had no idea the camp was so isolated and large. I always assume they were close to where the people had been living. I’ll have to catch the video later.
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If they had to do it, thank goodness it wasn’t near other people.
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Haha loving that warning sign 😀
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A lot of good it did! 🙂
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Wonder how many felt like relocated “citizens”.
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I would venture to say most of them did.
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The photographs show a different aspect of Ansel Adams’ artistic eye.
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I was definitely taken by surprise when I first saw the pictures were from him!!
You have a good post today, Swabby!! (But then again, you always do!)
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Yes. I associate Adams with landscapes like the Sierra Nevadas, Yosemite, etc.
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Me as well.
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That Atomic Association is a powerful reminder of that period of testing. And the photos serve to remind us of how so many people were treated after Pearl Harbour.
Good cartoons too, GP. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks for all the kudos here, Pete!
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