Nikkei Manzanar Trip

Hey hey hey!

Now that CN is done, we can finally reflect back on...


Manzanar!!!



So long ago (as in a couple months ago) USC Nikkei went on its biennial (I actually had to look this up) trip to Manzanar. For those of you who don't know what Manzanar is, it was one of the internment camps that housed Japanese Americans during World War II. With a great speech from Mr. George Takei earlier on in the week (see previous entry) our Nikkei members were eager to go to the actual site. Little did they know (including me) that they were in for the experience of their lives.

After an entertaining 3.5 hr drive and a short night's rest, the group woke up early in the morning to go off to the campsite. We started off by going to the visitor center and watching a documentary about internment (which in my view was missing quite a bit of information) followed by a short (but what felt like forever) introduction given from one of the staff. We then briefly glanced at the rest of the exhibit and then we were off to the cleaning sites. The site we were cleaning was the judo dojo. The site had never been cleaned and quite honestly, I couldn't tell that anything was there at first.

As you can see there were a lot of dry shrubs that were infesting the area. I mean after all, it hadn't been touched since the 1950's. The cleaning process seemed overwhelming at first because the shrubs were firmly rooted to the ground. I wondered how much difference a few hours was actually going to make, but after those few hours of battling against the shrubs with shovels, picks and of course bare hands, it was amazing to see how much change there was. Everyone definitely felt a sense of accomplishment and at the same time a special bond to the internment camp by doing this service project.


Of course our hard work showed in other forms too (as in a lot of scratches)


but nonetheless it was definitely a new and worthwhile experience. I often hear how people aren't motivated to go to these trips because it looks boring or it takes up too much time. The fact is we also had people who initially thought that who actually went on our trip too, but each and every one of them were glad that they went and recommends it to everyone especially if you've never gone before.

I hope that in the future, we have more people who will come with us and experience the cultural and historical value of the internment camp and gain some insight to the JA history.


-Mario