Reflections at 40th Manzanar Pilgrimage
By Gwen Muranaka
Rafu English Editor in Chief
Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Young and old return to former internment camp site on 40th anniversary of Manzanar Pilgrimage.

Banners bearing the names of the 10 camps are presented for the roll call.

Manzanar National Historic Site Superintendent Les
Inafuku receives a sakaki branch to be offered during
the interfaith service.

Wakabayashi

Small groups gather for discussion during Manzanar After Dark at Lone Pine High School.

From left, Kerry Cababa of the Manzanar Committee, presents certificates of appreciation to David Nahai,
L.A. Department of Water and Power, former Manzanar Superintendent Tom Leatherman and Rev. Paul
Nakamura.

MANZANAR.—Forty years after a group of 100 to 200 went back to the desolate site of the Manzanar concentration camp, more than 2,000 returned to the desert on a windy, cool day to reflect on the Japanese American internment ex­perience and the lessons it continues to teach about racism and tolerance.

While the setting is the same, many of the faces have changed. Sue Kunitomi Embrey, the late leader of the Manzanar Com­mittee, was remembered in spirit and with a “Baka Guts” award in her name given to longtime vol­unteer Tak Yamamoto. Others who passed more recently were honored including James D. Houston, co-author of “Farewell to Manzanar,” and Mary Suzuki Ichino, who passed away in January, and was at the first pilgrimage.

Many of Embrey’s family con­tinue to remain active in the Man­zanar Committee, including her son Bruce Embrey and niece Kerry Ca­baba who are committee co-chairs. Monica Embrey, Sue’s granddaugh­ter, said her grandmother may not have imagined how the pilgrimage would evolve, along with the move­ment she led over the decades.

“For me what is so powerful is how multiracial and multiethnic it is. It really has turned into a con­versation about incarceration and racial discrimination in the United States,” Embrey said.

Les Inafuku, a Hawaii Sansei and the new superintendent of the Manzanar National Historic Site, greeted the pilgrims with a simple “Aloha.”

“The word means that I am giv­ing my breath, my breath of life. That’s what the Sierra Nevadas are doing now, they’re giving their breath,” said Inafuku. “The wind has always been a very important part of this valley. It has really helped shape this valley. This valley has continued to evolve over years and years... We don’t live static lives and this park shouldn’t be that way. Right now, you here are help­ing this park to evolve and form the new history of Manzanar.”

Thirteen buses brought partici­pants from Northern and Southern California. Among the schools joining the pilgrimage were Virgil Middle School of Los Angeles, Pasadena City College, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Los Angeles City College and San Francisco State University.

Jordan Toyama, a SFSU student, said it was her first pilgrimage, al­though she had been to Manzanar as a child.

“To me it’s really cool to see all these people. My grandpa was at Gila River and Tule Lake. So for me it was coming to remember what he had to go through,” Toyama said.

Darrell Kunitomi, emcee for the pilgrimage, ac­knowledged Kenji Ogawa, who was the first child born in Manzanar. He became emotional as he talked about the many connections he and others share with the arid area.

“I think about my parents who were here, I think about my Auntie Sue who was here and how she worked at a newspaper ironically called the Manzanar Free Press and they tried to create their lives within a barbed wire enclosure,” Kunitomi said.

Yasumasa Nagamine, consul general of Japan in San Francisco, said he had come to Manzanar for the first time with members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California.

“I am very grateful to learn more about what life was like for Issei and Nisei here at Manzanar. It is one thing to sit in my office to read about what happened in Manzanar, which I did, quite a lot,” Nagamasa noted. “It is another thing to come here and open my eyes, to the mountain and sky and desert of Manzanar. For the internees, this became their home, but it was a home without freedom.”

During World War II, Manzanar was one of 10 concentration camps where approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained. The other camps were remembered in a roll call procession to the cem­etery for the Nikkei interfaith service.

Ron Wakabayashi, regional director of the Depart­ment of Justice, community relations service, said the pilgrimage and the historic site with its facility repre­sent untold hours of work by staff and volunteers.

“I’d like to get a calculation of how many spam musubi have been made to get us to this point, how many gallons of tea, because it takes all of that to get us here,” said Wakabayashi. “The news was that we were victims. That was the news and that’s always the news with due respect to the Los Angeles Times. The news is what’s bad that’s happened, but the story is what people did with that situation and what people did with that situation is remarkable.”

The Manzanar Committee honored Tom Leather­man, former Manzanar superintendent, David Nahai, L.A. Department of Water and Power and Rev. Paul Nakamura for their work in preserving the camp and its stories.

More than 100 Muslims, including representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also joined in this year’s pilgrimage and participated in the discussions during the Manzanar After Dark program held in Lone Pine.

At the interfaith service, religious rites were per­formed by Christian, Buddhist, Shinto and Muslim ministers. Imam Ali Siddiqui, who offered prayers during the interfaith service, said gatherings such as the pilgrimage made him hopeful for the future.

“It is a good feeling, a feeling of community. That people of different faiths and ethnicities can come together during difficult times to ensure that these things do not happen again and hold our government responsible,” Siddiqui said.

As a finale to the service, the pilgrims all joined in for a community ondo. UCLA Kyodo Taiko, who performed during the ceremony, led the crowd in “Tanko Bushi.”

Among the internees at the pilgrimage was Bill Nishimura, a renunciant who had been interned in Poston, Tule Lake, Crystal City, Texas and Santa Fe, N.M. He has spoken at the Tule Lake pilgrimage about his wartime experiences.

“Sue made this tremendous thing here. I hope the younger generation will continue on in having this type of program,” said Nishimura.