Images of Manzanar National Historic Site – Central California, taken in September 2018.

“Let it not happen again”; the words of 95 year old Fumiko Hayashida testifying before congress in support of a memorial of the same name. She, her family, and over 120,000 Japanese Americans, half of which were children and including over 70,000 citizens were rounded up at the beginning of the Second World War and incarcerated in “War Relocation Centers” simply because of their Japanese ancestry. Lt. General John L. DeWitt, charged with executing Executive Order 9066 said, “You just can’t tell one Jap from another…They all look the same…A Jap’s a Jap”.

In 1992 the Manzanar National Historic Site was created to remember and preserve the memory of this injustice.

I’ve visited three of these “War Relocation Centers” now and I’m convinced that every American should be required to visit one of these sites to open their eyes to the discrimination we all are capable of, not only in times of war but in our daily lives. Each of us needs to be fully aware of our past lest we fall prey to repeating it in as large a scale as during World War II, or in small everyday actions…”Let it not happen again”.