Manzanar Discrimination In America

There is a long history of discrimination and hatred towards other groups. For America, the history of discrimination started in 1492 with the discovery of America. When it comes to the discrimination of the Japanese it began when Chinese immigrants entered the country during the Gold Rush in 1849. When Chinese immigrants entered the country, acts of violence were committed against them due to the heavy competition for gold. After 1850 when California became a state, laws were created to legalize discrimination acts against the Chinese. Once these laws were created, the Chinese population in California slowly declined. When the Chinese population declined, Californians had a high demand for cheap labor. The second option for Californians was …show more content…
The Owens Valley is located in eastern California along the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. There was a small town in Owens Valley called Manzanar. Manzanar is Spanish for “apple orchard” and it was a very popular town. Manzanar had innovative, mutually owned irrigation system and they brought 20,000 apples trees from Washington to plant. Manzanar was established in 1900 with a population of 200 and Manzanar produced apples, pears and peaches in their orchards. However their prosperous reign came to an end when in 1913, the Los Angeles Aqueduct was built that stopped all agriculture in the Owens Valley. By 1926, Los Angeles owned all of Manzanar’s orchard lands and the water as well. The orchard continued under Los Angeles’ hands until it slow decline in 1935. After 1935, Manzanar was abandoned, but this area will become a national symbol of America’s decision during World War II to confined thousands of citizens of Japanese ancestry in internment …show more content…
The military were originally in charge of establishing assembly centers and internment camps. There were 10 relocation centers that were built and placed in remote deserts, plains, and swamps in seven states. One of the first camps to be built was Manzanar. This is the beginning of the documentation of the Internment camps. At this time, the military believed it would be beneficial to document to ensure the public the evacuation of Japanese Americans was humane and it was to support the war effort. The military hired their first photographer to document the building of Manzanar. Clem Albers was a photographer that was more of physically documenting the construction of the camp and less focused on the social injustices. With the photographs he took, the viewer can see the process of making these camps. These camps were built with an Army base in mind. Military bases today and then were very simple construction. The main concern for the military was to make sure the structures will stand with minimal amount of material being