Letters to the Editor: Manzanar is a ‘sobering reminder of what our country is capable of doing to its own citizens’

To the editor: Your article on baseball at the Manzanar prison camp in California’s Owens Valley did a huge disservice by describing the site as not much more than “a few old barracks, a weathered wooden fence strung with barbed wire and a wind-battered guard tower,” with a “tiny parking lot [that] is almost never full.”

How did the writer miss the wonderful museum housed in the gymnasium? It’s next to that “tiny” parking lot, which has more than 60 spaces and 10 pull-through lanes for RVs or buses. Tiny by L.A. standards?

The museum itself is worth a few hours’ visit, as the displays are well done and very engaging. On the back wall there are the names of the more than 11,000 inmates of the concentration camp. It is a sobering reminder of what our country is capable of doing to its own citizens.

Scott Mayeda, Encinitas

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To the editor: Thanks for front-page attention to the Manzanar National Historic Site. My own heritage is Norwegian and Welsh, so for years I drove by the place where thousands of Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II on my way to Mammoth, thinking I should stop sometime.

Now I always stop. It’s easy and impactful. You can just drive the perimeter, which includes the baseball field, or you can go inside — for free — and get an even better sense of the dignity those imprisoned sustained. At the front gate, you will learn some very bright Caltech-connected men spent their time there trying — and succeeding — to find a substitute for the rubber we Americans were being blocked from accessing during the war.

In other words, these Americans of Japanese heritage, sent away from their homes and communities to Manzanar, were still trying to help the United States win. Remarkable.

Judi Healey, La Cañada Flintridge