Description
The Manzanar War Relocation Center was located in the Owens Valley in Central California. The United States Army initially
established the camp as the Owens Valley Reception Center under the management of the Wartime Civil Control Administration
(WCCA), March-May 1942. On June 1, 1942, Manzanar was reconstituted as a War Relocation Authority (WRA) center. Its peak population
was 10,121, and the majority of its internees came from pre-World War II Japanese American communities in the Los Angeles
basin. The collection consists of files collected and maintained by Ralph Palmer Merritt (Director of the Japanese Relocation
Center at Manzanar, California) including files of the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA), the War Relocation Authority
(WRA) records and correspondence from April 1942-December 1945, a history of the Manzanar Center (5 volumes), daily records
of the Block Managers, Ralph Merritt's office files, and a two volume index of all evacuees at Manzanar. There are also books,
clippings, copies of the
Congressional Record, reprints of committee hearings, and magazines documenting the history of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States
and their internment and military service, photographs and photographic negatives documenting activities and people at Manzanar,
and approximately 170 photographs by Ansel Adams of the Manzanar War Relocation Center on 14 x 18 inch mats. The collection
also contains copies of various newspapers and printed materials such as the
Manzanar Free Press.
Background
The Manzanar War Relocation Center was located in the Owens Valley in Central California; the site was used by Paiute-Shoshone
Indians for centuries until it became a Euro-American fruit-growing settlement, 1910-35; the United States Army initially
established the camp as the Owens Valley Reception Center under the management of the Wartime Civil Control Administration
(WCCA), March-May 1942; on June 1, 1942, Manzanar was reconstituted as a War Relocation Authority (WRA) center; its peak population
was 10,121, and the majority of its internees came from pre-World War II Japanese American communities in the Los Angeles
basin; Manzanar was declared a state historical landmark in 1972, a national historical landmark in 1985, and a National Historic
Site (managed by the National Park Service administration under the United States Department of the Interior) in 1992.
Extent
68 boxes (34 linear ft.)
39 oversize boxes
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Availability
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.