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Manzanar

Closed 1945Low
Verified
Aging · 4mo ago
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Photograph of Manzanar

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • "Table 1. Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248" (PART 1), from- Japanese Americans in World War II, a National Historic Landmark theme study (page 15 crop).jpg

    Photo by United States National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • 0002 manzanar MFBA 2 (19612258256).jpg

    Photo by inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

  • 01-2007-Manzanar-02.jpg

    Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

  • Basketball court at Manzanar.jpg

    Photo by TheAlcoTourist via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Building markers at Manzanar as seen from barracks.jpg

    Photo by sonora ortiz via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • California - Manzanar- Land Improvements (Sheet 6 of 6) - DPLA - 79d1bfa96d51a1dd75a27f3c15accac5.jpg

    Photo by Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority. 2/16/1944-6/30/1946 via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • California - Manzanar- Vicinity Map - DPLA - 3ece24041e62aac60da5d29ae82304d8.jpg

    Photo by Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority. 2/16/1944-6/30/1946 via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • California - Manzanar- Water Distribution System (Sheet 2 of 6) - DPLA - d73e9c44870eb7c4a1afab3eca7361e4.jpg

    Photo by Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority. 2/16/1944-6/30/1946 via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

[ World War II internment camp in California, US This article is about the World War II internment camp. For the former community in Owens Valley, California, see [Manzanar, California. For other uses, see Manzanar (disambiguation) "Manzanar (disambiguation)"). United States historic place Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, Manzanar was one of the smaller internment camps. It is located in California's Owens Valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites. The first Japanese Americans arrived at Manzanar in March 1942, just one month after President Franklin D.

Background

Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, Manzanar was one of the smaller internment camps. It is located in California's Owens Valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370 km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

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Current population

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Occupancy

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Year opened

1972

Closed 1945

Figures from official sources · verified 3 Jul 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1972

Region

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Security level

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Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Sue Kunitomi Embrey
    Sue Kunitomi Embrey
    1923–2006 · editor

    Sue Kunitomi Embrey (January 6, 1923–May 15, 2006) was an American teacher, activist and long-time chair of the Manzanar Committee, which established the annual Manzanar pilgrimage and obtained National Historic Site status for the former concentration camp. .

  • Joseph Takagi
    1937–1988 · executive
  • Lillian Kimura
    1929–2020 · activist
  • Iwao Takamoto
    1925–2007 · film director

    Iwao Takamoto (Japanese: 高本 厳夫, Hepburn: Takamoto Iwao; April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was an American animator, character designer, television producer, and film director.

  • Sadayoshi Omoto
    1922–2013 · art historian
  • Grace Aiko Nakamura
    1927–2017 · educator

    Grace Aiko Nakamura (February 18, 1927 – May 30, 2017) was a Japanese American educator and the first Japanese American teacher to be hired in the Pasadena Unified School District.

  • Kango Takamura
    1895–1990 · artist
  • Chiye Mori
    1915–2001 · poet

    Chiye Mori (February 1, 1915 – May 20, 2001) was a Japanese-American poet and journalist who was influential in the Nisei literary community in Los Angeles in the 1930s.

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

Official site

Conditions Risk Score

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Data completeness

32%

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Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Manzanar. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/manzanar
Chicago
"Manzanar." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/manzanar.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-manzanar,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Manzanar},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/manzanar},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}