Press Release 3/18/02

Press Release: March 18, 2002

33rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage to Manzanar National Historic Site
to Honor Heart Mountain, WY and Rohwer, AK Camps

Los Angeles - The 33rd annual Pilgrimage to Manzanar will be held on Saturday, April 27, 2002, the Manzanar Committee announced this week. The event will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 and honor the internees of Heart Mountain, Wyoming and Rohwer, Arkansas camps.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center was located 12 miles southwest of Cody, Wyoming. The camp was located on the terraces of the Shoshone River at about 4,000 feet in elevation.

A viewer to the Heart Mountain website recently wrote: "In 1942, I was 18 and worked as a timekeeper at the Heart Mountain project. I worked there for about six months. About the time I left in September 1942, the trains were just beginning to bring the Japanese people from the West Coast. Many of the people there were elderly and there were many children. It was a terrible location. The summer was hot in the day and cold at night. I am sure the winter was miserably cold all the time."

The center opened in August of 1942 and closed on November 10, 1945. The first evacuees came from California, Oregon and Washington with a population of 10,767, making it the third largest city in Wyoming.

Rohwer Relocation Center in Delta County, Arkansas was about 110 miles southeast of Little Rock. Five miles from the Mississippi River at an elevation of 110 feet, the center was swampy, with canals, canyons and creeks. The forests that once covered the area were being replaced with rice, soybeans and cottonfields.

Construction began on July 1, 1942 and the center was open for use in September, 1942. The maximum population reached in November 1942 was 8,475. Evacuees came from assembly centers in California, enduring a 3-day train ride.

Rohwer was placed in a poverty-stricken area, at the insistence of a State senator hoping to bring prosperity into the area, but local residents envied the internees' access to three meals and health care.

The day's events will begin after lunch at the cemetery area located northwest of the historic site. Everyone is reminded to bring their own lunch and snacks, as there are no facilities nearby to purchase food.

For those staying overnight, the Manzanar After Dark program will feature group discussions, poetry reading and music. The program will be held Saturday night after the Pilgrimage at the American Legion Hall in Independence, CA, eleven miles north of Manzanar.

Additionally, the Committee reported that it has chartered a bus which will leave from Little Tokyo at 7am for the one-day trip. A non-refundable, prepaid fee of $20 will reserve a seat on the bus. No phone reservations will be accepted. Mail check payable to the Manzanar Committee, P.O. Box 9489, Marina del Rey, CA 90295.

The pilgrimage is free and open to the public. No registration is required. For travel and other information about the Pilgrimage contact the Manzanar Committee, by clicking on its website at www.manzanarcommittee.org, by email to sueke@msn.com, or by phone at (323) 662-5102.

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