The original sign noting the site of the camp says “War Relocation Center.” It was an euphemism for the terrible treatment of the Japanese Americans, some of whom had lived for generations in the Western portion of the United States, when war was declared after Pearl Harbor. The perimeter was surrounded by barbed wire and guards in towers. The residents were not at camp voluntarily - it was a prison. 10,000 people lived here in decent but not ideal housing far from their farms and homes which were mostly along the Pacific. The camp was carefully laid out; families lived in small allotments inside the larger buildings. Each section had its own dining hall, and showers and bathrooms were built for every few homes. The internees grew 80% of their food!

This camp is near Lone Pine, CA and in the background are the Sierra Nevada range and Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states at just over 14,500 ft. I don’t think the beautiful scenery was any compensation to these people, many of them American citizens, who were treated so unfairly. Many left the camps by joining the army! This camp and many others like it operated from February of 1942 to the end of the war in 1945. Many who lived here lost their homes, farms, and businesses. They were given $40 and a bus ticket when the camp closed. One neat story concerned a farmer who was not of Japanese background; his neighbors on either side were, and they were sent to a camp. While they were gone, he farmed their land, paid their taxes, and handed the property and profits over to them when they were released.

I deliberately overexposed the second photo to try and show how bleak the isolated landscape was with the heat and dust and nothing green. Hard to imagine what those who arrived there experienced.

Cadillac’s Viewpoint: Zero place for me to live and too sad a story. Cadillac’s Elevation: 3 Broken Antlers