14. Manzanar was the most widely known of the internment camps
The most widely known of the internment camps was established on the site of an American Indian village, bore a Spanish name, and used by Americans to incarcerate Japanese. Manzanar means apple orchard in Spanish. A former home of the Paiute, it was purchased by the City of Los Angeles as part of the watershed for the region. Manzanar was the first WRA camp, originally established as an assembly center under the auspices of the Army, and transferred to the WRA in June 1942, officially designated as a relocation camp. The first Japanese Americans to be sent to the camp, then under Army control, were used to build it. The camp’s buildings were constructed from pine wood and covered with tar paper for insulation and protection from the weather. The buildings were far from adequate protection from the harsh extremes of the regional climate, which was hot and arid in the summer months and frigid in the winter.
At Manzanar a relocated family occupied an “apartment” of twenty by twenty-five feet. There was no running water in the apartments, instead the internees shared communal latrines, bathing facilities, and washrooms. The apartments were located within residential blocks and were simply partitioned sections, without individual ceilings, similar to office cubicles. Privacy was non-existent. Showers were in open areas rather than individual stalls. Japanese Americans were employed to run the camp (and in a facility to manufacture camouflage netting for the military) and were paid by the US government. Unskilled laborers were paid $8 dollars per month. Professionals such as doctors were at the upper end of the pay scale, receiving $19 each month.