Manzanar Children’s Village

The Children’s Village at Manzanar is a forgotten piece of American WWII history. The US Government removed children of Japanese descent who did not have parents able to care for them and forcibly relocated them to the Manzanar Internment Camp.

While incarcerated, the children attended school with the general population. Other children often ostracized them outside the classroom, leaving the Children’s Village a camp within a camp. Having come from institutionalized care, their day-to-day routine remained primarily unchanged. For many, the most challenging time came with the camps closing, when release separated them from the only family they knew.

War Relocation Centers

In early 1942, only months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to “any or all persons” of Japanese descent, removing them from prescribed military areas on the West Coast. The order created ten war relocation centers for the banned individuals.

Over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent, men, women and children, were forced to abandon their personal property and move to the military-style camps. Two-thirds were native-born Americans, and the US Government denied many others citizenship under federal law. 

Manzanar was the original internment camp to open; the first detainees arrived in March 1942. By July, the camp incarcerated over 10,000 Japanese Americans, most from Los Angeles. The camp covered over 500 acres, fenced by barbed wire and surrounded by eight guard towers armed with machine guns.

A 20-by-25-foot room was allotted to any combination of eight individuals. The only furnishings provided were an oil stove, a single hanging light bulb, cots, blankets, and straw mattresses. The barracks had no plumbing. Bathrooms had showers and toilets lined in open rooms, providing no privacy. Manzanar served cafeteria style in mess halls, often requiring standing for a long time and children being separated from their parents.

Despite forced incarceration based solely on their heritage, detainees created as normal of a town as they could, including stores, newspapers, beauty salons, beautiful water gardens, sports, and recreational activities. 

Children’s Village Japanese Orphans

Before WWII, children of Japanese descent who didn’t have parents able to care for them lived with extended family, in foster care or 3 Japanese orphanages: Salvation Army Home in San Francisco, the Maryknoll Home in Los Angeles, and the Shonien in Los Angeles.

While many children were orphaned, some had parents who were ill, arrested following the attack on Pearl Harbor or were born to unmarried mothers. Officials combed through records, searching for any drop of Japanese blood. Tragically, at least one child was orphaned after their parents committed suicide in the internment camps.

Shonein Assistant Director Lillian Matsumoto advocated for the children and staff to remain together as a family unit, leading to the creation of the Children’s Village.

Manzanar was the only war relocation center with an orphanage. Children aged newborn to 18 were taken from foster homes, orphanages and unwed mothers and placed in Manzanar Children’s Village. One hundred and one children, with a third under the age of 4, lived in barracks separated from the main camp. 

As Manzanar had the only orphanage, children arrived from California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. In June 1942, 61 children from orphanages and foster care arrived by bus at Manzanar. Eventually, 101 children would live in the Children’s Village.

A camp within a camp

Children’s Village was a camp within a camp, part of Manzanar but separate.

Built on an old pear field across from the hospital, the Village consisted of 3 one-story buildings. One building was caregiver apartments, a recreation center, a kitchen, and a dining room. The second building housed infants, young children, and girls; the third was for boys and a storeroom. Unlike the family barracks, Children’s Village had running water and bathrooms. As many of their orphanage staff, including cooks, moved with them to Manzanar, they had better food than the rest of the camp and had dinner together as a family unit.

The Village had lawns, trees and flowers. The staff built a playground and gazebos. Some residents of Owens Valley baked the children cookies and brought them clothing and toys.

Approximately 3,000 children were enrolled in school while incarcerated in Manzanar. The elementary school enrolled 1,300, and the secondary school enrolled 1,400. Students from the Children’s Village attended classes with the general population.

The children’s orphanage routine remained unchanged as they came from institutional care. The orphans attended the Manzanar school but were otherwise separate from the other children. Many of the children from Manzanar were ostracized by children from the Village whose parents didn’t allow them to socialize outside of school. One positive of the isolation is that the children were more protected from illnesses that ran through the overcrowded Manzanar.

Manzanar Cemetery

Over 145 individuals died while incarcerated at Manzanar, including 17-year-old James Ito and 21-year-old Jim Kanagawa, who were shot and killed in the “Manzanar Riot.”

Many of the deceased were cremated in the Buddhist custom. At least three children were buried in Manzanar cemetery: a stillborn and two premature babies from parents at Tule Lake Segregation Center.

A large concrete monument stands watch over the cemetery. The Japanese characters read “Soul Consoling Tower” on the front and “Erected by the Manzanar Japanese, August 1943” on the back.

Visitors leave paper cranes in remembrance, worship, and reflection.

Closing Manzanar’s Children’s Village

For many residents of the Children’s Village, the most challenging time came with the camp’s closing. The children and staff were the only family they knew. Many had spent their entire life in institutionalized care and never lived in traditional family units. The orphanages did not reopen following WWII, meaning the children would be separated when they were discharged from Manzanar.

Half of the children reunited with one or both parents upon release. Others moved to group homes, and a handful were placed with foster or adoptive families. Children transition not only from institutional care but often to white families with no understanding of Japanese culture. Records for some children were lost, leaving a question about their legal guardians, which left them in limbo.

In September of 1945, the last children left the Children’s Village: Annie Shuraishi Sakamoto and Celeste Loi Teodor. When they arrived at Manzanar, Annie was three years old, and Celeste was five; both were moved into foster care with the camp closure.

Ralph P. Merritt, Manzanar’s top official, in his final report of the internment camp in 1946, wrote

“The morning was spent at the Children’s Village with the 90 orphans [to date] who had been evacuated from Alaska to San Diego and sent to Manzanar because they might be a threat to national security. What a travesty [of] justice!”

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References

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References

• California State Portal: Correspondence on Closure of Manzanar Children’s Village
• Densho Encyclopedia: Manzanar Children’s Village
• Evening Vanguard: Varried tasks occupy Manzanar colonists. August 7, 1942.
• Irwin Catherine. Twice Orphaned: Voices from the Children’s Village of Manzanar. California State University Fullerton, 2008.
• Japanese American National Museum: Orphans
• Manzanar Committee
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union. Three thousand crates of product produced. September 3, 1942
• Monterey Bay, California State University: Orphans of Incarceration: Manzanar and The Children’s Village (Episode 11)
• National Park Service: Foundation Document Overview; Manzanar Historic Site
• National Park Service: Manzanar Children’s Village
• Wikipedia: Manzanar Children’s Village

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