| Original caption: “War migration of American Japanese – Memorial Day services at the Manzanar California, War Relocation Authority center. American Legion members and Boy Scouts of Japanese ancestry participate in the service.” The 1st Memorial Day services at Manzanar Relocation Center, at the time named the Owens Valley Reception Center. As the 1st Memorial Day held during incarceration, this event took on special significance to the Japanese Americans at Manzanar. The June 5, 1942, issue of the Owens Valley Progress Citizen reported that “Last Saturday a special Memorial Day program was held, which was featured by addresses by [Tokutaro] “Tokie” Slocum [(1895-1974)], World War I hero; and by Roy[al] F. Nash (February 22, 1885 – December 1982), Camp Director.” Reminiscing about photos of the event like this 1, internee Francis “Frank” Isamu Kikuchi (October 21, 1924 – December 21, 2022) recalled, “I was with Troop 145 at Maryknoll [a Catholic school in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles]. I was a Star Scout and I was in a senior group. At the outbreak of war, I was a junior assistant scoutmaster, and also a bugler. I remember I used to blow the bugle calls when there were the district meetings…I had brought [to camp] my pretty brand new uniform…long, gray khaki pants and a heavy shirt, and I took it…cause it’s practical. And, hey, what do you know? [Memorial Day, 1942,] the administration called for a flag ceremony and they wanted somebody to blow taps…You can tell everybody’s got their head down, all the other scouts and the flagbearers have their heads bowed down, so I know it’s taps.” Internee Hatsuye Egami (July 17, 1902 – 1961) wrote in her diary on May 31, 1942, “Under these circumstances, we are plainly branded as enemy aliens and enemy nationals. That is why we are in these enclosures, but our devotion and loyalty to this country is unchanged. I joined in the Memorial Day ceremony that was held in front of the grandstand, amidst a throng like a human tidal wave. There was hardly room to insert a splinter. The blazing hot sun as it took its course toward the West quietly sank beyond the horizon. In the light of the afterglow, people’s faces revealed a mixture of memories of the past and feelings aroused by the ceremony they were witnessing. Directly before the grandstand was a truck on which there was a piano. In front of the truck stood officers, Boy Scouts, veterans of the last war (about ten Japanese) and participants in today’s program. Next, parents of boys who are now in the Army were introduced. In the evening breeze, the American flag curled and lashed at its string. Veterans of foreign wars, parents of the boys in uniform…when these aged parents stood at their seats, I could not control the hot tears that coursed down my cheek. In all the twenty years of my life here in the United States, this Memorial Day service was the most solemn and the most unforgettable.” Manzanar Buddhist minister Reverend Sentoku Mayeda (1900 – 1978), incarcerated from May 28, 1942, to November 19, 1945, and his friend Reverend Soichi Henry Wakahiro (1905 – 1977), a Christian minister, 1st returned to the Manzanar cemetery on Memorial Day in 1946. By 1969, when a 150 younger former internees and others gathered for their own pilgrimage, the elderly ministers had returned for 24 years. The Manzanar Pilgrimage is now a yearly event and draws hundreds of former internees, families, students, and visitors for a day of remembrance, programs, and interfaith worship. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1709.jpg |
| Image Size | 701.89 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2920 x 1844 |
| Photographer | Dorothea Lange |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 30, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Owens Valley |
| State or Province | California |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | Library of Congress |
| Record Number | LC-USE618-D-005078 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database