Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston

In the following essay, evacuee Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes how life at the Manzanar relocation camp in California gradually took on the semblance of life in other small towns in America. Manzanar residents slowly built livable homes and productive farms. Men who had been professional gardeners before relocation built lush parks and gardens. As the months turned into years, the accoutrements of other towns were becoming visible in Manzanar—schools, churches, Boy Scout troops, movie theaters, softball leagues, and police and fire departments. Only the barbed wire fences and armed guards distinguished Manzanar from other small towns, Houston recalls.

In Spanish, Manzanar means "apple orchard." Great stretches of Owens Valley were once green with orchards and alfalfa fields. It has been a desert ever since its water started flowing south into...