Manzanar

Manzanar is one of the ten camps to which the War Department relocates the Japanese-American population of the West Coast, fearing that the Japanese are spies for the home country. Manzanar is hurriedly thrown together, and is built the way they would have built barracks for single Army men. This is unacceptable for families.

Manzanar consists of blocks of four units, in which twenty-four people are housed. The barracks are built with green wood that shrinks as it dries, leaving holes and spaces in the walls through which the sand blows. The walls are covered with tar paper, and the floors are concrete. There is one bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, which is open to the other units. The only heat is from an oil heater. Later the government provides more, and the units are more livable, but they are still small, barracks units.

Latrines