Manzanar was one of the Japanese relocation camps that become home to 11,000 Japanese Americans from March 1942 to November 1945. Now it's a National Historic Site, with the auditorium converted into a museum.

After you visit the museum, you can drive around the site. All of the barracks were sold to returning soldiers for the construction materials they contained, but the roads give you an idea of the size of the facility.

This shot shows the location of Block 14, along with a mess hall that somehow survived being scavenged. While the mountains provide a gorgeous backdrop, the wind could really howl along the flat grasslands, and the dust got everywhere. It would have been a hard life even if the Japanese had chosen it -- the fact that they were forced to live here while all their property was confiscated is something Americans should never forget lest we be tempted to do it again to some other minority.