A Community's Living Room: Manzanar National Historic Site

Manzanar National Historic Site. This auditorium is one of three original buildings remaining here from Manzanar War Relocation Center. As you walk closer, listen for laughter, tears, music, the sounds of celebration and sadness that once echoed through this building’s cavernous space. They linger in the stories you will hear inside, of those who worked and played here over many decades: internees, War Relocation Authotity (WRA) staff, and Owens Valley residents.

In just five months, internee carpenters transformed standard government blueprints into a community auditorium for more than 5,000 people still confined here in June 1944.

With a stage, locker rooms, and projection booth, the 14,000 sq. ft. building changed the way Manzanar gathered. Concerts, lectures, Japanese American cultural activities and physical education classes filled its calendar---and often its 1,280-seat capacity. Tickets for dances, talent shows, and movie nights were 5 cents for children, 25 cents for adults, 50 cents for camp staff and “everyone else.” . This historical marker was erected by National Park Service-United States Department of the Interior. It is in Manzanar National Historic Site near Independence in Inyo County California