I also end up exploring areas that I would not have otherwise. An advantage to spending a number of days at this location is that it allows time and space for reflection. I camp at the Lone Pine Campground where I have no cel reception. The special use permit is pending and if it is approved I will be able to shoot at the end of the month. First, I stop at the guard tower that is pictured in Toyo Miyatake's iconic image Boys Behind Barbed Wire (see Field Notes entry below). I make the trip to Manzanar from Los Angeles like so many Japanese Americans did in the spring of 1942. Manzanar is located in the Owens Valley, home to the Paiute Peoples.
To The Manzanar Spirit Runners, thank you for your generosity of spirit, omedetou, and Mitakuye-Oyasin. As I listen to them reflect and give thanks at the conclusion of this, their 29th annual pilgrimage run, the importance of community bonds comes into bold relief, now that I have spent so many weeks visiting these camps alone. Though our methods are different, this group of comrades and I have been on similarly motivated pilgrimages, starting from different locations, unknowingly heading towards each other for several weeks. The ritual concludes at the end of the day back where we started, at the cemetery. We spend the afternoon together, visiting the four corners of the camp’s (current) borders. They invite me to join their ceremony, honoring the land and the spirit of the people who lived and died here. They have just completed their 29th annual run from Los Angeles to Manzanar. On my second day at Manzanar while visiting the cemetery I meet The Manzanar Spirit Runners. In the context of the camps, a mess hall is less a convenient way to feed people more a stripping away of familial routines and bonds. For me, the most poignant concept arises when Ranger Kurt talks about meals not only as a way for families to bond, but that cooking for their children is a way for parents to demonstrate their love without using words. This prompts some agreement and a realization that the incarcerees would be here for thousands of meals. One student says that they might sit with their parents the first couple of nights, but then they would be more likely to want to have meals with their friends. Most of them say that they would choose to have meals with their parents. The students imagine choosing between sitting with their parents and their friends. I tag along with Ranger Kurt who takes a group of high school students to the mess hall. Ranger Kurt and Ranger Emily are leading tours but they find time to take a quick photo overlooking the baseball diamond and mess hall. I arrive to find the Minidoka Visitors Center open and well attended.
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