Compilation of footage from a walking tour of the Manzanar National Historic Site during the 2024 Florin Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 27, 2024.
The Florin Manzanar Pilgrimage is a joint effort of the Florin Japanese American Citizens League Sacramento Valley and the Center for American-Islamic Relations Sacramento Valley/Central Valley. Since 2006, these organizations have teamed up to educate and advocate for Civil Rights through connecting the history of the Japanese American Incarceration to the surveillance policies and xenophobia directed at Muslim Americans in the Patriot Act era.
The Florin Manzanar Pilgrimage is one group that attends the "Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage," which is now in its 55th year. Most of the families incarcerated at Manzanar were from the greater Los Angeles area, though it also held about 400 people from the Florin community in greater Sacramento and a group from Bainbridge Island near Seattle.
This year's tour was facilitated by Alisa Lynch Broch, recently retired from the National Parks Service, as well as retired park ranger Patricia Biggs, who is a long time friend of the pilgrims and also provided interpretive support, but is not as featured in these clips.
Seven camp survivors shared their experiences with the group through facilitated discussions and on the tour. This footage does not capture all of their stories, and primarily features stories from Marielle Tsukamoto, Rita Inoway, and Judy Fukuman. Footage from last year's pilgrimage, which has more reflections from camp survivors can be found at the following link.
• 2023 Florin JACL Manza...
The survivors on the pilgrimage, featured in the introductory sequence are:
Judy Fukuman (Tule Lake), Rita Inoway (Rohwer), Evelyn Komaki (Gila River), Ted Komaki (Manzanar), Marielle Tsukamoto (Jerome), Stan Umeda (Jerome, Gila River), and Christine Umeda (Tule Lake, Topaz).
In loving memory of Sam Shimada (1932-2023), longtime pilgrim and advocate for justice.