My U.S. History teacher at Ozaukee High School was Mr. Muenchow.
He was a short, rotund man with jet back hair and thick framed dark glasses, the kind that got dark when you walked outside and then changed to clear when you stepped back inside. He had a heavy, lumbering walk and a deep baritone voice that filled the room. He was also a Navy vet from the early 1960s, during the height of the Cold War. We spent a lot of time on war. The Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and WWII. Mr. Muenchow was in his high school during the Korean War, and we touched on that too. This was a time when the Vietnam War was never mentioned – ever, it was too recent (at least, in my high school). The one other thing that was never mentioned in my U.S. History class in high school was the forced internment of Japanese-Americans in the early 1940s.
Fast-forward to fall 2005, I had planned a multi-day solo ride on my '00 Hayabusa that would circle the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. My new motorcycle tour business was barely two years old, and the goal was to scout new roads for future tours. There was a general idea of a route, but riding with no plan is often as fun as a scripted time sensitive ride.
Riding along the Nevada border and making my way south along Highway 395, I explored
Bodie SHP, several loops and side roads, Devils Postpile at Mammoth Mountain, the
June Lake Loop,
Highway 120 east along Mono Lake to the
Benton-Crossing Loop,
Lower Rock Creek Rd, 4000-year-old trees at the
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest and then while headed south for
Nine Mile Canyon, 7 miles south of Independence, out of the horizon came the one thing I did not expect. There was a WWII-era guard tower along the highway. What is that?
Yet there it was, a perfect replica of a guard tower, something straight out of the war years. What is that!? My curiosity was overwhelming. Why is that there? I had to flip a U-turn and found myself pulling the burbling Gen1 Hayabusa into the recently opened
Manzanar National Historic site along Highway 395. War Relocation? What is this place? It took a moment to process. Mr. Muenchow never mentioned this. The sign at the entrance read Manzanar War Relocation Center which opened in April 2004. I had stumbled onto this new national monument only months after it opened to the public. Over the last 18 years, I have brought many, many groups here to check this place out and acknowledge this chapter in our history that no one ever wanted to talk about.
Checking out the reconstructed barracks. 10,000 Japanese-Americans were interned here at
Manzanar War Internment Camp during 1942-1945
