Doering 1

Jennifer Doering
Taylor and Cunningham
3120/3121 CA Golden Dream
1 May 2015
Turning Hostility into Beauty: The Gardens of Manzanar
America is the home of the brave and the land of the free. People all around the world
admire and respect the United States because of this notion. But is it really true? Is America the
land of the free? There are several instances of injustice in Americas history, such as AfricanAmerican slavery and the Japanese internment camps of World War II. The second of these
examples describes a highly debated time in Californias history. The internment camps were
designed to isolate a race that many Americans didnt trust. Japanese Californians endured two
major injustices during their experience of these horribly unjust places to live: They were
mentally, socially, and physically isolated, based on racial prejudice and fear, and deposited in an
unfamiliar, hostile environment. Most Japanese-Americans hated their time in the camps and the
landscape mirrored this attitude, as the camps were most often built in deserts. However,
Japanese Californians found ways to change their attitude by changing their environment.
Building and cultivating gardens in the internment camps allowed Japanese Californians to assert
control over their situation, show resistance in a peaceful manner, and retain their cultural values
in a time of great injustice.
The first major injustice that the Japanese Californians of the 1940s faced was social,
mental, and physical isolation due to racial prejudice and fear. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941, the American people distrusted anything Japanese. If someone looked

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Japanese, they were obviously a spy working for the Japanese emperor who only wanted to
destroy America and orchestrate more attacks like Pearl Harbor. In a historical account written as
a first-person letter, Frank Wu described the feelings of many Japanese Californians from that
time: When people talk about the dirty Japs, I feel what they feel, except that they look at me
when they say dirty Japs, as if I were a dirty Jap, too (Wu 1309). Even though he was
American, because he looked Japanese, he was seen as a threat. Many Americans held this
opinion, isolating the Japanese Californians mentally and socially. In addition, many Californian
farmers felt threatened by the large population of Japanese farmers in California (Crawford
89-90). Frank Taylor, a white farmer, was quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, Were charged
with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. ... We do. ... If all the Japs were removed
tomorrow, wed never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and
produce everything the Jap grows. And we dont want them back when the war ends either (qtd.
in Wu 1321). Because of all the hatred, fear, and mistrust of the Japanese people of California,
the American government forced Japanese to relocate to internment camps with a document
called Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry. Japanese were told to report to
Assembly Centers with only the essential items that they could carry and to leave behind most of
their personal effects (Okihiro 295-296). The Japanese were forcibly herded into these
internment camps and isolated physically.
The second injustice that the Japanese Californians faced was being forced to live in an
unfamiliar, hostile environment. Their isolation was only exacerbated with the Japanese
Californians experience of entering and living in the internment camps: We were escorted to
the internment camp in our own cars, which they pretty much stole ... They said the soldiers were

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there to protect us, but they seemed to be guarding us instead---I mean guarding us because we
are dangerous, not guarding us from danger (Wu 1321). The Japaneses own cars were used
against them in their relocation, and the soldiers they thought they could trust treated them like
criminals. In fact, in Wus description of life in the camps, he stated that They even mounted
machine guns at the assembly centers---facing in, not out. Youd have to be a blockhead to
suppose the soldiers are here to protect us (Wu 1328). The American soldiers were a group to be
feared, not to expect protection or comfort from. Something else not to expect comfort from was
the living conditions of the camps. The people at Manzanar, one of the camps, lived in cramped
horse stables with half-walls filled with cracks and holes open to the elements, sacks of hay for
beds and little other furniture, and inedible food (Wu 1316, 1323-1325). Privacy didnt exist in
the camps, especially concerning personal hygiene. Mary Nomura, an interred JapaneseAmerican, explained that We were just shocked to find that we had to take showers with
everybody else that we didnt know. ... The commodes had no partitions; we could hold hands
with the person next to us. It was really primitive and uncomfortable (qtd. in Crawford 93-94).
Life in the camps was incredibly difficult for the Japanese Californians, with the environment of
distrust and hostility. Their living conditions made it almost impossible to have a positive attitude
about their situation and most Japanese Californians didnt.
Most Japanese Californians in the internment camps had negative attitudes towards their
situation. The environment they were living in was impersonal, hostile, and harsh. Their very
identity was stripped of them and they were left with only hopelessness and despair. An internee,
Eddie Sakamoto, declared, At the beginning there, I felt like a prisoner because they had four
watchtowers, and the soldiers with their guns, you know, were watching from on top of the

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tower. And anybody try to go out, not escaping, but try to go out, they shoot you, without giving
warning (Tamura 5). Since they were treated as prisoners that didnt deserve to live as free
Americans, that is how the Japanese Californians felt. Wu remarked that its amazing how
America can make you feel so bad and so good, depressed with hope (Wu 1306).
This negative attitude of the Japanese Californians was mirrored in the landscape of the
internment camps, which were built in harsh environments. In her article, Gardens Below the
Watchtower, Anna Tamura explains that the camps were built according to specific criteria that
effectively located all ten incarceration camps in remote, barren, and inhospitable areas of the
inland West (6), or harsh deserts. They included no life, either as green plants or life-giving
water. According to the Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment, the environment of
Manazar was A high desert, ... hot during summer and cold during winter. The land [was] dry
with little precipitation (Okihiro 261) with temperatures rang[ing] from freezing to 155
degrees (Wu 1324). It was a demanding, harsh environment that mirrored the hopeless,
despairing attitudes of the Japanese Californians interred there. However, those negative attitudes
could and would be changed. They just needed a little help from gardens.
Ironically, the very thing that had put many Japanese Californians into the camps, their
skill with gardening and the threat they posed to other farmers because of that skill, was the hope
that helped them to endure. Firstly, creating gardens allowed the Japanese to take back control
over at least a part of their situation. The gardens were a way of making their living quarters into
a home. People wanted to beautify their bleak surroundings, [Sue Kunitomi] said, and to cover
the dirt with foliage to reduce dust storms (Okihiro 265). Planting gardens and introducing a
little bit of life into the bleak environment with new baby plants was a way of making their lives

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a little less miserable. It introduced some beauty and cut down on the harsh dust storms that
characterized the camps. Gardening also gave them a form of entertainment, as gardening was
both a hobby for many and a way of creating the environment for a classic, American pastime:
baseball. Wu fondly recalls the all-Nisei league that is better than before the war even if
everyones mother sewed their uniform out of sacks. Ive seen some real nice fields. Whoever
takes care of them must spend the whole day doing it (Wu 1327). This baseball league allowed
the Japanese to travel to the other camps and visit others in the same situation, allowing them to
feel less isolated, and gave them a fun game to play to pass the time.
Secondly, growing gardens allowed the Japanese Californians to show resistance in a
peaceful manner. The internees were seldom allowed to leave camp, except for certain activities.
Going to baseball games in other internment camps was one of these activities, as was going on
missions to get supplies for the gardens, although some left camp without permission to obtain
those materials (Tamura 10, 17). They often traveled long distances, using precious goods that
could have been used for the war effort, to get trees and shrubs for their decorative gardens
(Tamura 16). In addition, many garden designers forged documents to obtain more supplies than
they were allowed, in another act of resistance (Tamura 17). All of these small acts of peaceful
resistance created a powerful reminder of hope for the Japanese: the gardens themselves. They
were a symbol and vehicle of resistance and perseverance for the interred.
Thirdly, the gardens allowed the Japanese Californians to retain their cultural values in a
time of deep distress. According to Tamura, several cultural values contributed to the success of
garden-building as a form of therapy: a cultural abhorrence of idleness, a cultural affinity with
nature and aesthetics, and the practice of cooperative action for the betterment of the

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community in addition to Gaman, which was a determination to endure and
persevere (Tamura 10). The internment camps didnt provide much in the way of activities. All
internees were uprooted from their lives and lost their jobs and hobbies. For a culture unwilling
to accept idleness as a part of life, this lack of activity was incredibly demoralizing. Gardenbuilding allowed them to have something to do with their time and integrate their other values of
love of nature and community-based activities. This allowed them to endure and persevere,
upholding their value of gaman. The gardens also allowed the Japanese Californians to introduce
traditional Japanese foods into their disgusting diet, and regain a semblance of home. Tamura
explains that By raising fresh vegetables, including Japanese vegetables, inmates were able to
modify the government-issued meal plans into a diet richer in fresh and familiar vegetables (9).
The food improved, as did their attitudes.
With all of the changes that the gardens created for the camps environment, there was
also a change in the hearts of the interred. Creating gardens helped to create positive attitudes in
the Japanese Californians, as Kango Nakamura stated: Oh, its really so hot, you see, and the
wind blows. Theres no shade at all. Its miserable, really. But one year after, its quite a change.
A year after they built camp and put water there, and green grows up. And mentally everyone is
better. Thats one year after (qtd. in Tamura 11). Mentally, everyone is better. And life is a little
less difficult. Arthur Ogami had a similar statement: I look out the window, and we could see
the gardens. ... It just gives you a good feeling. And it shows that people cared. Even though we
were confined, people cared about themselves and about their surroundings (qtd. in Tamura 14).
The gardens were a way of building community and creating community healing. When others
could see that their cultural values were being upheld, they felt better about their situation.

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Gardening was a source of comfort, as it gave pleasure to [Akiyamas] spare moments and it
made his home more livable. At the same time, it contributed to the community as a
whole (Tamura 15). Gardening gave the oppressed Japanese Californians a small semblance of
control back to their lives, as it allowed them to be active and not idle, introduce better food into
their diet, show peaceful resistance, and have fun. All of these positive effects caused their
attitudes to change, from negative to positive.
The Japanese internment camps of World War II were terrible places to live. They were
the result of racial fear and prejudice against the Japanese Californians. They were the physical
manifestation of the complete isolation that the Japanese experienced during the war, and were
terribly unjust places to live. The internees living there experienced life as prisoners, living in
sub-humane living quarters and a hostile environment that physically mirrored their attitude
towards their situation. However, by changing that environment through introducing beauty and
possibility in the form of gardens, they were able to change their attitudes. The gardens were a
source of hope, allowing the Japanese Californians to regain a sense of control over their
situation, show peaceful resistance, and retain their cultural values. This period of Californias
history is a bleak one, but it created a beautiful reminder of the power of nature to change hearts
and lives: the gardens of Manzanar.

Pond in Pleasure Park a photograph by Ansel Adams of one of the gardens of Manzanar

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Works Cited
Adams, Ansel. Pond in Pleasure Park. 1943. Library of Congress, Prints and Photography
Division. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Crawford, Chiyo. "From Desert Dust To City Soot: Environmental Justice And Japanese
American Internment In Karen Tei Yamashitas Tropic Of Orange." Melus 38.3 (2013):
86. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Okihiro, Gary Y. Encyclopedia Of Japanese American Internment. Santa Barbara, California:
Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2013. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Tamura, Anna Hosticka. "Gardens Below The Watchtower: Gardens And Meaning In World War
II Japanese American Incarceration Camps." Landscape Journal 23.1 (2004): 1-21.
Business Source Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Wu, Frank H. "Difficult Decisions During Wartime: A Letter From A Non-Alien In An
Internment Camp To A Friend Back Home." Case Western Reserve Law Review 54.4
(2004): 1301-1345. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.