Baseball at Manzanar

[Vaca Russ]

We hope to have some time next year to visit this camp.

Ansel Adams took this picture.

Japanese Americans interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center near Lone Pine still had baseball. Photo: Ansel Adams, AP

Get the story at:

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/5 ... 850044.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks, Bob, for showing me this article!

-Russ

[austex]

Yes, thanks; interesting. My wife just last week attended a Carp vs. Hiroshima game in Tokyo. The fans are as into it as most of the futbol fans throughout the world as well as cricket in India. They really, really get into it to say the least.

[old and slow]

Thanks for sharing this article and photo. My wife (she is Japanese American -- and while the Hawaii relatives, including her parents, were not interned during WW 2, her California relatives were incarcerated at Manzanar) and I visited the camp this past July. Manzanar has a harsh and starkly desolate beauty and serves as a powerful reminder of a sad, dark chapter in US history. Definitely worth a visit!

[giantbrookie]

You may have caught this on other threads, but there is an even more incredible story about the internees at Manzanar and it is of particular interest to High Sierra fishing fiends. Indeed, internees apparently sneaked out under the barbed wire, caught fish, then sneaked back. Whereas most of the fishing was done in local creeks (such as George Creek), several of them overnighted up in Williamson Bowl catching cutts. And then there was the ace-of-aces who would go all the way over the crest and catch goldens. A wonderful film has been made of this called the "Manzanar Fishing Club". Information is available on the Fear No Trout website at: http://www.fearnotrout.com/products/manzanar-dvd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Very highly recommended for fans of High Sierra history and especially fans of High Sierra fishing.

As a Japanese American I always thought it would have been torment to be interned within spitting distance of my beloved High Sierra (at the foot of Mt Williamson, basically), but until this story I never realized that folks snuck out to fish. I wondered whether I would have indeed had the guts to risk getting shot to go out and fish, then I thought a bit longer...perhaps not in my 54-year-old frame of mind, but as a younger guy, oh yes I would have. The great Ishikawa (the golden trout guy), however, was not a young guy when he did those death marches over the crest--he was apparently in his early 50's.

I have been the Manzanar site once, probably about 1996 at the conclusion of a Cottonwood-Shepherd shuttle trip. That was before they did some work to restore the site and put in some interpretive displays. I would be very interested to return there and look around at the lay of the land after watching the Manzanar Fishing Club.

[Shawn]

Escaping to go fishing; an amazing story (there goes $24.95).

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how many times I drove by there on various hiking trips, not knowing. Then one day a friend was along, as we passed by he gave me the history lesson and subsequently loaned me a book about the place.

It's hard for me to conceive what we did as a country then.....

[maverick]

Thanks GB for the link to this amazing story, $24.95 well spent!

[BrianF]

A couple of decades ago, when there was no real info on display i stopped and wandered around the site. Just this last summer on the way back down the east side we stopped at the Visitor center there and found it to be very well done and an excellent presentation of a very sad time in US history. I highly recommend the stop - lots of photos, artifacts and stories that put a personal, human face to it.

[Vaca Russ]

A wonderful film has been made of this called the "Manzanar Fishing Club". Information is available on the Fear No Trout website at: http://www.fearnotrout.com/products/manzanar-dvd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Very highly recommended for fans of High Sierra history and especially fans of High Sierra fishing.

Angling at all costs
March 12, 2014
By
Jon Klusmire/Special to The Inyo Register
editor@inyoregister.com

Manzanar.jpg (7.67 KiB) Viewed 175 times

In this iconic photo by Toyo Miyatake, Heihachi Ishikawa, whose fishing exploits were well-known in Manzanar, is shown holding golden trout he caught on one of his many trips out of the camp into the Sierra backcountry. Photo by Toyo Miyatake/Eastern California Museum Collection.

"The elderly gentleman’s eyes sparkle a bit while a smile crosses his lips as he talks about moving carefully over the barbed wire fence under the cover of darkness, being careful not to drop his homemade fishing pole and tackle. He relates how he and other fisherman were sneaking out of the Manzanar War Relocation Center so they could breathe the fresh, free air of the towering Sierra Nevada mountains and enjoy the simple pleasures that come from fishing for trout in high country streams and lakes.

The personal stories of some of the fishermen who were among the 10,000 Japanese internees at Manzanar put a human face on one of the more intriguing, little-known aspects of life in Manzanar during WWII: how a few courageous, hearty anglers defied the armed guards, barbed wire fences and searchlights to take back moments of dignity and freedom by the simple act of fishing.

By emphasizing those personal stories, the documentary film, “The Manzanar Fishing Club,” presents an uplifting tale of those who sought and found moments of freedom and adventure by escaping from the routine of camp life to fish in Eastern Sierra. Their act of defiance became well-known in camp, and put a unique new twist to the old saying, “Gone Fishing.”

As another Sierra fishing season looms, the public is invited to a free screening of “The Manzanar Fishing Club,” and to celebrate the universal appeal of trying to out-wit the region’s famous trout.

The film will be shown at 7 p.m. this Saturday, March 15, at the Lone Pine Film History Museum.
Filmmakers Cory Shiozaki and Richard Imamura will be on hand to discuss the film and take questions. Both men are avid fishermen, and both men’s parents were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent confined to 10 Relocation Camps for the duration of WWII.

Shiozaki first conceived the idea of the film. The cinematographer and Eastern Sierra fishing guide became interested in the story of the Manzanar fisherman, and eventually created a walking tour and exhibit with photos and fishing-related artifacts showcasing Manzanar’s fishing history.

The project moved to the next level when fellow anglers and video production company principals Lester Chung and John Gengl proposed interviewing the surviving internee fishermen for a documentary film. Writer Richard Imamura pored over hours and hours of interviews and expanded the project from a 22-minute short into a feature-length documentary. His script brought together what Shiozaki said he had intuitively known all along – that all of the fishermen’s stories touched, in one way or another, on a yearning to be free.

The full-length film features archival photos and newsreel footage tracing the events that lead to the internment of the West Coast’s Japanese, many of whom were American citizens, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The historical footage also shows construction of the camps, and provides a glimpse of what life was like for the internees.

In some cases, scenes are re-created to show how the Manzanar anglers got through the camps barbed wire fences, and details what equipment, bait and lures they used.

The film screening is being sponsored by the Eastern California Museum and the Metabolic Studio. The film project was supported by the California State Library/California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, the National Park Service/Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program, the Manzanar Committee and private donors."

Thanks again, Bob, for sharing this article!

-Russ