The first Japanese Americans arrived at Manzanar in March 1942, just one month after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, to build the camp their families would be staying in.

[16] Also at that time, nearly 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of apple, pear, and peach trees were under cultivation; along with crops of grapes, prunes, potatoes, corn and alfalfa; and large vegetable and flower gardens.

Drawing on experiences derived from New Deal era road building, Triggs, funded primarily through the WPA, supervised the installation of such features as guard towers and spotlights.

[50][51] Former Manzanar inmate Rosie Kakuuchi said that the communal facilities were "[o]ne of the hardest things to endure", adding that neither the latrines nor showers had partitions or stalls.

[46] The camp had school facilities, a high-school auditorium (that was also used as a theatre),[47] staff housing, chicken and hog farms, churches, a cemetery, a post office, a hospital, an orphanage, two community latrines, an outdoor theater, and other necessary amenities that one would expect to find in most American cities.

[50][54] Before a hospital was built, doctors in the camp faced many difficulties, including treating internees for diseases such as measles, chickenpox, whooping cough, and diarrhea.

[52] The food in Manzanar was heavily starchy and low quality, including Vienna sausages, canned string beans, hot dogs, and apple sauce.

[53] Frank Kikuchi, an internee at Manzanar, stated that some of the newspapers lied to the American public by telling them that the "Japs [in the camps] are getting steaks, chops, eggs, or eating high off the hog.

[52] Harry Ueno accused camp administrators and leaders in the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) of stealing food meant for the internees and then selling it on the black market.

[55] By the summer of 1943, camp gardens and farms were producing potatoes, onions, cucumbers, Chinese cabbage, watermelon, eggplant, tomatoes, aster, red radishes, and peppers.

[47] Internees, many of whom were relocated from their landscaping businesses in the Los Angeles area,[39] personalized and beautified their barren surroundings by building elaborate gardens and parks, which often included pools, waterfalls, and rock ornaments.

Poston, Heart Mountain, Topaz, and Tule Lake each had civil disturbances about wage differences, black marketing of sugar, food shortages, intergenerational friction, rumors of "informers" reporting to the camp administration or the FBI, and other issues.

[34][82][83] Some of the tension that precipitated the riot was related to work availability and the pay of those jobs, with Nisei and members of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) getting preferential treatment.

[34][35][84] After several months of tension between those who supported the JACL and a group of Kibei (Japanese Americans educated in Japan), rumors spread that sugar and meat shortages were the result of black marketing by camp administrators.

[81] The vanguard of Japanese American (JA) combat units was the legendary 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) made up of soldiers in the Hawaii National Guard that was formed in June 1942.

[88] The training record of the 100th Battalion at Camp McCoy WI from June to December 1942 convinced the War Department to authorize the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) on February 1, 1943.

Because of the 100th Battalion's sterling training record and the Varsity Victory Volunteers,[90] a group of University of Hawaii ROTC students who received positive publicity for their volunteer civilian labor for the U.S. Army, along with many organizations and leaders in Hawaii and on the mainland lobbying the government to allow Japanese Americans to serve in the armed forces, President Roosevelt authorized the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) on February 1, 1943.

When the announcement about the new unit was made, 10,000 young men in Hawaii signed up from which 2,686 were selected, and along with 1,182 from the mainland, they were sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for basic training in April 1943.

Within a couple of years, all the structures had been removed, with the exception of the two sentry posts at the entrance, the cemetery monument, and the former Manzanar High School auditorium, which was purchased by the County of Inyo.

The event is held annually on the last Saturday of April[99] with hundreds of visitors of all ages and backgrounds, including former inmates, gathering at the Manzanar cemetery to remember the incarceration.

[102] Since the September 11 attacks, American Muslims have participated in the Pilgrimage to promote and increase awareness of civil rights protections in the wake of widespread suspicions harbored against them post-9/11.

[2][6][108] Embrey and the committee, along with California representative Mel Levine, led the effort to have Manzanar designated a National Historic Site, and on March 3, 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed House Resolution 543 into law.

Letters were sent to the National Park Service included statements that Manzanar should be portrayed as a guest housing center, with others stating that calling the site a concentration camp is "treason", threatening dismissal campaigns against National Park Service employees and other related individuals, threatening to destroy buildings, and objecting to the use of the phrase "concentration camp" on signage at the site.

[114] The site features a visitor center with a gift shop, housed in the historically restored Manzanar High School Auditorium with a reconstructed stage proscenium.

"[121] On the basis that these criteria were met, and after extensive discussion with the Japanese-American community, the NPS decided to proceed with a reconstruction of some elements of the original site alongside preservation of those remnants that survive.

[1] The National Park Service's interpretation of events and experiences has been described as both "[willing] to memorialize a shameful, unconstitutional policy" and "providing a shortcut around the unjust suffering and often insurmountable adversity imposed by the internment".

The short film, A Song for Manzanar, depicts the true story of a detainee and her struggle to remain hopeful for her son and stay in contact with her family in Hiroshima.

[142] In "Baku", the 2018 season three episode of The Man in the High Castle TV series, Frank Frink is executed for his resistance against the Japanese occupation by Kenpeitai inspector Kido.

[148] Fort Minor's song "Kenji", from the album The Rising Tied (2005), tells the true story of Mike Shinoda's family including their experiences during their imprisonment at Manzanar.

[151] The 1994 novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson contains scenes and details relating to Japanese Americans from the state of Washington and their incarceration experiences at Manzanar.