WWII: A Southern California Experience

After a nearly four hour drive the group reached Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near Mammoth.  Most of Manzanar was torn down in an effort for Truman’s administration to hide the horrors that existed in what the public was told was a safe, clean, and comfortable relocation facility for Japanese nationals and US citizens of Japanese origin in World War II.  The next day, we went to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and we heard a first-hand account of the horrifying reality of living during the Holocaust as a Jew. Few of us will ever be able to fully fathom this reality. For the second segment of our trip, we explored how technology changed in the war.  The USS Iowa and the Chino Hills Planes of Fame exemplified technological advancements during World War Two.