A Community's Living Room

This auditorium is one of three original buildings remaining from Manzanar War Relocation Center. In five months, internee carpenters transformed standard government blueprints into a community auditorium for more than 5,000 people still confined there in June 1944. With a stage, locker rooms, and projection booth, the 14,000 square foot building changed the way Manzanar gathered. Concerts, lectures, Japanese American cultural activities, physical education classes, dances, talent shows, and movie nights filled its calendar, serving internees, War Relocation Authority staff, and Owens Valley residents over many decades.

California · United States