Dark Tourism in the American West by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030211905
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

How close could an internee come to the barbed wire? Where exactly lay the patrol paths of the military policemen—Manzanar’s deadly force? The reality of living as an internee was eventually determined by the possibility of facing this force and paying the ultimate price, as it happened with the internees killed during the 1942 revolt. The absence of interpretive material felt troubling. On top of the tower sits a searchlight, but the tower is not connected to the power grid. While the tower helps recreate a part of what Walter Johnson has called “the carceral landscape,” it represents a missed opportunity to construct an immersive experience that clearly conveys the stakes of life and death inside the perimeter.29

The decision to reconstruct only one tower out of eight is a crucial landscaping decision. The 1991 congressional hearings involved several Japanese American groups advocating the reconstruction of all eight watchtowers. Absent that, they argued, the restoration would be grossly inaccurate. Veteran groups pushed back, claiming that even one rebuilt tower would “misrepresent” the camp conditions.30 The development plan for Manzanar was not unveiled until 1997, and the only tower finally rose in 2005. The Manzanar museum narrative of the internment has since put more emphasis on the internee-coping strategies than on the threat of violence and the stark situation of unfreedom. Some visitors noticed this and were vocal about it in their guestbook comments:To those doing the restoration, lets [sic] not forget the overall message this place is supposed to remind of us off [sic]. That racism and propaganda unjustly caused our government to imprison american citizens [sic] of proven loyalty. It doesn’t matter whether the camp was pleasent [sic] or not, the injustice was in the relocation. First show the guard towers all 8 around the property with the guns pointed inward. Show the crowding. The pleasure gardens & other coping buildings mask what this place was. Also get japanese american [sic] guides not young white ones [underlined by the writer] please. The best part of the exhibit is the reference to 9–11 twin tower attack & the lack of civil liberties all americans are now experiencing, especially muslim americans. Kim Robinson31

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