This is not the first time I’ve featured an episode of California’s Gold related to Manzanar, but I can’t help feeling that this piece of California history remains timely and important, with some serious lessons for all of us. I’m currently reading the memoir Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston (for the first time, in fact); and since I learned that President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 approving the relocation on February 19, 1942, it seems that this is a good time to take another look back and remember the place and the people whose lives were so dramatically affected by this decision.

Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of ten camps at which Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. It is located at the foot of the imposing Sierra Nevadas in the Owens Valley. Huell Howser is joined by experts and former internees to learn about the camp’s complex history. And although little remains of the camp itself, Huell discovers a permanent reminder of the internees’ detention — their names etched in concrete.

(click on the linked image below to see the video.)