Rebuilt Manzanar Baseball Diamond Recalls Japanese American Incarceration
The Guardian reported that a rebuilt historic baseball diamond at the Manzanar camp in California, where Japanese Americans were held during the Second World War, reflects the contradictions in America's legacy.
LONE PINE - According to The Guardian, a rebuilt, historic baseball diamond in California now stands at Manzanar, the Japanese American incarceration camp where families were held during the Second World War. In a report from Lone Pine, California, the newspaper described the diamond as a place that embodies the contradictions in America's legacy.
The Guardian reported that Dan Kwong, whose family was held at the camp, first dreamed of staging baseball games there. According to the report, he initially regarded the idea as an exercise in living history, an eye-catching way to convey the trauma of 120,000 men, women and children. The summary of the piece does not say when that dream took shape or how it became a project.
The Guardian published the article under the headline “The lessons of Manzanar have never been more urgent,” with a byline crediting Andrew Gumbel in Lone Pine, California.
The Guardian's summary links the rebuilt diamond to the wider history of Japanese American incarceration during the war, a history the summary associates with 120,000 men, women and children. The summary does not name any other individual, so the account here rests on the newspaper's own reporting as summarized.
The summary provided for this account ends mid-sentence. Details beyond those stated above, including how the diamond was rebuilt, what games have been played on it, and what visitors have said, are not reported here, and the material available does not resolve those points.