The Manzanar Fishing Club

In spring 1942 the Manzanar Relocation Center appeared on a desolate stretch of California’s Owens River Valley. The first of ten prison camps for Japanese Americans during World War II, it soon became the largest town between Los Angeles and Reno. Volunteer workers arrived March 21 to build the camp where they would be confined for three and a half years; non-volunteers followed under military guard on March 31. More than 10,000 prisoners from Southern California, Sacramento and Bainbridge Island filled the site, ringed by barbed wire, guard towers and armed military police. While some found the experience spirit-killing, a handful slipped past the guards to fish for trout in the Eastern Sierra waters, reclaiming moments of dignity and freedom.