Cultivation, Resistance, & Beauty: A Case Study on the Defiant Gardens of the Manzanar Internment Camp during World War II

Abstract

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. By 1943, agriculture dominated camp life, especially at the Manzanar Internment Camp in Owens Valley, California. During their internment, the Japanese Americans, unbeknownst to each other, raised a variety of gardens, including traditional Japanese ornamental gardens. The ornamental gardens ranged greatly in size and consisted of raked gravel dry gardens, cactus gardens, showy flower gardens, and ornate rock gardens. In an effort to preserve the history of the near-extinct generation of Japanese Americans, this study seeks to understand the purposes and implications of the ornamental gardens, with a focus on the Manzanar camp. In this qualitative retrospective ethnographic case study, I examine the overarching themes arising from ten interviews with WWII internees who lived at the Manzanar internment camp using the thematic analysis approach. This study found that the Japanese Americans initially raised the ornamental gardens to resist and combat their desolate, harsh environment, but these gardens had unforeseen consequences for the Manzanar community. While the gardens functioned as a pastime, a means to preserve and revive Japanese culture, and, paradoxically, an avenue to strengthen relationships with the War Relocation Authority officials, they also ultimately helped the inmates to conceptualize their highly complex experiences during WWII. This study’s findings, with a deep examination of the Manzanar camp, are aligned with broader environmental studies on the Japanese Americans during WWII, specifically with regard to the gardens functioning as acts of resistance. Looking towards the future, I recommend that further research should examine how defiant gardens throughout history compare with one another and drive the narratives of those involved.