Transfigured patterns: Contesting memories at the Manzanar National Historic Site

On February 18, 1992 the United States Congress passed legislation establishing the Manzanar National Historic Site, an act that would turn the neglected site of a former American concentration camp for Japanese Americans into a site of national remembrance for all Americans. This article discusses the legislative process involving Manzanar's designation as a National Historic Site and how it reveals the ongoing tendency to equate American Nikkei history with only the World War II period. The creation and subsequent interpretation of the site also highlighted the complications of identifying a place with only one layer of its history. The recognition and interpretation of Manzanar threatened the maintenance of local histories and led to contestations between California residents, Japanese Americans, the National Park Service, and the Los Angeles Department of water and Power.